Customer Reviews

PowerLine PPR200X Power Rack

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I didn't get mine from Amazon (I ordered it from Jesup Gym), but I thought I'd review it here. This is a nice rack for us non-supermen that aren't moving stacks of 45's every day. I would have no fear putting 300 to 500 pounds on it, but if I were lifting much more than that, I'd probably shop for a stronger rack (maybe one day). Anyway, since there aren't really any instructions (just an exploded drawing) I'll offer my suggestions on assembly.

The way I assembled it was to put the bottom 3 pieces together first (put the feet and plastic parts on now), then add the rear uprights, then the top back piece, then a front upright and top side piece, repeat for other side, then chin bar. Snug the bolts at first, then tighten them all when it's all assembled. Get them good and tight but don't over tighten because the tubing will start to bend in with a lot of force. You'll need two 3/4" wrenches (a socket wrench and spanner work best). This worked well for me doing it by myself and took about 45 minutes including opening the boxes and laying out the parts.

This rack comes in 3 boxes and can be shipped via a regular carrier. This might be nice to know for those who don't live where a freight carrier can easily get to you. Anyway, this rack, a bench, and a 300 pound set can take you a long way. Add some dumbbells and you'll have a nice little home gym.

OVERVIEW

This cage is capable of handling serious work-outs. I'd feel comfortable using 300lbs of weight on it. I'm 6'1 and the proportions of the cage fit me just fine. It's sturdy & has a relatively small footprint. The best part of using a cage is that you can self-spot and, therefore, push yourself w/ less risk of injury.

If you add a 300lb weight set (Weider's rubber-coated is an incredible buy and will not rust), an adjustable bench (FID46 is good choice - sturdy & comes w/ leg extension, incline, decline) & dumbbells (adjustable take up less space, but Weider's rubber-coated plates can be used as makeshift dumbbells), you will have a very functional gym that goes beyond general fitness.

I looked at a couple of other cages, and BodySolid's Powerline is the best buy.

ASSEMBLY

The unit arrives in three large boxes. It's heavy (which is good) and surprisingly easy to assemble. All parts were included with my shipment and all parts fit as they should.

EXERCISES (after adding weights & a bench)

Everything you need to get in shape and build all parts of your body with the safety of self-spotting

CONS

No major complaint. The 2 lift-offs and 2 safety rods are painted. When slid through the cage holes, paint peels from them every time. Not a big deal, but they should've been left unpainted.

EXTRAS

10-year warranty, chin-up bar

The lat tower is an option, but I find chin-ups much more effective at building back muscle & symmetry. Plus I save money and space.

I'm 210lbs and this unit is able to support substantial weight on the lift-offs while I perform chin-ups. Though not professional-grade for power lifters who use over 400lbs, if you're still wondering if it's stable or sturdy enough for you to lift heavy weights, the answer is absolutely. I'm pleased with my purchase.

I didn't buy my PPR200x from amazon, I actually got it from sam's club, but I figure I might as well right a review here for everyone to read.

This rack comes in 3 boxes that are approx. 45-50lb each. Upon opening, the first thing I did was grab the single page manual and started organizing the parts. You're going to need two 3/4" wrenches. The instructions, like what many have already mentioned, is basically a blown up diagram of the rack itself, but it incredibly EASY to follow, im talking about IKEA level here. I built it myself and it took me roughly 50 mins. Would've been about half that time if I had help.

As far as stability, its very stable. I am 5'10 and weigh 180lbs and there is no shaking/wobbling of the rack while doing pullups. I have loaded 400lbs worth of plates on it already and this thing handles it all too easily. The max load capacity is marked at 600lbs, but we all know putting 601lb wont tear the thing down. In all honesty, I think this thing can easily handle 1100-1200lb of weight, but of course the manufacturers have to put a 'safe' number. Understandable.

However, I do have 2 complaints:

1.The paint chips off way too easily. After my first workout, all the paint from the hooks, and half the paint from the safeties have scrapped off already. Personally i dont care as I use this to train and not for show. But this may suck for those that worry about how their equipment looks. On the flip side, a tiny bottle of paint is included in the packaging for situations like this, but dont bother as you will run of out it quickly or you plan on painting over it after every workout. Some guy had but foam noodles in his safeties, thats a good idea.

2.The 3' hole spacing sucks. You're just going to have to get lucky when it comes to benching safety placement. A right bench height could save you the trouble, but for me, my bench was in a 'dead zone'. The only safety above my chest height was too high therefore I couldn't complete the whole bench press movement as the bar will hit the safety before the bar got to my shirt. This was solved by adding extra padding underneath my bench. Yes, it states the hole spacing prior to purchase, but you just have to get lucky with your weight bench height.

As you can see, these complaints are more of a personal thing, therefore it does not warrant a removal of a star. Overall, this is a very good beginner/intermediate rack. This rack, a 300 olympic set, and a solid heavy duty bench, will take you a LONG way.

A power rack allows a home user to safely go to failure on many exercises without a spotter. I look for the ability to walk in and complete exercises such as squats. You also have the option of stepping outside the rack and putting your catches outside rather than inside. I prefer inside as I feel safer failing and not having to move to drop the bar for the most part.

The rack is solid, once you have it built. There are plenty of adjustments available and looks like it would fit most people easily. I'm 5'3" and it is not too big for me. A 6'2" friend said it wasn't too small for him. It is a good size so make sure you have the room. I do not have high ceilings and had to watch the ceiling fan while building but now that it is in place there is no issue. My olympic bar fits beautifully and I am having fun trying exercises to failure that I couldn't do before I had the rack. This is my workout room so I'm not particularly concerned with everything matching and looking perfect. However, this unit does look good, a nice piece of equipment. It even comes with touch up paint.

I really like the rack and overall it has the quality I was looking for and is very functional.

