Umm, because a bolt shouldn’t be stripped upon arrival regardless of whether or not it’s hidden under something you seem to think shouldn’t be removed.

 

Dude - why don’t you go stalk another thread to add your uninformed opinions to? You’re clearly not helpful.

this was a thread asking for assistance from others running into this issue. No place for you to roll in and throw judgement with useless opinions like “welp, you shouldn’t have done that because it should be X way and I’m right”.

yeah go screw yourself dude.

 

Why is your feelings hurt? Cannot take a comment? This is a forum dude!

 

This just sold me on the voyager vs the frontrunner. Better looking anyway, but the last thing I want to deal with is spinning rivnuts in the roof. What a cluster. The voyager slots right into the roof rails thank god.

 

Did you use a ratchet by hand or impact gun? I'm curious to find out. I'm 90% certain I used a ratchet and removed mine by hand. Might help others in the future. I did see a ton of blue locktite on the bolts.

Really hope you can get those rivnuts out.

 

By hand for sure. Funny thing - starting to do research and collect info on frequency of this occurring. Have found about 5-6 instances of the exact same two bolts so far and am working with two dealers to resolve. They’re putting it in for warranty claim. Hoping they can remove them too!

 

yeah totally understand. The voyager looks great too.

I have another solution if we can’t get them out via the dealer and warranty it all.

currently working with a local place over the next two weeks to prototype a kickass rack that competes with voyager!

 

A 3/8 ratchet is what I used when trying to loosen the bolts.

Update on status of my vehicle: 7 days at the dealership so far. I was told it would be done last week, but it is Monday and no updates from the dealership. I will call tomorrow and to check status. If they aren't going to warranty it, i'll probably pick it up before my bill reaches the moon. My guess is that they still haven't figured out a way to fix it. Last time I spoke to the foreman, the plan was to cut the bolts off and use a bolt and nut to hold the front runner rails instead of replacing the riv nuts. Which means I'd have to drop the headliner to remove the front runner rails. Not sure why a riv nut couldn't be put back once the old ones are removed. I'll post more updates as the repairs progress.

 

Yeah that’s crazy. Mine hasn’t given me a warranty answer yet either. Calling tomorrow because they gave me my vehicle back until they get a decision.

Curious on the differences of “knowledge” from the dealers. Mine mentioned there weren’t rivnuts and that it was a “directly in the frame” thing hence the complexity and a mandatory headliner drop. If there were rivnuts - it sounds like it’d almost be simpler.

 

Seems like they were riv nuts to me. I've stripped plenty of bolts in my kart racing days and almost always the bolt will come out. Going back in requires an impact . One of the two bolts on mine was very loose and could be spun by hand. If it were stripped threads, the bolts wouldn't spin freely.