Smittybilt 76713 SRC Roof Rack for 1997-2006 Jeep Wrangler TJ, Black

I installed this by myself at night and only needed minimal tools. Read the manual. The factory bumper bolts work fine. The holes aren't misaligned. You have to remove the powder coating. Its tigh, very tight but will fit over the bolts. Improvise, adapt and overcome. I used a pulley puller to press the rear lowers on. Those bolts are >8.8 grade and will not be hurt by pressing the lowers on. Minimum thread engagement is no issue. The minimum engagement is the length of thread equil to the diameter of the bolt. You have over 2x that. It may not stick out the other side but its fine. The holes on everything lined up perfectly, not sure if others had one's from a bad run or messed up their install but was fine for me. Just goes to show you that this engineer can turn wrenchs. Come on guys, dont let some random chick show you up. I don't know about the noise they make while driving because i can't hear them over the 4BT's turbo and the engine noise of that diesel. Only down side is i need to relocate the Cummins badges back a little bit. Its rock solid and will suit my purposes well. I'll update later after running it for a while.

Perfect for what I need!!!

So.. what they don't tell you is that you will likely need to grind about a 1/4 inch on each side of you rear bumper if you are using the stock TJ bumper to get the bumper bolts to line up. Also, they do tell you that if you are using the stock bumper you will have to widen the drilled holes for the pipes connecting to the rear bumper. Not sure who's idea it was to make the hole too small so that it doesn't fit the stock rear bumper out of the box. Frankly if the company made the holes the right size for the stock bumper, they would also fit after-market bumpers. Poor planning on their part and worth deducting one star. Also, if you have a stock bumper you cannot reinstall the bumper caps. They tell you this in the instructions which buy the way are also pretty poor with poor photos and ambiguous instructions. So with the above issues (needing to grind both sides of the bumper and ream out the holes on the rear pipes that connect to the bumper and poor instructions it took two very handy people about 3 hours to install. The rack supports and rack rails are sturdy and painted well. They are really very heavy duty and will last. Now part 2. After installing the roof rack, the wind noise created by the front top rails (one of 3 rails that go side to side on top) was unbearable. As soon as I hit 35mph I could hear it. At 70mph it is so loud that you can't even hear your passenger if they are yelling at you let alone the radio at full blast. I mean to tell you with a soft top on the Jeep, it is extremely loud and I can't imagine that anyone would put up with it for long. The solution was to buy a roof rack spoiler for about $70 that straps to the front rail with provided hose clamps. The roof rack spoiler tilted at about 45 degrees worked like magic. No extra noise at all until I reached 70mph. The I could hear some noise but well worth the investment. They sell them here on Amazon.In short. 1. Not easy to install unless maybe you have an after-market rear bumper and the fit is better. Deduct one star because the Manufacturer doesn't make it work out of the box. Shame on them...2. Get a spoiler for the front rail. It will keep you from going insane from the noise. Expect to spend at least $70 additional to be happy.3. Minus the above, these are good quality racks that look good, function well, and have good paint on them. I am happy overall.

Little better than good quality but time consuming to bolt together. No real directions but easy to figure out. Hold our 4 man rooftop tent and gear really well.

works and looks great, could use a little more support in the back from side to side