Gladiator GearLoft Overhead Storage Racks: 4'x4' $70, 2'x8' $80, 4'x8' $130, 2'x4' Expired

Those reviews are pretty eye-watering.

- Lag bolts sheer in half well below maximum weight rating
- Lag bolts sheer during installation (even with pre-drill)
- Poor QA (e.g. obvious mistakes during manufacturing got shipped to customers).
- General questions about quality/tolerances (e.g. bolts that barely fully seat)

This all reads like a whose who of cost-cutting to the point of the product suffering. Lag bolts sheering for one example is the difference between an 50 cent chinesium bolt, and a $1.50+ outdoor construction lag bolt.

People blaming it on user error are just peacocking their own inexperience (i.e. a standard construction lag bolt will survive being driven with a brushless impact, and still support its rated weight, particularly into untreated 2 by 4s of all things, these are metal defects).

TD - price...

identical 4'x8' MonsterRacks were on sale for $119 two weeks ago on woot.com (expired)

I purchased 2x 4'x8' SafeRacks with hanging holder hooks for $260 2 years ago. Same price, but included multiple hooks for bicycles, ladder, etc.

I will say, these hanging storage racks are awesome! I have 2 of the 4'x8' racks over my garage door (12ft ceilings). I keep all my saws, gardening supplies, bike rack, ski rack, pop-up canopy, camping supplies, summer/winter car tires, etc. up there out of the way. I would HIGHLY recommend any of the overhead storage racks if you have the space.


A note on installation - I knew I was going to want these when we had our house built (new construction neighborhood), so I took pictures of the ceiling joists pre-drywall so I knew exactly which way the beams ran and how to install these DIY so they were correctly/strongly mounted. Use a stud finder, tape measure, and it may be worth drilling a tiny hole on either side of the studs to make sure you have these centered before drilling your pilot hole for the lag bolts. you REALLY want all 8 lag bolts centered on the separate joists. a little extra drywall filler and sample size ceiling paint is a lot cheaper than the risk of having these fall on your vehicle or you.

Well I'm not sure who is "peacocking" but I have years of experience in the trades. (Decades actually)
If I had a dollar for every review I read where user error was the issue I'd be a wealthy man. Can't count the number of times I read reviews, bought the item anyway and had zero issues. (User error)
Interesting side note; I just finished a 4x30 foot mezzanine in my shop. Full 30 foot span with no supports. (12 inch header) Obviously we used plenty of lags. I bought them all from the bins at Home Depot. We noticed some of the ones over 5 inches were shearing. I went to a hardware store and bought some different ones. Sure enough one of those sheared too. (1 of the 4)
I was perplexed as the sheared bolts were only in the right half, none on the left side. Took some pondering to finally figure out the issue. My son drilled the pilot holes in the right half, I did the left. I used the right size bit. My son used one of the other drills with a smaller bit in it. (He saw it in the shop and assumed that was what I used)
The difference was minute. It wasn't enough to be obvious to any of us at the time. It was enough to make "good" lag bolts shear though.
So had I bought that from a store and I was inept at construction I would've left a review about how terrible my lag bolts were. In fact, it was user error.
Also, with the price of powerful impacts today at such a low level it's allowed many weekend warriors to get in over their heads. I still finish my lags with a wrench to make sure I know the torque.

Either way, if the racks come and the bolts look suspect it's an easy fix.