Front Runner Roof Rack Failure

[Danman67]

Hi there
Like most roof racks what the suppliers says has very little to do with reality - your roof rack has a maximum weight limit of 32kg's for off road use - which with its weight of 35kgs gives you 67kgs which is below the Prado's max of 100kg's, hence you will get metal fatigue in roof rack structure if you are carrying 140kgs plus on the roof. Ronny Dahl did a very good video on the exact problem. See table below for the allowable vehicle loads and the associated rack carrying capacity. Most vehicles you see travelling with roof top tents etc are overloaded as far the manufacturers are concerned and run the risk of their insurance not paying should they have an accident. As much as we do not want to accept it, roof racks are for light loads.

Have created a seperate thread for discussions regarding the Roof Load ratings.
https://www.4x4community.co.za/forum...f-load-ratings

Attachment 652076

[Danman67]

Hi there
Like most roof racks what the suppliers says has very little to do with reality - your roof rack has a maximum weight limit of 32kg's for off road use - which with its weight of 35kgs gives you 67kgs which is below the Prado's max of 100kg's, hence you will get metal fatigue in roof rack structure if you are carrying 140kgs plus on the roof. Ronny Dahl did a very good video on the exact problem. See table below for the allowable vehicle loads and the associated rack carrying capacity. Most vehicles you see travelling with roof top tents etc are overloaded as far the manufacturers are concerned and run the risk of their insurance not paying should they have an accident. As much as we do not want to accept it, roof racks are for light loads.



Attachment 652076

Have created a seperate thread for discussions regarding the Roof Load ratings.
https://www.4x4community.co.za/forum...f-load-ratings

[Poelpetater]

I am looking for feedback from the 4x4 and Prado community.
Last december whilst on a 4x4 run, we had a failure of the Frontrunner Roof rack feet as can be seen in the pictures.

Recent trip through the Wild Coast gravel roads with Gobi-X Tankwa Hard Shell RTT mounted. Second day on the rough roads my FR rack encountered a broken foot on right rear. Indication is that FR will replace via fitment centre - waiting on notification of delivery of replacement part to fitment centre.

[rob wilson]

I have had FR roofracks on my 90 Series Prado (315,000km) and currently on my 76 station wagon. Both were supported on the rain gutter, which the 120 and 150 Prado no longer has. I have not had any failures. Normal load includes a RTT (50kg), an extra spare wheel (35kg), a Hi Lift jack (20kg) and an occasional bag or two. So I am on or about the vehicles specified roof weight limit. I have also had 60kg of fuel up there, so say a maximum of 160kg. Important to spread the load as evenly as possible to bolt it firmly down-so you do not get impact loading by a heavy article.

Those fixing brackets look much lighter than the ones I currently have on my 76.

[Pieter de Waal]

From a practical point with enough technical experience I would like to add some pointers as to the cracking. The prado roof will most probably never flex unless you roll the vehicle. If you can see flexing from driving behind the vehicle you have a big issue. That low line design (No second bar on the sides with the extra depth in the side beam) is the weak point. The rack platform is going to flex between mounting points. That will translate into flexing in the brackets. The stresses can normaly easily be handled by the bracket material and is not the problem. The repeated flexing is the problem. Metal fatigue is what is killing the brackets. If they used stanless it will multiply the problem as it is much less tolerant of flexing than mild steel. Using fancy steels as proposed above will fall under the same category as the stainless. (More carbon makes it stronger and more hardwearing but less fleible) The mentioned nick in the laser cut will also create a great starter for cracking.

My personal opinion, the manufacturer is selling a design that is not fit for purpose. Your solution, loose the low side beam idea by adding another 50mm higher to stop the platform from flexing. That said, it is not easily doable. Rather buy a new rack with that already built in. That will be a lot easier and most probably cheaper than to start modifying.

The other possibility will be to install twice as many feet as you have currently to reduce the flex in the roofrack. It is most probably not possible on the Prado side. That takes us back to buying a roofrack with the proper design. (Drop the idea of a low profile roofrack)

There is another possibility. If you can mount your load to carry the weight directly on top of the bottom mounting points only you should be able to stop flexing in the roofrack platform and that will also stop the flexing in theory at least.

The original manufacturer will not solve this problem for you and neither will the installer.

[Bold_Rock]

I had the previous style mounting feet, which also failed on my FJ Cruiser due to metal fatigue. The design later changed to the blade style mounting system, and it's sad to hear this change in design hasn't really worked either. If I recall the parts that failed was a powder-coated aluminium part (but I could be wrong). Front Runner replaced the parts, but given that I was expecting the rack to manage a 150 kg+ load, later changed it to a generic stainless steel part from 4x4 direct. Didn't have any issues after that but it was a better design (box design), although it did send my down the rabbit hole of maximum static and dynamic loads on the roof. I learned my lesson and stopped overloading the roof rack. The original failure happened towards the end of a 3-week trip through Namibia, Botswana and Kgalagadi. In hindsight, was probably expecting too much with a 2nd spare, 3x jerry cans and a gas bottle on the roof plus odds and ends. Also think the width of the FJ Cruiser roof and rack contributed to the failure. There seemed to be a lot of flex in both directions, in other words front and aft, but also more worrying between the left and right mounting points. I moved the heavy items to the corners of the rack, which allowed us to get home.

