NOTE: PRODUCT DESCRIPTION IS NOT ACCURATE! (WALMART: PLEASE NOTE - even with your "Disclaimer," PLEASE correct your current incorrect description! SHOPPERS BEWARE!)
I LIKE this rack for its heavy-duty construction! The product description re: 10-gauge steel IS accurate. THE PROBLEM?
The WIDTH and WEIGHT CAPACITY listed on Walmart's webpage are both WRONG! I purchased this 3-bar set - "AA" model %23 X27-T. "AA" Instruction Manual lists 250 lbs PER each bar max' weight capacity (thus: 750 lbs total load capacity like most other van roof racks). THE %231 reasons I purchased this rack was the listed "350" pounds per bar capacity (WRONG!), AND its adjustable width listed (incorrectly) in the product description as 55" to 67". On my old '93 GMC van, I only need 64" width, BUT the main crossbar (which inserts at each end into the gutter brackets / receiver brace tube) is BARELY long enough to meet the tension bolts that hold the cross bar in the receiver brace tubes. SO this rack BARELY reaches a 64" gutter-mount width, and THAT is NOT SAFE or secure! The receiver bolts alone cannot maintain a straight horizontal line with the cross bar, and even with the gutter brackets tightened, the cross bar "droops" or sinks down low toward the roof surface! NOT GOOD! If you look at the photos, the tension bolt mark left in the paint shows LESS than 1 inch of metal at both ends of the cross bar for the tension bolt to grip and for the receiver tube to leverage (which is nothing....). For safety and stability, I would say this rack should NOT be used at a width more than 55" to maybe 57" MAX'. In any case: since I was not able to mess with this until after the returns / refund window (I naively trusted the product description...), I will have to find LARGER square tube bars I can cut and use as sleeve-tubes to reinforce the cross bar / receivers insertion points and use vertical bolts (same could possibly be accomplished with internal core reinforcement bar); but EITHER way, I am also going to have to spot-weld this thing to make it as sturdy as I need it to be.
PLEASE MEASURE AND CONFIRM the gutter-to-gutter width of your van roof. If it is MORE than 55" (at most 57"), DO NOT BUY THIS RACK (2- or 3-bar models)! WalMart's product description is wrong - WRONG - WRONG! (Otherwise: this would be a good, 750-lbs-max' rack for narrower van roofs....)
