Prinsu roof rack install countdown, T minus 20 hours til the chaos ensues.

[JACKSMYDOG]

I bought the Prinsu Roof rack a few weeks back, and tomorrow is the day I finally get to start the install. The video below is the only reference I have found, and it's moderately helpful, that it does identify the problem with the terrible instruction. It really doesn't look too difficult.

The rear most bolt uses a factory drilled hole, it just needs to be opened up. With the assembled rack, and both rear bolts in place for alignment, I don't see how I can misplace the other 10 holes. I think it's going to be fk up proof, provided I don't drill through the head liner or into an airbag... BANG!

Also I believe I am going to leave the trim piece un-cut, and just drill through it for the mounts to come straight through it. I think it should go back on as one piece, and fit around the risers. I'll see how the fit is and remove as little as possible.

Tips? Experience? Bets on success lol ?

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[Trigganometry]

Would have been way better if they used the existing mount points instead of drilling new holes and opening up the existing ones. Might happen on Gen 2 though…

 

[JACKSMYDOG]

Would have been way better if they used the existing mount points instead of drilling new holes and opening up the existing ones. Might happen on Gen 2 though…

I think that's more a Ford problem with holes only for roof trim. Hard to design a secure roof rack system using only one or two 1/4 inch holes as anchors.

 

[JACKSMYDOG]

I went out to get started yesterday, but got side-tracked with the Rear seat belt needs service warning message I've been getting since removing the back seats.

I put all the belts and receivers back in, plugged everything in and same warning... argh. The front passenger seat is still out, so maybe that's a factor. I'll get back to the warning, as I start re-assembling the interior.

I got all the interior pieces removed to access the 4 bolts for the gutter trim, both are off now. I opened up the first trim piece hole for a plus nut install, but the one thing Prinsu didn't include was sealant. So that was stalled.

I moved to assembling the rack, which had it's issues too. There is some room to customize a few aspects, but it's guess work whether it will all work once on the truck, so some trial and error. It's mostly assembled now, just waiting for plus nuts install.

Today I didn't have time to do anything other than pick-up silicone, back at it tomorrow. Every time I do something like this I plan to take a bunch of photos along the way, but it never happens. I took a few but not many. Maybe tomorrow mid project I'll do better.

 

[WOADKIL]

This is what I had installed (Yakima):

 

[mark_anderson_us]

Mine arrives on Saturday. Watched a vid of rhino rack install and they cut the trim with a dremell rather than removing it. They drilled all holes from outside with a collar on drill bit (as it's all rivnuts):

Wonder if you could do same with Prinsu

 

[JACKSMYDOG]

Mine arrives on Saturday. Watched a vid of rhino rack install and they cut the trim with a dremell rather than removing it. They drilled all holes from outside with a collar on drill bit (as it's all rivnuts):

Wonder if you could do same with Prinsu

Your Prinsu or Rhino arrives Saturday?

 

[mark_anderson_us]

Your Prinsu or Rhino arrives Saturday?

Prinsu. Actually arrived early. Installing Sunday

 

[JACKSMYDOG]

Nice! Of the options I have seen, Prinisu is the strongest and most secure. I looked at the Rhino, but it just wasn't good enough IMO, so I wasn't going to have a roof rack at all. Riv-nuts, are far stronger and more secure, and I have full confidendce the rack and mounts are good to go for my needs.

The Rhino Rack use rivets, not riv-nuts. Actual 3/16" rivets are all that hood the rail to the roof, and T-nuts attach things to the rail.

The Rhino rail covers the end of the trim that they cut, so even if it's sloppy, it's hidden.



My planned free day got complicated but I got some done.

Passenger side holes are all drilled and riv-nuts installed.

Driver side has the rear most nut installed, and the other 4 holes marked ready for drilling. The rack is 90% assembled and ready to mount, when the 4 nuts are installed.

 

[JACKSMYDOG]

Replacement riv-nuts showed up today. So excited I went out to work on it, even though rain was coming. Barely got started and the rain came, but I got #9 drilled and installed. Rain now for the rest of the day, and all day tomorrow. Maybe Friday it will finally be done.

 

[mark_anderson_us]

Replacement riv-nuts showed up today. So excited I went out to work on it, even though rain was coming. Barely got started and the rain came, but I got #9 drilled and installed. Rain now for the rest of the day, and all day tomorrow. Maybe Friday it will finally be done.

Why did you need replacement riv nuts? I ruined one of the crappy silver ones. Ended up using a regular (grade 8) bolt and serrated nut that i had on hand. WAY easier. I'm puzzled why they even messed with riv-nuts. Surely the only time they are useful is when you can't access both sides of the piece?

This was a horrible install

Can't believe they cheaped out by sending two types of riv nut. What did they save $1 for the crappy ones? They include spare of every fastener EXCEPT the ones you flat out cannot get locally

the aluminum bar behind the wind deflector is silver: everything else is black. what was that: a $5 saving.

You have to drill perilously close the the airbags near the b pillar, you simple cannot move them in some places

The spacers have massive holes where water can pool: put silicon on mine: need to find some UV resistant black

 

[Bludrok]

Why did you need replacement riv nuts? I ruined one of the crappy silver ones. Ended up using a regular (grade 8) bolt and serrated nut that i had on hand. WAY easier. I'm puzzled why they even messed with riv-nuts. Surely the only time they are useful is when you can't access both sides of the piece?

