Hey everyone!

I recently got a nice deal on my Gobi rack and just want to make sure I installed everything perfectly, and would like to exchange thoughts with other owners. I think this was the proper area of the forum to post this in, but if not feel free to move!

Basically, I just bolted everything on nice and tight and the rack looks and feels great. Whenever I push and pull any part of it, from the rack itself down to the braces and brackets, the whole Jeep moves along with it. Everything is super tight and nothing squeaks when I manually jerk it around.

Here's my first question though: the two rear braces that use the adjustible pressure knobs against the rear-sides of the Jeep are almost half-way off the actual body. Now I know this is just to better stabilize the rack, but like I said a good portion of these little pressure disks are slightly off the vehicle. I think this must be normal seeing as how they are connected to a bracket that is bolted to the actual undercarriage, so I don't see how they could be in any other spot due to they need to be aligned with the factory holes where the bumper also is bolted in.

This might sound confusing but let me show some pictures so that any other Gobi owners might be able to understand what I mean and chime in:




See how both are slightly off the vehicle? Is this normal and typical?

And my other question, whenever I hit medium sized bumps I hear the rack squeak a bit. I know this may sound anal, I just want to make sure this is typical, and not due to anything being loose. (I checked everything, everything seems fine and I'd imagine it to make some noise when bumps are hit -- but like I said, I want to make sure I did the job perfect!)

Thanks guys!

 

GET AHOLD OF MBATF. HE HAS INSTALLED SEVERAL AND ALSO SELLS THEM.

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/sponsoring-manufacturers-vendors-check-out-cyber-monday-specials-24/alpha-expedition-gobi-roof-rack-82379/

 

mine looks the same and it is still rock solid. shouldnt be a problem.

i dont have any squeeks though. maybe wanna double check that everything is tight.

 

My stabilization pads were almost that far back, but I've since installed some AEV corner protection, so they're squarely on there now. Also mine came with little adhesive disks meant to protect the body that would slide out and were basically useless, but it looks like they have changed the design so yours will probably be better.

I'd say as long as stuff is tight, you're fine. In fact, you may get a little added strength from the fact that it's on the seam, which will be a little more rigid than the panel itself.

You should not have squeaking, but I'd say give it a little while to kind of settle in, if it doesn't help go back and make sure the hard mount bolts are tight, and experiment with different pressures on the little stabilization disks -- you may find that loosening them a bit (but not enough to let the rack bang around) might help.

Another thing to check on the squeaking: Where the rear hoop mounts to the basket, there are long-ish slots that allow some adjustability. When I had my hoop pushed all the way back (bolts all the way toward the front of the slots), I was getting some creaking. I loosened them up, slid them forward a bit to relax some of the tension, and the noise went away. Don't have any useful pics on hand but I can snap some tomorrow if it would help.

 

Thanks for the comprehensive write-up! Pictures would be absolutely appreciated as it's kind of hard to visualize the specific bolts you mentioned for me right now, my friend is the one who installed the rear part of the rack while I installed the lightbar. That being said, I've checked the rack over for any loose spots and the only time it really creaks slightly when I am really throwing it around is the ladder, and the rear of the rack itself. The connections seem pretty solid though, so I just assumed a little crack or metal sound hear and there while driving over bumps was normal, but evidently everyone else's rack is a silent as a mouse so now I'm kind of annoyed and really want to get this think as quiet as your guys'.


So yeah! Any picture at the mounts you mentioned would be -greatly- appreciated man.

-Adam

 

Oh and just as a PS, I changed out the rubber on the pressure disks myself. The ones that it comes with really are garbage...

 

I've got the same issue as you. I used my rack on my arctic trip, 5000 miles of carrying a lot of stuff... and now that its unloaded one of the triangular sticky metal pieces fell off, and the pressure knobs are hanging quite far back. What I found is that when its loaded up, the bars bend outward, so those knobs need to be tightened in. Now that its empty it seems to rattle over the medium bumps, sounds like the grating is flopping around or something, though its welded tight. I'm going to play with it today and see what I come up with.

What have people been using to replace the sticky pads that come with it?