Elevate CS Rack installed

[SkeeterB]

I have the undercover ultra flex. I had to move the prop rods a little (easy to do) to hold the folded cover up against the crossbar.

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[billbillw]

Has anyone ordered the Elevate CS rack in the last month or so from RealTruck? I am being told by one of their sales reps that they are taking up to 50 business days to ship out now. That's insane.

 

[billbillw]

Has anyone ordered the Elevate CS rack in the last month or so from RealTruck? I am being told by one of their sales reps that they are taking up to 50 business days to ship out now. That's insane.

So I ordered the full Truxedo setup with Sentry CT/TS Rails/Elevate CS rack on June 13th. The Sentry and TS rails came in a few days. Keep getting an email update every 3 days with an updated "Estimated delivery date" for the CS racks. I noticed that they are showing "This Product is Temporarily Unavailable" on RealTruck now.

Latest email says June 27-Jul 3, but I expect to get another email later today that will push out the date. Its frustrating because when I ordered, their website said available a week or less.

EDIT: The next email didn't come until the 26th and it has an expected date of July 14th now...

 

[billbillw]

So I ordered the full Truxedo setup with Sentry CT/TS Rails/Elevate CS rack on June 13th. The Sentry and TS rails came in a few days. Keep getting an email update every 3 days with an updated "Estimated delivery date" for the CS racks. I noticed that they are showing "This Product is Temporarily Unavailable" on RealTruck now.

Latest email says June 27-Jul 3, but I expect to get another email later today that will push out the date. Its frustrating because when I ordered, their website said available a week or less.

EDIT: The next email didn't come until the 26th and it has an expected date of July 14th now...

Frustration is starting to set in...
Latest email from RealTruck updated with expected delivery not until Aug 2-7. Grrr!

Aug 2nd update: I received an updated delivery email last night that said Sept 19-25th and I about went ballistic on the company. Went to the website and it showed in stock and Rapidship ready! WTF? I called in the AM and asked why the discrepancy? They said the order was set up to ship directly from Truxedo, but they had some in the warehouse that could ship. They cancelled the one that was supposed to ship from Truxedo and changed it to rapid ship from the warehouse.

I guess you need to be vigilant with Real Truck. Expected now in a few days.

 

[TheDaliMan]

Frustration is starting to set in...
Latest email from RealTruck updated with expected delivery not until Aug 2-7. Grrr!

Aug 2nd update: I received an updated delivery email last night that said Sept 19-25th and I about went ballistic on the company. Went to the website and it showed in stock and Rapidship ready! WTF? I called in the AM and asked why the discrepancy? They said the order was set up to ship directly from Truxedo, but they had some in the warehouse that could ship. They cancelled the one that was supposed to ship from Truxedo and changed it to rapid ship from the warehouse.

I guess you need to be vigilant with Real Truck. Expected now in a few days.

I had the same issue. Ordered my rack in early June and I keep getting the emails pushing the date further out. I emailed them about cancelling and they called yesterday to tell me Truxedo was back ordered but they had like 18 units in their warehouse. That being said it finally shipped today. I wish I would have called them a couple weeks ago but I had a surgery recently so no camping anyway for a month or so.

 

[billbillw]

I had the same issue. Ordered my rack in early June and I keep getting the emails pushing the date further out. I emailed them about cancelling and they called yesterday to tell me Truxedo was back ordered but they had like 18 units in their warehouse. That being said it finally shipped today. I wish I would have called them a couple weeks ago but I had a surgery recently so no camping anyway for a month or so.

It seems to be a poor business practice to stock at the warehouse while making another customer who ordered months ago wait. Is that our tradeoff for getting a forum discount? Frankly a bit disappointed in the company. How can Truxedo deliver extra warehouse units when they are "back ordered?" Mine finally shipped today also and should arrive Saturday if FedEx doesn't screw that part up. For me, its about using my 14' kayaks. I've only had them out once this year and that was because I borrowed my son's Explorer with roof rails to mount my Yakima BowDowns.

