If you’re thinking about buying a Rhino Rack for your 4X4, I suggest you don’t. I certainly didn’t, and I was going to. Here’s why:
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4X4 roof load limits are typically in the 75-100 kilo ballpark. The Rhino Rack for Hilux weighs 27 kilos - that’s the flat ‘Pioneer’ rack and the ‘Backbone’ rail system. Therefore, that’s 48 kilos of cargo ‘upstairs’. This might be OK if that were the end of this story, but it’s not.
There’s a further reduction in payload capacity mandated by Rhino in conditions Rhino calls (erroneously) ‘off road’. Basically, you have to knock a further one-third off the payload. The basis for this reduction is not stated.
If I got this right, this reduces the Hilux roof rack payload by 16 kilos, to just 32 kilos. Nearly $1800 for a roof rack system to carry just 32 kilos.
It’s just bad value, dude - $55 per kilo (of off-road payload). That would be like paying $1000 for a jerry can. You’ve got to be kidding.
I suspect, were this limitation to be prominently displayed on Rhino’s website it might turn many people off buying the product. It certainly turned me off, but I had to dig to find it.
This load reduction is buried in the PDF fitting instructions for the ‘Backbone’ rail part of the system. I’m not saying Rhino is actively or maliciously hiding it. I’m saying that this critical safety information should be much more prominently displayed and unequivocally clear to intending buyers, in my view.
I’d suggest, if you’re a potential customer, you’re unlikely to download the fitting instructions. That’s the kind of thing you’d do only after buying, and even then, only if you plan on fitting it yourself.
Even though Rhino refers to this reduction as a (quote) ‘off road cargo allowance’ … in the fine print it actually applies to:
“Any driven path taken that does not contain a surface protection layer (tar/bitumen)”
Unsealed roads are roads. They are not ‘off road’. That seems kinda misleading to me.
But it’s even worse than that:
“Load must be evenly distributed over the system”
Rhino fitting instructions there. So let’s not be putting a 32-kilo second spare tyre ‘up there’, maxxing-out the rack. Because that’s not evenly distributed.
The latent engineer in me considers this an entirely impractical operational stipulation. This rack is supposed to carry 4X4 gear. That’s why people generally buy them. This equipment is not generally amenable to even load distribution. It doesn’t work like that. Gas bottle. Spare wheel. Jerry can. Whatever.
Even load distribution is, like, sand in a trailer. You can’t spread out a gas bottle and a jerry can. (And you can’t carry much more than that either.)
Bottom line: I’ve got a Triton. It’s got a 100kg factory roof load limit. I’d only be fitting a rack that enabled me to exploit all of Mitsubishi’s roof load capacity, in all foreseeable driving conditions. And I think that’s what most roof rack buyers expect.
I ask you: Why fit a product that actually degrades your vehicle’s fundamental capability? This makes no sense to me.