[RonS]

Recent trip through the Wild Coast gravel roads with Gobi-X Tankwa Hard Shell RTT mounted. Second day on the rough roads my FR rack encountered a broken foot on right rear. Indication is that FR will replace via fitment centre - waiting on notification of delivery of replacement part to fitment centre.

If the foot is replaced why will it not break again?
Seems like the root cause is not being addressed.

[Danman67]

Just returned from a trip to Namibia. 4 of the 10 feet connections failed on my frontrunner rack on the fj. Its way to flimsy to my liking. Will either try to strengthen or replace with a better product.
Not even bothering to talk to frontrunner as I foresee the same kind of response you've got. Mine was however purchased secondhand .

Good luck hope they come to the party. In my opinion a poor product!

If you do find a better product, please feedback

[Imvubu]

On my 130, I regularly carried in excess of 200kgs on the FR roofrack, without any issues. It had a combination of gutter mounts on the cab, and track mounts on the canopy, 4 per side.

[mudgrubber]

If you do find a better product, please feedback

&lt;br&gt;<br>
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;As noted, this is the FR roofrack on my Fortuner. This cut tells me that, if it fails, this is purpose made for a starting point.

[niclemaitre]

As noted, this is the FR roofrack on my Fortuner. This cut tells me that, if it fails, this is purpose made for a starting point.

It's a bend relief actually, that is supposed to help prevent cracking at the end of the bend. It would help if they made the end of the relief circular, rather than having square corners.

[Danman67]

Well the Front Runner Roof Mounting system failed again.

In my opinion they are not fit for purposes for ratings claimed.

PS to all those regarding the Prado Roof Capacity - have still not found or received an official answer.

Latest I found was the following - Still nothing official. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8sfhDS-lhM

[swakop_toe]

Well the Front Runner Roof Mounting system failed again.

In my opinion they are not fit for purposes for ratings claimed.

PS to all those regarding the Prado Roof Capacity - have still not found or received an official answer.

Latest I found was the following - Still nothing official. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8sfhDS-lhM

Here you go.
https://www.4x4community.co.za/forum....php?p=4855442

Was also about to pull the trigger until I read Dan's thread.
I won't mount a RTT though, but will have laden Wolfpacks mostly. 10 of them @ 8kg average...

[PajeroMan3500]

Reviving an old thread here... but the FR roofrack issues came across my path today.

In 2015 I was young(er) and naive. Some mates and I decided to tour the CKGR, and start in Khutse. Driving a 3.5 V6 petrol Pajero, I was worried about fuel consumption in the heavy sand, so I over catered... BIG TIME!!

I had an African Outback roofrack on my Gen 2 Pajero back then... gutter mounts, sure, but the reason I went for an AO roofrack was that it was a welded rack with some serious credentials behind it. Back then, there were videos on their website that showed in excess of 500kg on the roofrack... blah blah blah, I went ahead and bought one and mounted it because it was 'stronger than the rest'

To this day, I STILL have the exact same roofrack... nowadays mounted on my Gen 3 Pajero (using Eezi Awn clamp mounts) on the factory fitted roof rails... okay, I do not load it NEARLY as much as I did in those days... these days its for a pull out awning, a spade, a table and MAYBE a surfboard or 2...

Back to the topic... 2015, Khutse to CKGR... and I had this on my roofrack:
- 6x 20L Jerry Cans (full): 150kg including jerry cans themselves plus brackets
- 1x 60L petrol tank (full): 65kg incl plastic tank and ratchet straps
- 1x recovery box: 30kg
- 1x hi-lift jack: 15kg
- 1x 15" wheel & tyre combo: 35kg
- Wood: around 40kg at any given time
- Gas bottle: 10kg??
- Roofrack itself plus other brackets and straps: 35kg?
Total: 380kg?? Give or take??

So, back to my point... I HONESTLY don't think that a FR roofrack would've carried that load... especially with those new blade style mounts. So, kudos to the AO... in my opinion, the best rack in the business. But also to gutter mounts... they are FAAAAAAR superior to ANY mounting system you can get!

Honesty section:
I was damn STUPID! So worried about running out of fuel that I put fuel and range ahead of safety. I took this decision myself and I was the only inhabitant of the vehicle for the trip, other than on slow game drives when I had a passenger at times...

Serious section:
I didnt fill the jerry cans and fuel tank at the last fuel point. At the time I was in a lavish corporate job that came with a fuel card... so I drove all the way from Pretoria to CKGR with that weight on the roof.

