Reviews: Smittybilt SRC Roof Racks

This is a great fitting & looking rack. It is reasonably easy to install. I installed it by myself, but had wifey hold inner door hinge plates. This does not fit the XRC Smittybuilt rack without removing the angle brackets & trimming wrap around part of the bumper.

Instructions appear to be written by someone who has never assembled the rack. Directions to install with OEM rear bumper lead me to put the rear supports on wrong, with required changing them the rest of the rack did not align with them. See photos of correct orientation and of the two nuts and one bolt that must be removed to install the supports. Also, found it easier to remove doors and hold the hinge backing plates myself then to find a contortionist to lay across the seats and hold them for me. Other than problems with the instructions, I love the rack and how it allows me to carry my canoe, ladders, lumber, etc. with a soft top.

Just what I was looking for to carry kayaks and canoe on my Jeep.

up grated bumpes and added cargo rack as its time th Hit the Road with Jeep and RV Gen II bumpers and Rock Crawler rack were just the think Pix to follow

Absolutely no problems with this rack. Arrived well packaged and in perfect condition. Instructions were clear and easy to follow. Everything lined up perfectly and was easy to install. I installed it by myself. Very happy with this rack.

Great roof rack. A lot of people complain about the instructions but you can also see lots of installation videos on YouTube.

Installation was simple and the track feels extremely sturdy.

I haven't install the rack yet, but Ive seen it on other Jeeps and it looks goods.

The product is great, looks great , easily installed by myself. But shipping sucked , took 2 months to get here.

It's a solid rack. Assembly was fairly straightforward but as usual their instruction leave a little to be desired. There are plugs that come with it to fill the hole in the mounting knobs to keep water out but no where in the instructions is there one word about these plugs, not even sure they were on the parts list. We figured it out thanks to their octagonal shape. There were a couple of other small things but overall much better than the instructions for their bumpers. Since installing we have used the rack to haul 2 kayaks for a day paddling. Everything was great other than needing a small ladder so my wife could get her kayak end up. 5'4" and 2.5" lift makes it difficult getting 60 & 75 lbs overhead but the rack is working out great and would buy again.

The instructions are pretty bad, yes. The bolts included are poor quality. Also, yes, I did have to grind the holes in the rear uprights to make them larger. Take some time a research this rack on google. The resources aren't abundant, but there are some videos and other good tidbits out there. To save you some time, here is what I ran into installing this on my stock 2006 TJ. Rear Uprights: The hex on the flange nuts on my rear bumper are 18mm. I'm mentioning this because every metric set I own jumps from 17mm to 19mm. I learned that after severely rounding off one of those nuts. If you end up needing to find a replacement or two, they're M12-1.75 flange nuts. Also, like I said, I had to grind out the holes on the rear upright. The bolts included for the rear upright are much smaller than the stock bolts. I'd rather use the stock bolts, so that's why I chose to grind out the holes. I bought a Dremel Lite, and used the included grinding bit. It took about an hour of grinding and sizing. In the photo, you can get an idea of how much you'll need to grind and where. It was taken about 1-2 grinding sessions before it fit. Front uprights: The bolts here confuse me. They send you 1/4-20tpi bolts, but the factory thread is 5/16-18tpi. (They remove with a T40 torx bit, use caution, they strip easily) I purchased some higher quality 5/16 -18tpi x 1 inch long bolts to use instead, but I did use the included washers. The lower door hinge bolts don't screw into nuts, they is a single, metal backing plate that they both thread into. This will fall off if you remove both bolts. You can have someone hold it for you when you attach the front upright. Or you can buy a 5/16-18 allthread screw (threaded rod/headless screw). You unscrew one bolt, screw in the allthread, unscrew second bolt, mount upright , screw bolt into open hole, remove allthread, and screw second bolt into second hole. Everything else is pretty cut and dry. Don't tighten anything until the entire rack is assembled. Use a deadblow hammer to get pieces fitting correctly. In the instruction lingo, overhead bars means 'bars that run from front to back,' and cross bars run driver side to passenger side. That's all I can think of right now. I spent more time googling nut and bolt sizes and hunting down replacements than I did actually installing the rack. I I consider the 'sweat equity' this project requires to be an exceptional trade off for the price, and I didn't buy a TJ so that I could pay somebody else to wrench on it. t's a solid rack and I have no idea how much different a $1,000 version could possibly be. I paid less than $300 for this, 4wp shipped it to my door for free, and it showed up in 3 business days. This was my first time purchasing from 4wp and it was a phenomenal experience.

I took a look at the directions and immediately forgot about them. It was easier to get all the parts separated and laid out. It's heavy duty steel so that's a plus but cumbersome if you are installing it yourself. The hardest part is that once I tightened everything down, the other side wouldn't fit. I suggest putting the nuts on and then ratchet everything down at the end. Another con is that the overhead bars are not labeled, one is shorter for the front. My last complaint is that the knobs are garbage, bottom line. The nut is glued in there and you probably won't get more than two turns before it snaps or breaks the seal. If you keep a trail bag you should already have the sockets/Allen wrenches, if not, I suggest going to lowes and buying sturdy ones. All in all, a good product with some minor problems that are easily remedied.