What I didn't like:

No step by step instructions just a blow up of the unit and several bolts not exactly identified on the sheet. The bolts come in one bag with different sizes and some of them are only slightly different. No markings to differentiate them; they have a 'ruler' on the bottom. Gee thanks.

It was easier to line them up next to each other to see the size differences. I would say most people would find the lack of clear instructions and bolt sizes frustrating. However, I probably could have put it together myself but I don't recommend it. A friend who works in construction helped me put it together and having 2 people really helped. He could also see the final product so to speak where I was lost in the detail.

I wasn't going to take off a whole star but the more I thought about it, this is an important piece. The directions should be clear and user friendly. Bolts should have been clearly marked in some way. A link to instructions on the net would have been useful. Bolts could have been put in separate bags with a label if it wasn't cost effective to stamp them. As you can see, this annoyed me.

All in all the finished product is very good and I do recommend it.

I purchased this rack after reading _Body By Science_ by Doug McGuff. I also wanted to perform heavy lifts and negatives without a spotter after becoming familiar with Arthur DeVany and his Evolutionary Fitness. The rack allows me to meet and exceed my needs for function and safety lifting by myself. I am using it now primarily for bench press, lat pull downs (with the optional lat attachment and an old car seat belt to hold me down on the floor), and squats. The safety bars are set low enough for a fairly robust deadlift or row, but now I use a hampton hex bar for deadlifts.

Assembly was made much easier with a 19mm socket wrench attached to my impact driver. I also purchased the lat attachment which required a 17mm socket wrench. Having put my prior squat rack together without power tools I strongly recommend the socket wrench approach. The rack is sturdy and comes together easily. Anyone familiar with putting together a lego set will be able to do it (my 5 and 8 year olds helped "match" the various sizes of bolts).

After over 6 months and some drops onto the safety rails it is holding up very well mechanically. The paint does tend to come off, however. The small bottle of touch up paint that it comes with is laughable. As long as you don't mind vacuuming up paint chips every so often in the beginning it is no big deal.

Given what it cost me and what I've gotten out of it, I'd certainly purchase it again.

This power rack is absolutely amazing for the price. The build is secure, the size is more than adequate, and best of all it's easy to adjust with the many settings it allows. I'm a 6ft 4 260lb D1 athlete and this rack fulfills all my needs. However I will mention that the instructions are hard to figure out (there are 4 different types of screws so make sure you figure out which lengths go where), and the knurling on the pull-up bar is a little light (some people like it this way). But these things cannot reduce the high quality of this rack at such a low price.

Note: It has a 600lb capacity so it's more than adequate for most's needs.

I have had this for a while now along with the Body-Solid® Flat Bench (GFB350).

Take your time putting it together, don't over-tighten the bolts, and it will be solid as a rock.

It is about 6'10" tall.

I cut 2 foam noodles in half, and down their length. They fit over the saber-style spotter bars perfectly and keep the racket of clanging weights to a minimum.

I would also recommend adding olympic rings to the pull-up bar.

Assembly did not take very long however a few things you need to look out for. The four support beams are not the same, so make sure they are placed in the proper areas on the rack (two are for the front and the other two are for the back). Also the bolts that come with the rack are NOT the same length despite their appearance, make sure you look at the assembly instructions carefully to make sure you don't use the wrong ones. The ones I got were not labeled so you will have to use your best judgment to separate them out.

Also be sure that you have, at least a SEVEN foot barbell to use with this rack. Any less and the bar will not put your plates on properly because the collars will be inside the short supports (the portion that holds the bar up prior to exercise) rather than outside.

As for the rack itself, I work out in my basement and it has a very low ceiling (probably about 7 ft) and this rack still fits fine down there. It is very sturdy and I feel very comfortable working with heavy weights.

This rack is very very light duty. I assembled it easily (worth a star) but this thing needed to be bolted to the floor but there are no pre fabricated holes to do this with. The entire rack moves when you rack the weight which defeats the purpose of why you'd want one of these things in the first place. Using bolts from the hardware store I was able to bolt it down to a platform I made out of two ¾ in pieces of plywood. This prevents it from moving while racked but the thing still moves a bit at all the joints and I have all the bolts as tight as they can get without bending the frame of the rack (yes the metal is thin enough to bend while tightening the bolts). I'm going to have a welder come in to see if he can tack the joints together better but I'd pass on this power rack unless you are going to be dealing with weights under 100 pounds.

I bought this rack to try to save some money but I will most likely shell out real money for a nicer rack now anyway. I might be able to get by with this for a while after all of my modifications (bolting to platform and welding joints) but a power rack should be the center of your gym so skimp on something else and just buy a nicer rack.

When I got this thing in the mail, it came in 3 boxes. I opened it up and on one of the pieces said something like, "American designed, Very well made in China". Well, it wasn't kidding because it's quite stable and very well made.

So I was looking for the manual to assemble this thing and it just showed a picture of the completed machine and one other picture of what bolt goes where. Either way, this thing was easy to assemble as it was made up of like a dozen major pieces. Once assembled, I tightened all the screws and it was up.

Once this machine has a weight bar, a bench and some weights, you are in business!

This machine allows you to easily do various exercises. I personally enjoy doing my sitting military presses, sitting behind-the-neck presses, various bench pressing exercises and most importantly of all, squatting! Whenever you're done squatting, you just lean forward and let the bar hit those tall steel columns, then you just squat down and let the bar fall onto those little arms. Also, if you are tired and can't squat back up, just fall down and let the adjustable safety bars catch your bar.

The only negative thing about this thing is that this thing takes up quite of bit of room. I suggest putting in your garage or basement. Also, if you are going to use a lot of weight, I recommend you place it in a place that is on a solid foundation.

Very versatile. A must have!