Ai ja jaai... to be young(er) and stupid like that again! Damn I was fortunate that I have a vehicle and roofrack that was forgiving enough to compensate for my utter stupidity! If I was stupid enough to attempt this again, I would definitely only do it with a vehicle that has a gutter... and an AO roofrack... nowadays known as Big Country... but I'd still insist on an old AO roofrack!

Safe travels everyone... please don't be a dumbass like I was! And for those interested, here is a video of the trip... please forgive quality, it was mainly shot on a iPhone 6 that was running out of space, and pre-dates many of these YouTube channels and their fancy equipment: https://youtu.be/eM0y_i7XpkE

[Scalci]

&lt;br&gt;<br>
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;As noted, this is the FR roofrack on my Fortuner. This cut tells me that, if it fails, this is purpose made for a starting point.

that laser cut is made to start the bending, otherwise it will crack (tear) on the bend, when bending is performed.

[mudgrubber]

As I plan a jaunt to Bots in July I better inspect my FR rack closely. "All" I have on it is an AluCab RTT and awning but casual inspection shows four cap screws completely rusted in the corners of the rack. Cheap rubbish. If I had to do it again I would go with three load bars (AluCab told me two but the tent sags) as most of the RTT space under the tent is wasted. I am trying to fit fold up solar panels and a table under it but the Fortuner sharks fin limits access from the rear.

[ChasingSunsets]

PajeroMan3500 nailed it. The African outback now called big country, is a fantastic product.

I can only disagree on 1 point. The gutter is not better than a track system that replaces the existing roof rails (at least not in the Pajero). I've bent a gutter twice (once in a Landy defender where we couldn't open the door).

Fit a proper tracked system, with dedicated feet like the big country product and you will probably easily load above what's deems safe.

[pjf110]

I very recently bought a pair of the older style roof rack feet from FR to lift the rack slightly higher to accommodate under rack table.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the bottom L bracket has probably been doubled in thickness. When I checked the existing found they had bent slightly, not great considering my SWB roofrack has never been overloaded.

FR definitely has a core focus on light weight but it appears this comes at a cost, I will give them credit for improving products as issues arise.

As a side note Roofrack’s are prone to abuse/overloading by novices. Not all failures can be attributed to bad manufacturing.

[mvcoller]

I do not understand the need to fit a RTT on top of a roof rack. A roof rack is too expensive a piece of real estate to waste it by mounting a roof rack on it.

A RTT needs to be fitted to two roof bars at most. My two roof bars are 25mm mild steel sq tubing with a 3mm wall, which I had colour passivated (tin plated). That saves a lot of unnecessary weight that is not serving any purpose on the roof. All you need is a short roof rack in front of the RTT. My shorter roof rack is also African Outback made. It is roughly 1.1m long and 1.35m wide.

I have run it like that on 5 of my 4x4s I've had, this is since about 2001 .

Having said that, I have had one failure. Three of the African Outback feet (2mm mild steel) cracked. About two years ago I started hearing a "clack, clack" sound, and realised it was coming from the rack. I slowed down, wound the driver's window down and held on to the rack. The noise stopped. I stopped and saw the one foot had cracked, an inspection of the rest found that three feet had cracked.

I was about 10km from Vaalwater, so I stopped at a tyre outlet/exhaust fitment centre in Vaalwater and asked them to reweld the cracks and weld steel gussets to both sides of each of the four feet. These were gutter mount feet and I have not had a problem since.

Just recently I saw the same gutter mount feet on another vehicle. Out of curiosity, I inspected the feet and noticed that the section where mine had cracked, had been redesigned and the gusset was indeed about 50% wider. Obviously mine was not the only feet that had cracked, and they remedied the under designed feet.

[Rebel 4x4]

I am looking for feedback from the 4x4 and Prado community.




Last december whilst on a 4x4 run, we had a failure of the Frontrunner Roof rack feet as can be seen in the pictures.




I arranged a vehicle assesor to compile a report and reported the fault to my fitment centre etc.




The report and reply from the supplier was that it was a product failure, the supplier claiming faulty material.




The faulty part was replaced with the same product with the supplier claiming the part was more than strong enough, to my reluctance & concern.

The supplier claims this is a rare and unecpeted failure.

I however do not share that sentiment, hence my request for feedback.




I have my doubts and concerns regarding the design and the strength of this part in offroad conditions with lots of twisting, rocking and bumping when loaded with a roof top tent etc. There is no gusset reinforcing to prevent the continued flexing and twisting of the part etc.

Those driving behind me confirm the continual swaying of the roof rack set up when off-road.




According to the supplier, they claim the roof racks set up is designed for a load of at least 600kg off-road.

My roof top set up is way below that. I have a full load of max 140kg.




Have any other 4x4 users had similar problems with the failure of the Front Runner Roof Rack feet as in the pictures.

If so please can you message me with details of your failure etc.

The rack may hold 600kg, doubt the actual roof will hold that. But that failure looks like a material failure. Could have happened to anything where that material would have been used.