 

[billbillw]

My Elevate CS racks finally arrived on Saturday. Not the best packaging from the factory. A few scuffs and a small ding. Not enough to warrant a return though.

One thing to mention, the Elevate CS racks now come with a 3rd set of holes for height adjustment. I believe they originally offered only two settings, all the way down (18" height) and all the way up (28" height). Now there is a set of holes in the middle that give a 23" rack height. The lowest setting is enough for my kayaks, but I may use the 23" height if I ever need to put something in the middle and I want to clear the sharkfin antenna.

 

[breal]

Frustration is starting to set in...
Latest email from RealTruck updated with expected delivery not until Aug 2-7. Grrr!

Aug 2nd update: I received an updated delivery email last night that said Sept 19-25th and I about went ballistic on the company. Went to the website and it showed in stock and Rapidship ready! WTF? I called in the AM and asked why the discrepancy? They said the order was set up to ship directly from Truxedo, but they had some in the warehouse that could ship. They cancelled the one that was supposed to ship from Truxedo and changed it to rapid ship from the warehouse.

I guess you need to be vigilant with Real Truck. Expected now in a few days.

Likewise, my Elevate CS Rack order from 6/16/23 has an estimated delivery date of 8/21-8/25 (so far). I used their web chat to ask if there were any currently left in the warehouse that could be used to fulfill my backorder.

The rep was quick to point out they had "already told me it's a 50 day delivery window last month".
It felt like he was more concerned about me knowing that these are "50 business" days more than if they will keep their projected delivery date.

Yes, they had 5 in-stock, but they would have to cancel my original order and re-order, but there was a chance I'd slip back to another 50 day delay. I declined the gamble.

Look, as a Maverick owner, I'm used to waiting - this feels different and not in a good way.

 

[billbillw]

Likewise, my Elevate CS Rack order from 6/16/23 has an estimated delivery date of 8/21-8/25 (so far). I used their web chat to ask if there were any currently left in the warehouse that could be used to fulfill my backorder.

The rep was quick to point out they had "already told me it's a 50 day delivery window last month".
It felt like he was more concerned about me knowing that these are "50 business" days more than if they will keep their projected delivery date.

Yes, they had 5 in-stock, but they would have to cancel my original order and re-order, but there was a chance I'd slip back to another 50 day delay. I declined the gamble.

Look, as a Maverick owner, I'm used to waiting - this feels different and not in a good way.

I might have pushed a little on that. My agent on the phone cancelled the item shipping from Truxedo and placed the order to come out of warehouse stock at the same time. I had shipping information almost immediately. I'm not sure if you ordered the TS-Rails and a bed cover at the same time like I did.

 

[breal]

I might have pushed a little on that. My agent on the phone cancelled the item shipping from Truxedo and placed the order to come out of warehouse stock at the same time. I had shipping information almost immediately. I'm not sure if you ordered the TS-Rails and a bed cover at the same time like I did.

Yes, I ordered the TS Rails, CS Rack and BakFlip MX4 hard folding tonneau all together.
I'm happy with the tonneau (and the discounted price), but I won't be ordering anything else from RealTruck or any Elevate products again.

 

[billbillw]

My Elevate CS racks finally arrived on Saturday. Not the best packaging from the factory. A few scuffs and a small ding. Not enough to warrant a return though.

One thing to mention, the Elevate CS racks now come with a 3rd set of holes for height adjustment. I believe they originally offered only two settings, all the way down (18" height) and all the way up (28" height). Now there is a set of holes in the middle that give a 23" rack height. The lowest setting is enough for my kayaks, but I may use the 23" height if I ever need to put something in the middle and I want to clear the sharkfin antenna.

So some early posters said they did not notice a change in MPG with these installed, but I certainly did. Maybe it is because my kayak holders are larger than most? Since I installed this setup, I could not get more than 24MPG in mixed driving. The lowest tank average in the previous ~4000 miles was around 27.5MPG. It seems like the hit was greater on highway mileage as would be expected.