This was a horrible install

Can't believe they cheaped out by sending two types of riv nut. What did they save $1 for the crappy ones? They include spare of every fastener EXCEPT the ones you flat out cannot get locally

the aluminum bar behind the wind deflector is silver: everything else is black. what was that: a $5 saving.

You have to drill perilously close the the airbags near the b pillar, you simple cannot move them in some places

The spacers have massive holes where water can pool: put silicon on mine: need to find some UV resistant black

I'm considering getting a Prinsu rack. Could you just use grade 8 bolts with serrated nuts for all the connections?

 

[JACKSMYDOG]

Why did you need replacement riv nuts? I ruined one of the crappy silver ones. Ended up using a regular (grade 8) bolt and serrated nut that i had on hand. WAY easier. I'm puzzled why they even messed with riv-nuts. Surely the only time they are useful is when you can't access both sides of the piece?

This was a horrible install

Can't believe they cheaped out by sending two types of riv nut. What did they save $1 for the crappy ones? They include spare of every fastener EXCEPT the ones you flat out cannot get locally

the aluminum bar behind the wind deflector is silver: everything else is black. what was that: a $5 saving.

You have to drill perilously close the the airbags near the b pillar, you simple cannot move them in some places

The spacers have massive holes where water can pool: put silicon on mine: need to find some UV resistant black

First and foremost I could not agree more about the lack of spares. 2 spare aluminum, 1 spare brass, at minimum. The aluminum ones I haven't found anywhere, so I have 4 brass and 1 aluminum on each side.

Also the non painted deflector bar is also pretty lame.

Instructions are terrible.

Serrated nuts or ny-locks, would work, but riv nuts do have a better seal, and a permanent threaded hole is preferable to a bolt and loose nut IMO.

 

[JACKSMYDOG]

So I finally got it all done a few days ago, but busy and I loaned it out before I got a photo.

Once complete it is AWESOME. I could not be happier with the final product. It uses five 1/4 inch bolts along each rain gutter. The rain gutter itself is a spot welded 2 ply of sheet metal, with 1 inch 90 degree channel on both sides. As far as sheet metal anchor points go, rain channel is near the best spots on a vehicle.

The hardware is good with exception to the plus nuts, which are not bad, but not great. I do like the brass plus nut product. It is a solid anchor for single side access sheet metal, with decent water seal. Somewhat ugly to install in the welded rain gutter. This really is not the best project for first time users of these fasteners. The learning curve was evident between the first and last install.

I do have other projects in mind, I am looking forward to more testing on them. I but a heavy duty rivet gun, and some variety packs of fasteners. The rivet gun does help with the Prinsu install, but the bit that came with mine isn't long enough for the full pull on the long brass, so I had to start them by hand, and set them with the riveter.

Prinsu provided spare of every bolt, screw, washer, and nut, except the plus nuts and bolt to install them. The matching aluminum Pnuts are unobtanium through all my searches, and the brass are unobtanium from any brick and motor supplier I know of. I was able to order matching brass Pnuts from Amazon, but 10 days delivery.

I got the 3 brass in on the first side then onto the 2 aluminum. The first aluminum in, without problem, but I destroyed the second. When I tried the nest aluminum it was a struggle too, and I realized the bolt had damaged threads, which caused the problems. The replacement was pretty messed up, so I finished the first side with brass.

In the end I used 4 brass on each side and 1 aluminum, they suggest 2 aluminum each side because brass doesn't fit all holes. Which brings us to the next problem, which is the worst instructions I have ever seen, that actually appear to have put some work into. The detail on interior removal is great. Every screw and step, even those not needed. The actual install of the unit and hardware skipped many steps, and key pieces of info. They make no mention of drilling 8 holes. and leave other items out mentioned in the video.

One thing not in the video, is they don't specify which hole the factory rear trim hole should be used for. The rear bracket has 2 holes, and one is for the trim hole. I used the rear most bracket hole, and one both side, the front Pnut, wouldn't clear interior framing. The interior metal was also at an angle, so drilling it, without damaging the surface hole was tricky. Also my front wind seal, sit about 1/2 inch above the roof, not in contact at all. Moving the hole unit back 3 inches would resolve both issues.

I used the yellow hole for the rear most factory hole, and the black circled plus nut wouldn't fit properly. Trial and error, moving it around before marking would have helped, but it has to sit on the spacers, which even with 3 or 4 people sounds like a recipe for damage, and could easily be resolved with a simple X to mark the bracket hole for the factory location in the instructions. Also the trial fitting only work for the seal placement, wont help with the interior structural blockage.

I can adjust the front to get the wind seal in place properly, and I worked around the blockage, but this install was much worse than it should have been. It was not cheap by any means, and for that price, I expect proper instructions, and spares for the hard to replace hardware, not the common stuff.

Recommending it to others is a tough call, because at the end of the day, I believe it is the strongest, best rack available, but the install and instructions are so much worse than they need to or should be.

Also cheap bastards, give you every part in black anodize, other than the front wind block support, because it can't be seen from ground view, so they toss in a cheaper silver strut. That is a pitiful move to save an inconsequential amount of money on a $1K+ unit.

I know that was long, but feel free to ask anything I may have missed.

 

[OFC Ranger]

Im still trying to figure out why they didn't follow the curve of the wind fairing with the roof line and instead cut it upward on the ends leaving a huge gap on each side.

I'm guessing the wind fairing is a universal part for all kits, which is a shame. For that kind of money I would expect all the major parts to be designed for the application.

P-racks do look good though, but I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much on so little raw materials.

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