I purchased this rack to carry Canoes and Kayaks on my 1999 Jeep Wrangler. I think that it is a functional rack for a fair price. However I did run into a couple of issues. the first is that while it is not difficult to install, the instructions are really horrible. They are some of the worst instructions I have ever seen for a piece of equipment! Made worse by the lack of any usefull pictures or exploded view of the rack installed on the vehicle. A middle school kid could have easily written better instructions! The installation in the front is pretty obvious. However in the back is where I ran into trouble. The rear risers actually install on the inside of the ends of the cross member behind the bumper using the bumper nuts. The instructions lead one to believe you must remove the bumper and tow hitch. This is FALSE ! There is no need to remove the factory bumper! Just the two nuts on the end holding the bumper to the frame cross member! You can do one side at a time and not need to drop the bumper. I did call Smittybuilt and was helped to figure this out by someone there. unfortunately I had already unnecessarily dropped the bumper and hitch by this point. I did need to open up the bolt holes on the Rear riser slightly with a metal grinding bit for a power drill, as they were not drilled on the propper center for this vehicle, but it says in the instructions that this may be the case. On the left side rear frame crossmember I needed to use the same grinding bit to take about a 1/16" X 1/4" of a weld bead out of the inside end of the crossmember for the rack to bolt snug and flat. but this was no problem at all and just cleaned up a messy bead of weld. I am sure the welder was not worried about neatness on that spot that is normally hidden by the original bumper end cap. Which reminds me. The factory bumper end caps must stay off with this rack. I have uploaded a picture of the instilation on the rear drivers side of my jeep. The layering as you will see is with the rack riser on the inside of the crossmember with the bumper on the outside with it's bolts passing through all. ;-) Lastly, the knobs supplied with the rack were junk. The nuts inside strip out of the knob really easily! you may find that they strip as you are tightning them and then that you cannot get them loose either. This happned to me on three out of the six knobs. If this happnes I found that the knobs break real easily if you smack them on the top with a hammer. lol :-)Then you can un screw them with a wrench. I replaced all my knobs with ones from the local hardware store. I would do this and not even bother with the ones supplied. while Smittybuilt has some improving to do on their instructions supplied with the rack. Overall I like it and would buy it again. PS: Smittybuilt, GET BETTER KNOBS!

I've been looking for a roof rack for a while and was not really happy with what was available. When I saw this style and I saw that I would be able to put the jeeps top down without removing the roof rack I was sold. Thank you 4WD since it was ordered on Thursday am and was at my home Friday to be installed on Saturday. Before you buy please read and think about these reviews. This was a three hour install and if you understand these reviews you will understand why. The directions are useless to a point. As another reviewer stated layout all your pieces so you understand the assembly. There are two thing I want to mention. 1. The lower door hinge. If you remove your door and are careful you can remove the hinge bolts and never moved the hinge bracket. Put a piece of the supplied foam sheet over the hinge bracket for protection. Attach the upper roof rack bracket with one bolt then swing the tube over the hinge bracket and carefully install the two bolts. Then install the last bolt on top. Snug up all bolts - do not tighten - since you will need some flexibility to install the rest of the assemblage. Put your door back on so if the bracket does come loose your preserve the door alignment. 2. The rear mount. The instructions read that you need to remove the rear bumper. This is not true. You can remove the milk jug and then the two rear bumper nuts. There is a small piece of metal that needs to be cut away for the bracket to fit. You also need to grind out the holes on the bracket bringing them a little closer to each other. Position the bracket and re install the bumper nuts. I actually cut out the milk jug and re installed it for a nice finished look. Also, like other reviewers stated the plastic knobs that they give you are junk. pop the nuts out of them and go to your local hardware store and get new knobs. Most people who have a Jeep like to tinker and this rack if perfect for us. I put pipe insulation on the cross members for a completed finished look. Over all very happy with the product but disappointed that the engineering is not better.

Ordered this for my 95 Wrangler back in 2022. Overall the product works nicely, as I have now had it on for a few months. The only issue I had with the installation, was I had to relocate my Antenna. Shipping issue with the freight company, they "misplaced" my shipment for a few weeks. Then when I finally received it, I was missing the two back bottom pieces that bolt to the frame. Ended up contacting Smittybilt, which I can say enough positive things about. They have a great customer service department. Shipped me the missing items quickly and at no additional charge.

I've had this on my 03 TJ for a few years now. I really like this rack, versatile and easy to use. I didn't have to modify anything with the stock bumper like other people mentioned. The instructions are poor but with a little fiddling, I figured it out. The hardware isn't great and the plastic knobs strip easily but it was easy enough to replace a few bolts with better hardware. Powder coating seems a bit thin and I have developed a few light rust spots in some areas but It has seen a lot of use so it's to be expected.The wind noise created by the rack was brutal so I added a wind deflector which took care of that problem. This might sound like a lot of issues but the were all easily taken care of and the rack has been great and really helpful for multi-day trips etc.