Customer Reviews

BodyCraft F430 Power Rack

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I ordered the BodyCraft F430 rack after looking and researching several other models including the Body Solid
Power rack, and the Power Tec rack. The F430 uses Pop pins so it's very easy to adjust your safeties and your
J hooks up and down.

Many power racks require that you remove a safety pin and then twist and pullout the saftey and then repeat
for the J hooks. Others have a Steel Rod that goes all the way through the holes like a sword called a Sabre
style. If you just Bench Press and do Squats it's no big deal but if you use it for other exercises and change
the positions a lot then the Pop pins make sense. My wife is the primary user of this rack and she likes the
ease of use of the pop pins over the other methods.

he F430 was the only rack to have pop pins. The Power Tec rack was too tall for our basement and it did not
have a straight chin up bar. The Body Solid was really good as well but it didn't have the pop pins.

I ordered the BodyCraft F430 Rack from Amazon.com the price was a bit higher than it's competitors, however
we are very happy with the rack. The F430 arrived about a week later via freight truck. The box was damaged on
the outside and had a few holes in it. Inside it was packed extremely well and nothing was damaged in any way.
I assembled this myself in 3 hours taking my time. I do not reccomend that you do this unless you've assembled
a lot of things by yourself. Keep in mind that most of this goes together very easily and it only has 2 sizes
of nuts and bolts, 3/4" Hex and 9/16" Hex.

The biggest issue is when you assemble it if you do not have lot of height you will have to put the safeties
and J hooks onto the supports before you attach them to the base. Also after that is done, you assemble the
top pieces and then raise it up and bolt it to the top of the supports. Putting that piece into position by
yourself is difficult because it's about 4 feet by 4 feet, fairly heavy and cumbersome. So doing it yourself
you have to balance it and then slide the bolts in. For 2 people it would be easy and only take a couple of
minutes.

There is a manual of sorts but honestly it's not all that helpful. There is an exploded diagram which is more
useful, however it will show washers where it doesn't use any. When you assemble this be sure to only finger
tighten everything initially. Yes it will wobble like Jell-O but everything goes together much more easily.
Tighten all the bolts later from the bottom to the top. This is a pretty easy rack for 2 people to assemble.

Once it's all assembled it's very easy to use. Just pull the pins and slide the safeties and hooks up and
down. The F430 is very well made. Everything fits just like you'd expect it to. I ordered and extra set of J
hooks because once they are on you can't put them front to back or on other supports. This can be a deal
breaker for many people, so if you really need to move your J hooks to the front or back you will either buy
another set or get a different rack.

The safeties have holes in the to attach Dip handles which are an option. I bought these. You have to figure
out when you assemble the rack how you want the dip handles to go. I have them facing into the cage on one
safety and on the outside on the other safety. This allows you to dips either way. While the safeties look
like the handles will fit on either way, they won't. So check the alignment before you assemble everything
and be sure you're happy with it. The dip handles can also be used for push ups as well. If you do your dips
on the outside you might notice a little wobble on the opposite side of the rack. It's no big deal but
inside the rack you have a lot more stability and no wobble.

The F430 is built like a tank, easy to adjust and is well built and very solid. You will not need to buy
another power rack. This one has a lifetime warranty and I can believe it will last that long. My wife loves
using it.

I really can't think of any negatives except that you can't use a 6 foot bar with it. But I knew that before
I bought it and we have a 7 foot olympic bar.

The best power rack for the money.

+ It has a strait pull up bar which is far more useful than those annoying curved bars as you can
hang olympic Rings or Blast Straps on them.

+ The rack has lots of space and has the feel of commercial rack.

+ Shipping is free

+ The height is short which is nice for home gyms

+ It is pretty tough power rack and can handle more weight than other power racks in its price range.

- The rack will not fit standard power rack accessories ie: 3x3 or 2x2 J Hooks/Dip attachments

Consequently buy the dip bars when you buy the rack in case the company stops making the model.

