Glade everything are finally figured it out.

 

i notice on the back it goes into or something with the rear bumper do u need a full size rear bumper for the rack???

 

It actually bolts to the frame. If you had a full size rear bumper you'd have to remove it for the install. If you don't it might actually be easier to install?

 

 

That is correct.

 

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.

 

Well, I rolled 8 feet backward into a pine tree last week at 5 mph and:

• Decimated the factory rear bumper
• Cracked the rear light
• Crushed all the body metal between the light and the fuel fill
• Popped off all the paint in that area (no primer?)

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...but didn't effect the Gobi rack at all. That thing is solid!

I've noticed that the sway stops will work themselves loose on long trips and I've taken to checking them every hour or so when I'm loaded. I yank out on the upright and take a few turns in. No dents, no wobbles, no worries.

Now as for that crushed quarter panel...

 

Wow Northern Wrangler, when I was reading your post I figured it was a small dent. The pictures were a lot more than I expected.

I had a fear that those adjustment bolts would dent the side of the jeep. I always feel a bit paranoid when I tighten them. In the end I figured that if they started to make a dent I would upgrade the rear corners to an AEV rear armor or something similar.

 

Could you have overtightened those stops? Enough to where the body itself flexed into the rack and not the other way around?

 

No. The black triangle pads are made of some hard to bend aluminum plus when I "tighten" the bolts I only tighten them down until they are snug not wrenched into the body. Plus like I mentioned I noticed the dent after screwing the stop back in and after it went as far as it was adjusted to there was still some space between the stop and the body. When I looked closer at it wondering why the stop didn't meet up to the body I noticed the dent. So the stop worked itself loose putting space between it and the body. The space allowed the rack to sway and while swaying the stop acted like a ram and pushed in the metal creating a dent.

The bolts come loose every couple of days when there is no load on the rack. I had a load on the trail and the trail was rugged in some areas. This is the result of me not checking the bolts often enough I guess although it probably only took a couple of sways to actually do the damage. Hopefully my AEV corners will be here in the morning. I'm gonna take a run down to a local body shop I've used and ask then what they suggest I do to the flaking paint prior to covering it permanently with the AEV armor.