So, between the lower efficiency and the whistling noises that the kayak holders make, I decided they needed to be removed for daily driving and just put on when the need arises. Turns out, removing the entire Elevate CS rack is much easier than removing the key-locked Yakima BowDown holders. The entire rack only needs a quick loosening of 8 nuts and they come off easily (no binding). The problem is that I don't want to remove the end caps on the TS rails and loosen my cleats, etc. to get the T-bolts out. The acorn nuts will not tighten the T-bolts without the CS Racks installed (they will rattle and slide), and it also shows the unpainted bolt color.

Solution? Find a spacer! Did some quick measurements with the calipers and bought 5 packs (10 pieces) of these from Home Depot (a couple spares). https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-0-38-x-0-56-x0-5-Nylon-Spacer-2PC-15R-867598/323369828

White nylon will look awful though. Wiped with isopropyl, dried and a quick spray with matte black solves that problem. Coat hanger used as a fixture to paint and dry.

Installed, it looks clean and should make reinstalling the CS Racks pretty simple. They are just over hand tightened as to not deform the nylon. Hopefully the paint holds up. In the 45 miles or so I've driven since taking off the racks/kayak holders, my fuel economy is back above 27mpg and that's all back road, mostly under 45mph driving.

 

[Hammer]

So some early posters said they did not notice a change in MPG with these installed, but I certainly did. Maybe it is because my kayak holders are larger than most? Since I installed this setup, I could not get more than 24MPG in mixed driving. The lowest tank average in the previous ~4000 miles was around 27.5MPG. It seems like the hit was greater on highway mileage as would be expected.

So, between the lower efficiency and the whistling noises that the kayak holders make, I decided they needed to be removed for daily driving and just put on when the need arises. Turns out, removing the entire Elevate CS rack is much easier than removing the key-locked Yakima BowDown holders. The entire rack only needs a quick loosening of 8 nuts and they come off easily (no binding). The problem is that I don't want to remove the end caps on the TS rails and loosen my cleats, etc. to get the T-bolts out. The acorn nuts will not tighten the T-bolts without the CS Racks installed (they will rattle and slide), and it also shows the unpainted bolt color.

Solution? Find a spacer! Did some quick measurements with the calipers and bought 5 packs (10 pieces) of these from Home Depot (a couple spares). https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-0-38-x-0-56-x0-5-Nylon-Spacer-2PC-15R-867598/323369828

White nylon will look awful though. Wiped with isopropyl, dried and a quick spray with matte black solves that problem. Coat hanger used as a fixture to paint and dry.

Installed, it looks clean and should make reinstalling the CS Racks pretty simple. They are just over hand tightened as to not deform the nylon. Hopefully the paint holds up. In the 45 miles or so I've driven since taking off the racks/kayak holders, my fuel economy is back above 27mpg and that's all back road, mostly under 45mph driving.

I like your solution. I tackled the same issue by purchasing threaded star knobs on Amazon that tighten down onto the bolts that stick out.

 

[billbillw]

I like your solution. I tackled the same issue by purchasing threaded star knobs on Amazon that tighten down onto the bolts that stick out.

Those are nice, but I wanted something that was inexpensive and that I could get on a Sunday (this past weekend).

 

[Cshore84]

Hey everyone!
Im, the Alex referred to as reaching out for special pricing!
This rack will work with any flush mount hard folding/rolling cover and any flush mount soft roll-up
These bars are fully able to be put in any position along the bed and are fully removable if you choose. They also come with tie-down cleats if you buy the rack and rail combo, needed if you dont have a cover like the RetraxPRO/ONE XR that has t-slots built-in

Reach out to me and I can get you a great deal on this AND a cover to pair it with if you don't have one already!

Hi Alex. I have the Pro X15 that I bought from realtruck a year ago on my mav currently. Looking to add the elevate rack system. Do you have any special pricing for Military?

 

[Realtruck]

Hi Alex. I have the Pro X15 that I bought from realtruck a year ago on my mav currently. Looking to add the elevate rack system. Do you have any special pricing for Military?

I've sent you a PM =)

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