I’m seriously looking into putting together a home gym and the item at the top of my list is a power rack.
Being based in England I have found only a lifted range of power racks worthy of consideration and I would very much value the opinion of my fellow T-Nationers on some power racks that I have found.
On the above page you’ll see three power racks that look ok:
Powerline Power Rack PLPPR178
Powertec Power Rack
Body Solid Pro Power Rack
Just as a starting point, I’d apprecaite any comment on the above power racks.
Also, if anyone has suggestions for other racks I could look at then that would be great.
I don’t like the Bodysolid type of rack. With solid steel safeties, if you dump a weight the rack is still ok, even if the pins get bent you can always hammer them out straight or just get new ones cheap. The fancy-shmancy Bodysolid kind will likely be hosed if you dump a big weight in it; the sliding safeties won’t work properly anymore and I doubt they’re cheap to replace.
The Powerline looks okay, price is good but the pin spacing is too wide (you could fix that yourself with a bit of drilling if necessary.) It’s also a bit narrow which might be an issue if you plan on squatting wide stance or sumo DLing in the rack.
I say go with the Powertec – cheaper than the Bodysolid, much tougher, decent pin spacing, nice chinup bar, comes with the dip bars that cost extra on the Bodysolid, and it’s a few inches wider than the Powerline.
I did favour the Powertec myself, for most of the same reasons as you give, so it’s nice to know I’m on track.
Did you know that the addition of the lat attachment/low pulley to the Powertec doubles the price? It would be a nice thing to have but for it to double the price seems steep.
Agreed, the Bodysolid plate-load attachment is much cheaper – but it looks cheap and flimsy as well. The Powertec unit is a monster.
The way I look at it, equipment like this only has to be purchased once per lifetime if you buy quality. You could always get the rack now and save the lat attachment for a future upgrade if necessary. A row/pulldown is nice but not essential IMO, weighted chins, T-bar rows etc will do the job nicely.
There’s no doubting the quality of the Elite products.
Sure, they’re costly, but I rarely buy just on price, I definately buy the best I can afford.
However, the Elite racks would seem to be out of my league right now. Factor in the shipping costs and the possibility of extra costs that imports may apply (remember I’m in the UK and which Elite cannot guarantee against such extra costs) then I can’t be sure of what I’ll be paying.