If I may add my $.02....
I recently went around and around with this. My first stage of ideas brought me to building the rack myself. I ended up really unhappy with the final product and wasted about 100 bucks in materials. I then pulled into work one day and seen 2 Jeeps in my paraking garage, both sporting roof racks (both different brands). Both Jeeps were the same body style, just different years. For the first time, I was really able to walk around the designs of the roof racks. The first TJ I looked at had a Kargo Master Congo Cage and rack. Right off the bat I noticed that this rack sits up very high (Distance between the roof top and rack). In my opinion, the rack just makes the Jeep look like there is this abnormal square structure sitting on top and lots of bars running in different directions. Now, with that said, the rack system was solid as can be. The other rack I got to see upclose, was made by Smittybilt. Honestly, this rack just looked like a cheap exo-cage with a basket attached to it. The system had bars extended on the side of the Jeep, the size tubing was massive, and the finish looked very fake-ish. But, again this is my opinion.
After that day I got ahold of a guy my friend knew that owned a Gobi (Ranger Rack). I got some very detailed photo's and measurments sent to my email. I will say it now, hands down it's a cool setup. The integrated light bar is really nice and the material used is solid. The other good thing about the Gobi rack was that there was no drilling required.
I guess it was a week later, I was about to pull the trigger on a gobi rack, and then I ran into a guy on a trail with a Garvin Wilderness rack. After a brief walk around, and he told me the price....I was sold. The rack was solid, $700 less than a Gobi, and just had the look that sat perfect. I ended up talking to Ron Garvin at Garvin industries and he sold and shipped me the rack within 5 days. Not one company had them in stock. When the new rack arrived, I started pulling things out of the box right away. This is when I noticed that the rack looked way different than the one online and that I had senn in person. I thought for a minute I got the wrong rack...but nope, it was the new andd improved model. Many different slight changes to the older version. The next day I mounted it up, and honestly am thrilled with it. The garvin rack is well built and looks great. I added some lights to it, and blam I was even more happy with it. Enjoy the pic...hope this info helps.
