Don’t Buy From Aluminess - Roof Rack

I recently purchased a $6300.00 dollar roof rack from Aluminess and have had nothing but problems with them. The first rack they custom made for me was severely warped and looked like crap but they told me it was fine. I had to prove to them with a tape measure and straight edge how badly warped it was so reluctantly they agreed to take it off and make me a whole new rack. Kenny and Tiny of Aluminess explained to me that the welder had only used 2 saw horses instead of 3 when welding up the rack and that is why it was severely warped. Who uses saw horses to weld soft aluminum tubing....Aluminess does and they know that it causes issues with warping but they are unapologetic about it and still expect you to pay top dollar for their crappy racks! When the new rack was installed it was still warped in the middle by a 1/2 inch which gave the back of my rack the butterfly effect, (both ends of the rack point up). The front of the rack is also kicked up in the front which looks lame and causes excessive wind resistance underneath the rack. They did offer to take the rack back and give me my money back but I could not afford to take another day off work to drive down to Santee, CA from Ventura which would have been a total of 3 trips costing me well over $1200 dollars in lost wages and fuel. I decided to keep the defective rack and asked for a $1200 discount for my trouble but they scoffed at that solution so here we are sharing my story. Bottom line, do not buy anything from Aluminess and purchase your roof racks, bumpers, light bars etc from RB Components who are a class act and make superior products for about the same price. Check out my rack pictures so you can see what I’m talking about and to see what a Kenny and Tiny of Aluminess say is acceptable!

Re: Don’t Buy From Aluminess

How the work is supported may be the problem, but it could be more complex than that.

One example.
Many aluminum sailboat masts are tapered at the top. The extruded aluminum stock comes out one size. The taper is custom fabricated by applying special cuts in the extrusion, shaping the taper, and welding the joints. It is extremely critical that the welds be done systematically or the shape will bend/distort. To simplify, the basic method is that the welding is moved from side to side, end to end to keep the stresses equal.

The rack may be laid out and cut properly. The distortion can happen from welding induced stresses regardless of how the piece(s) are supported.

The above said, the fabricator should be aware and work to get the correct results.

vic

Re: Don’t Buy From Aluminess

This is the second report I've seen about warped racks from them. There was a post on SMB's forum about a rack that bowed up in the middle. It looked like anything in the middle would roll off to the sides. When i started looking at other photos of Aluminess racks, I could see that same result. For me, that was enough to look elsewhere.

RB's racks look bomb proof and have not see any issues like this with their racks.

If that were me, it would be something that would make me mad every time I looked at the van. I'd be headed back up there to return it for a refund. 1200 out of pocket sucks, but so is 6300 with a wonky rack. RB should be able to make something close for the same price. I have an estimate from them, and it's not *too* far off from Aluminess (with same features).

Re: Don’t Buy From Aluminess

Sorry to hear about your rack issues Bluemanx1, that stinks.

I recently had them make a rack for me and thankfully I don't appear to have any of the warping that you noted (had to go outside and look closely after seeing your post). Your rack may have been more complex than mine however, as I paid much less. Mine is relatively basic with normal slats, low profile option, light tabs, and two vent cutouts. I had Korey from cacampervan handle the coordination and install with Aluminess and it was very smooth. So far I am very happy with my rack (also put their ladder on after the fact as well).

By the way, looks like we are pretty close to each other, I am in Newbury Park.

Re: Don’t Buy From Aluminess

Seems like lazy work from the fabricator. Maybe its the lower volume on these racks? Most any fab shop will make a jig for anything more than a few custom orders. The jigs save worker time and ensure good products. The tubing is clamped in the jig and welded (or at least tacked).

Re: Don’t Buy From Aluminess

Those pics of that rack look awful...sorry for your troubles.

I was hoping to order a rear bumper and storage boxes from Aluminess but they never return calls and if you do get someone of the phone they act like they could care less about your business...so I bailed on that thought...glad I did as I also have heard questionable long term quality reports.

I have had great customer service from RB. Ordered about 15,000 dollars worth of parts last year for our buildout and drove to CA from AZ to pick it all up. They personally showed me around the shop, let me snoop around all the vans being built, gave me an hour or so tutorial from some of the installers for some of the trickier install stuff, picked special order stuff out for me to help with my installs, added extra parts/hardware to make sure I had plenty, and were very receptive in shipping parts that were not there when I went for pickup...all on their dime...

Re: Don’t Buy From Aluminess

Definitely consider voyager racks in Florida, way less expensive including a side ladder and additional crossbars!!!! My rack showed up on time in perfect condition!!! Andy kept me updated throughout the process

Re: Don’t Buy From Aluminess

I got my Aluminess rack in September and it worked out pretty good. Good quality from my perspective and great design. I was able to reach them via phone when needed calling from the East Coast so I was pretty happy. I got most of the other stuff from RB Components and their stuff is awesome. Well engineered and well fabricated so I am sure their roof racks are impeccable though a little more expensive for sure. Sorry to hear about your troubles. I would return it as they offered.

Re: Don’t Buy From Aluminess

Thanks for the review

Re: Don’t Buy From Aluminess

I too purchased a custom roof rack from Aluminess and the coordination was very good and timely. The rack turned out very nice. By my design it is longer than their typical rack and everything is true and straight and level. Mounted right up without any issues.

