Originally Posted by Cedo Nulli

Smmmmooootthhhhh bolt up with the AEV snorkel today. Fits great with the Gobi and works with KC windshield brackets also.

Originally Posted by Cedo Nulli

Good poser pic of the rack with AEV Snorkel and windshield lights.



Really impressed with how well all three of these items fit together.

Originally Posted by remark

Hey Northern Wrangler what are the cables from the hood latches to your gobi rack for?

Originally Posted by Northern Wrangler

Well I'm glad to report that the Gobi will work with the AEV pre filter as well. I heard that MCCURDY had to extend his spout to get the pre filter to fit. AEV makes the snorkel a little longer now and the prefilter fits perfect. Pics below.

Originally Posted by Northern Wrangler

So while at a rest stop on my way home after a two day/ 80km trail run (Whipsaw trail in Princeton, BC) I noticed that the drivers side rear "stabilizer bolt" (sorry if that's not the correct name) had caused a dent into the rear quarter panel near the fuel filler. The rack seemed to have swayed back in forth enough and pushed in the the "aluminum triangle" pad and the body tin. I noticed this because I'm constantly checking to see if all the bolts are snug and these stabilizers seem to back off fairly easy. As I was traveling on the highway and carrying a load on the rack I wanted to make sure everything was good and solid.

Now what caused me to notice the dent was when I was screwing the stabilizer bolt back in it stopped because of the "adjuster nut" that sets the length or distance the bolt can be screwed in. When the stabilizer bolt stopped at its pre set position there was still space between the rubber bumper and the black aluminum triangle pad that sticks to the quarter panel. After closer inspection I saw that the triangle and body/ quarter panel was dented.

Now initially I thought something had hit my JK but the trail is, for the most part wide and the only things that really touch the JK are branches in the worst sections. Also there was no damage to the rack (dents or scratches) where something could have struck it and caused the dent. The trail is, on the other hand much like a goat trail in many areas and there were lots of rocks and ruts so the JK did A LOT of swaying back and forth side to side.

My racks load consisted of a cargo box containing my camp cooking supplies (coleman stove, pots and pans etc.) and a full 20L gerry can of fuel. I would estimate that the loads weight was approx 70-85 lbs at most. The load was positioned on the rear passenger side of the rack to help balance the total weight of the JK since I weigh about 110 lbs more than my wife and I was driving for the most part. This wasn't a major issue for the trails but we had to do a lot of highway driving to get to and from the trail.

So all I can figure is that during the constant swaying side to side that the stabilizer bolts worked themselves loose as they have been since the initial install and after becoming loose and while swaying the driver side bolt caused the dent.

But this raised a question with me. If this theory was correct why didn't I get a dent on the passenger side? The only reasoning I have come up with is this. The aluminum triangle pads supplied with the rack that adhere to the quarter panel to prevent scuffing etc were both the same size. They are a nice large triangle with a wide surface area which probably spreads pressure out over the entire pad which as mentioned is appears to be made of aluminum and is quite tough and rigid. The problem I ran into when installing the pads was the driver side pad was too large to fit on the quarter panel behind the fuel filler area (just to be clear I mean the black plastic hole where the gas cap is). So I ended up cutting the triangle to about 2/3 of its original size.

I think that by doing this, the pads surface area was not large enough to spread out the force/energy of the rack swaying side to side and caused a dent.

I apologize for the length of this post and for any confusion I may cause as I'm not 100% sure of the exact names of the things I mentioned. Also please don't take this post to be about my complaints or quality of the product. This rack kicks a*s and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone looking to buy a quality rack. I merely want to share my feedback with everyone and hopefully help to further improve an already stellar product.

I have attached some pics that were taken with my Iphone so I apologize for the picture quality. As you can see in the pics the dent is minor but pushed in enough to cause the paint to start flaking off. My plan is to order a set of AEV rear corners which are made of steel and will protect against further denting. Before I install the corners I'll touch up the paint damage and remove the triangle pads as they will not be needed once the corners are installed.

I haven't read any other posts where this has happened to someone else so if your reading this and thinking about this rack don't let this post change your mind. Once again, Great rack. Great quality, but everything has bugs that may need to be worked out.

Originally Posted by banessi

I had to get a new stabilizer bolt from Gobi (I bent mine a while back). Along with the bolt I ordered they sent diamond plated wrapped corner plates. They are sooooo much nicer than the original plates as they curve with contour of the Jeep's corner (and I don't think it has been mentioned in this thread before). It might fix people's issues with denting and the plates being gradually pushed off the corner by the force of the rack.

Originally Posted by seacebeod

cool beans! is this now standard with the purchase of the rack?