The Westcott rack sits much lower, in terms of wind noise, unlike the factory roof rack, which is notoriously loud. Interestingly, the Land Cruiser comes with a decent factory looking rack—makes you wonder what the GX550 engineers were thinking with their design.
The new Land Rover Defenders have the exact same problem with their stock racks. Looking at side by side pictures, I wonder if there is any connection.....hmm...
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Was it shipped in one large box or multiple boxes?
You going self install and lighting?
Good questions! I'm still deciding on the lighting but leaning towards not adding them. I like the clean look without, and I don't think I'll really need the lighting. On the install, I probably will do it myself. I think the main difficulty is that I don't have a lift, so I'll have a lot crawling about. I'm not as young as I was, so everything hurts after awkward body placement and effort
. I don't mind paying a local shop to do it, but I'd really like to ensure it is done right and I'm compulsive. I guess what I should do is try to find someone who has a lift, and if I can't easily find one, have the shop do it.
One box only, and extremely well packed/ padded box with overall plastic wrap, with the individual pieces inside wrapped individually in foam wrap. One of the better packing jobs I've received in general.
Are the L/R side pieces black or a gray - gray is more like the trim color
I got the aluminum version, so the center part is silver (like what is on the vehicle now) and sides black.
Hi, you are right, the plastic piece that you remove is not black. I was actually comparing it to the black piece of trim above that has the fog lights in it. The gray plastic part is completely removed, and just the lower profile black bumper trim will remain. I have it upside down in the pic (duh) but I holding it up next to what remains I think looks really good.
My rock rails are black - so that will work. Going to order the lights next week and the SPOD controll unit from Baja designs
Hi, at this point I think I'm going to keep it around in case I want to revert. It may be a bit of a pain to go back, since part of the install involves trimming the bottom of the front wheel well liner. I did check to see and you can buy new plastic liners pretty inexpensively so it is doable. If I get it on and conclude I'll never go back, I'll let you know for sure.
