Review on 🚗 Premium TMS J-Bar Roof Top Kayak Carrier for SUVs, Cars, and Crossbars - Heavy-Duty Mount for Canoes, Boats, Surf Skis by Nicholas Erickson

This product is economical and very durable. But assembling it turned out to be a lot more difficult than it should have been. There are no instructions as mentioned in other reviews (I went through all the comments to see if anyone ever wrote instructions and since no one had any I will try to fix them later in the review). If you just want a guide then scroll down a bit. I'm used to picking things up and I'm pretty fast, so the problem wasn't on my side. First of all I think it is really bad business practice to sell this item on Revain without a proper instruction manual. The seller is obviously someone who buys them in bulk from China and then resells them. Actually, the seller should have assembled the set himself and then written a proper manual based on his experience. Inside the box you get a rather poorly packaged set of parts (tubes, nuts, bolts, etc.) that frankly look small. dirty . as if they are already in use, but I think that's how they come from China. However, the finished product looks nice and is certainly durable enough for the job. Now assembly. The racks come with a one-page sheet with a list of the parts included and a fairly rough sketch of how they should fit together. When I give directions, I refer to the numbered items in the diagram. A small flat spanner is included, but honestly you'll need a decent set of ratchets, including some deep or long sockets that can be used to tighten the nuts for the two longer bolts that attach the trunk to your car) . Also, you may need some lube to make some of these parts easier to put together, a metal file, and you may (like me) need a few extra slotted head screws instead of the button head screws that come with the kit. Well, maybe my block just didn't match up as well as the others, but if yours was similar to mine, you'll need to make some of the same adjustments I had to make. The problem is that some parts only fit together with some hesitation and effort, while others didn't fit at all. So now I'm going to give the steps to assemble these racks, with tips for one particularly difficult step. You may want to read through the whole thing first and look at the different parts before you begin. The frame consists of two main tubular parts, one longer than the other. Take the shorter curved tube (part #2) and insert it into the square rubber piece (part #3). A NOTICE. Make sure the 9-sided part of the rubber is facing up. You may need to paste it, it fits perfectly. 2. Then take the long tube (item #1) and insert it into the rubber part on the other side. Press firmly (shake and wiggle the tube) until the two tubes come together in the rubber part. NOTE: Part #1 and Part #2 have male/female ends so one tube fits into the other. You may need to grease the ends of the hose (inside the connector and outside the connector and pinch one of the ends of the hose so that the ends line up so they fit together. A bit fiddly, but they eventually fit). Also make sure that the three holes in the attached tubes match up exactly so the screws can be threaded through.3. Before you start installing the screws, you need to press the large metal plate (part #4) firmly against the underside of rubber part #3. NOTE: The metal plate has a notch at the bottom and a lip at the top. Make sure the top ribbed surface of the plate fits into the bottom of rubber piece #3.4. Alright, now for the screws. Above I said you "stick" the screws, but in reality you may have to "fight" them as some of the holes just don't line up for easy insertion. I had to cut holes. Also pay attention to the underside of the screw heads. They have a square neck that needs to fit into the square holes in the metal plate (see part #4). If it worked as intended, things would be easier. In my case, several screws did not fit properly as they should. So when it came time to tighten the bottom nut, the head of the bolt did not "hook" into the square hole in plate #4 and the bolt just turned without tightening. The screw heads are round (yes, they look nice, but.) so there was no other way to keep the screw from turning while I was trying to tighten the nut from underneath. Because of this, you may need to go to a hardware store and get equal size screws with a screw head so you can hold the screw on one end with a screwdriver while you tighten the nut with the other end. The shorter screws (part #9) go into the 4 corner holes. Later, when everything is in place, you can insert the two longer screws (item #8) into the middle holes. With all the bolts in and the nuts tightened (if you're of the same experience as me you'll really enjoy this part) you're practically done with the one-time part of the assembly. The next step is to assemble the bottom metal plate that will attach the rack to the roof rack. You slide the narrow metal brace (Item #5) with the concave side onto the underside of the larger metal plate and tighten the wing nuts (Item #7) to hold everything together. If you want to install a kayak rack on your vehicle, all you have to do is disassemble and reassemble this one piece. Hope that helps.