I bought this Bodycraft power rack over a year ago. It's the "core piece" of my evolving home gym. It arrived by semi-truck. The driver was able to back into my driveway and was kind enough to unload it into my garage next to the back entry way. Good delivery service! You have to be there to sign for the delivery. This is a heavy rack, about 280 lbs. The parts are high quality, the paint looked good and the assembly instructions were fairly straight foward. With this product and other pieces of gym equipment - if you are accumulating your own "home gym"- a set of wrenches and sockets - metric and standard, a rubber mallet or rubber dead blow hammer, and a cordless impact wrench can really speed up assembly. It took about an hour to unpack, unwrap, and assemble this rack. Every piece was wrapped in plastic! it took almost as long to unpack as to assemble. That's ok, none of the parts had any scratches or dings. The parts were perfect. You will need a helper to assemble this rack. Some of the pieces need to be lifted over head and are large and awkward. Be sure to install the adjustable bar hooks (the two pieces the weight lifting bar hangs from) before installing the top. If you forget, you'll have to take the top off (with a helper) and slide the bar hooks over the columns, then replace the top.
This is the only disadvantage that this rack has. You have to decide where you want to place the bar hooks and in which direction you want them facing, before installing the top of the rack. I recognized this problem before ordering this rack and came up with an easy solution - you order an extra set of the adjustable bar hooks. That way you can mount a set inside the rack on the far upright columns for squats or bench presses, and you can have the second set mounted on the columns nearest to you pointing outward for doing military presses outside the rack, or other exercises that you prefer to do outside the rack. It costs a little bit more money for the extra bar hooks, but gives you much greater versatility. I'm glad I ordered the extra adjustable hooks.

Pluses: Friendly, convenient delivery (you must be there to sign!). High quality parts that are heavy duty. This is a heavy piece of equipment. Not rickety. Nice paint, no scratches or dings. You can order extra adjustable bar hooks for it (highly recommended) as well as dip bars (I bought those as well and they work well when used inside the rack. If you use them outside the rack the rack may rock a little unless you bolt it to the floor). A lat pull down attachment and weight stack are also available, although very pricey. This rack has good interior dimensions. It is slightly narrower side to side, and much deeper front to back, than many power racks found at commercial gyms. This is the way a rack should be built, especially for squatting. This way, when you back out with a weight on your shoulders you don't bang the sides of the 45 lbs plates on the sides of the upright columns. You also have more room to back out once you unrack the weight. Thus more room inside the rack to get yourself set up before starting the squat. All power racks should have these types of dimensions.

Negatives: You will need a helper to assemble this rack. Sockets, wrenches, rubber dead blow hammer, will speed up assembly. A cordless impact driver will make the job even faster. You need to think about which columns you want to slide the bar hooks over before assembling the top. You must remove the top of the rack if you want to move the bar hooks to the other two upright columns. I recommend spending the extra money and buying 2 additional bar hooks for complete versatility. The Bodycraft logo is covered with a piece of cellophane tape that will peel off. That is there to protect the logo, just like the BODY SOLID brand. HMMM.... I think both these brands come out of the same factory; they both have the same way of protecting their logo, and the paint and upholstery seem the same.

Conclusion: I would buy this rack again without hesitation. It is solid (not a rickety death trap) has high quality components, and a high quality finish. It should last a home owner for decades. I think it works better and has better ergonomics (slightly narrower and deeper)than power racks found at many commercial gyms. This is especially beneficial for squatting. It's also not super tall, about 81" so it should fit in most homes and basements that have 7 foot ceilings. With an extra set of adjustable bar hooks you can work inside the rack or outside it.

Everybody else said it well in their reviews. There are similar cages that are $200 cheaper but this one is well-engineered, expandable, compact (low ceiling clearance), built like a tank (in china, unfortunately but it is high quality except for a couple plastic pieces). Quick disconnect helps you set up exercises quickly. Lift heavy without a partner! It can wobble a little bit but I trust it--built like a tank. Expandable lat/row is great, buying the cable crossover next. High end home gym/low end commercial. I don't believe there is anything better in this price range.

As a sophomore college student, I found my classes to be tougher than my 1st year so I did not have much time to go to the school gym since most of my time was dedicated to studying. So I wanted to work out at home instead of commuting to the gym.

I've looked at a few other power racks which seemed rather pricey under my budget
There was another rack going at about 400$ on amazon but the picture did not appear as sturdy as this rack f430

The Rack arrived today and took my girl friend and I roughly 3 hours to assemble it
I do not recommend putting this together alone, you'll need someone to hold the parts in place while the other screws it into place


Surprising the rack is a bit wobbly if you move but I am sure it will hold since this product comes with a life time warranty :)

I also purchased an extra pair of J hooks and the hip attachment.


An awesome rack if you are not looking to spend too much or too little.

This thing is sturdy and made with very thick high quality steel, the only thing i didn't like about it was its short height which makes doing pull ups pretty difficult for me but that issue might be great for some people with limited height requirements, and the fact the holes weren't numbered but that's a minor inconvenience. I was also missing some "washers" in the packaging which annoyed me but you can grab some of those from any hardware store. Other than that this thing is a beast and i definitively recommend it to anyone looking for a power rack.