Re: Don’t Buy From Aluminess

I also have major problems with my rear bumper with box swing arms. The whole bumper with swing arms are mounted off the hitch assembly bolt holes on the van frame (8 total). If you try to force (sledge hammer) all the bolts through their assembly and van frame you end up with one side of the swing arm assemblies engaging the van door/bumper attachments a few inches sooner and at different distances than the other swing arm.

Now you have one side latched and the other swing arm that doesn't engage unless you force it my means of having to kick it closed. This puts a huge amount of stress on the one swing arm that engages the door first so much that it creases the door sheet metal.

I went back and forth with them via phone/email a total of 5 installs/uninstalls with pics etc. (not easy when you are doing it over and over again). The only way I can get this to even close is to put 3 bolts through the bumper mounts instead of 8. Its not great but workable.

I would assume the mount holes that mount to the van factory holes are off because the factory hitch assembly has perfect alignment as the bolts go in easy( factory bolts are even larger diameter than aluminess so there is even less margin for error). If there was some adjustment for the swing arms I may have been able to get it to work. I think that it is a combination of the bumper mounts and something else because even with three mount bolts the bumper is pushed to one side of the van more than the other and one side is higher than the other which translates to a lot by the time you get to the swing arms latching the doors.

Maybe this is just my bumper or all, but these things may not be as convenient as they look. If you want to open the rear door to just grab something for convenience you may want to rethink the layout of your van a little.

1. You have to bend down between two boxes or a box and a tire and push two separate levers(mine were hard to push because they have a ton of tension on them).
2. Now you have to use two hands to pull the box away from van because the latch ramp still has the box weight on it.
3. Now swing the arm out and pull their cotter pin out of the bumper and install in the swing arm( also hole too tight to put in easy on one side) to keep the swing arm from swinging open
against the side of the van or the van door if van is parked on a slight angle or a breeze.
4. Now you can finally just grab the van handle and open the door and grab your water bottle.
5. Repeat the steps in reverse to close.

My bumper with two boxes has been sitting in my shop now since august after I got tired of taking it on and off over two weeks. I figure some day I will take it to a welder to have the bumper mount holes enlarged, have one of the swing arm cut, welded so the swing arm closes square and then off to have it re powder coated.

So in the end I have a $5,000 bumper/box set up that I could put on the van, bungee holding one swing arm closed so it doesn't dent the rear of my door anymore, 3 bolts holding it on
(god bless the guy who tries to hook a trailer up to it).

This was the largest single expense I had on the van. The main reason I went for it was to put my propane/stove etc in it.

The op stated that his rack was built on saw horses.. I would hope not geeezz. Maybe that explains it..

Re: Don’t Buy From Aluminess

That's bull**** for 5G's!!!!!

$6300 ? who can afford this stuff?

Jsharrell said:

$6300 ? who can afford this stuff?

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I'm with u....it's insane

Here's how Aluminess welds... no jig... @2:16.


https://youtu.be/4Uxx6VvP2Wg?t=2m19s

Jflo- Curious. do you expect them to build a jig for each custom rack they build, given they are all different.

They have a number of jigs in their shop for welding standard parts like bumpers etc. Given that every rack is the different, its not practicable.

If they are having problems with their racks warping, its for lack of welder skill.

I had an issue with Aluminess as is documented in my build thread. They resolved it to my satisfaction, eating $1600 in order to do so. Kenny was easy to deal with throughout and I would definitely give them my patronage again despite the headache and being out of my van for almost a month because of the issue that came up. On the other hand, if you think Aluminess is spendy, RB might just make your jaw drop a bit.

brianszero said:

1. You have to bend down between two boxes or a box and a tire and push two separate levers(mine were hard to push because they have a ton of tension on them).
2. Now you have to use two hands to pull the box away from van because the latch ramp still has the box weight on it.
3. Now swing the arm out and pull their cotter pin out of the bumper and install in the swing arm( also hole too tight to put in easy on one side) to keep the swing arm from swinging open
against the side of the van or the van door if van is parked on a slight angle or a breeze.
4. Now you can finally just grab the van handle and open the door and grab your water bottle.
5. Repeat the steps in reverse to close.

.

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Just to give another side here:

1: True you have to bend down. However even with a 33" spare and a loaded box, my latches release smoothly with one hand.
2:Mine swings freely away after step one. One finger is sufficient.
3: Pin was tight, I enlarged with a slightly larger drill bit. Took 2 minutes. Problem solved
4: True
5: swing them shut. Takes 1 second.

Sucks to hear about troubles. Glad I ordered and received my Aluminess stuff before seeing this. I have the nerf bars and side ladder and am extremely satisfied. The only problem I have is how much it costs to get this stuff shipped to the east coast. The shipping on the nerf bars was $240 and on the ladder $175 (I purchased the items a few months apart).

Re: Don’t Buy From Aluminess

Co jimmy said:

Definitely consider voyager racks in Florida, way less expensive including a side ladder and additional crossbars!!!! My rack showed up on time in perfect condition!!! Andy kept me updated throughout the process

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Can you please post some pics? Of the rack and the side ladder? Thank you.