ABOUT US

Hey, we’re Sherpa Equipment Co. formally known as Rocky Mountain Racks and we couldn’t be more excited to be a part of what IDPOR is doing.

From day one our business has been about giving back to the off-road community and we are excited to have a platform to share and hear ideas with/from everyone. We started our business in college and some of us still spend most of our time there. We are a team of adventure seeking, Toyota loving, videographers. On our travels, we needed a rack that would live up to the workload of our adventure video production. Our limited college budget forced us to put our marketing and design backgrounds to work, dreaming up our own product.

Constantly on the move, we needed a system that was adaptable and lightweight. We believe in producing our racks in a low cost manner that does not sacrifice build quality, because we know you need it too. Our location in Fort Collins, CO has given us a backyard (The Rockies) for intense testing and that’s usually where you can find us on the weekends.

We would like to go ahead and say that if you ever have comments or concerns about our product we welcome an open dialog. We believe that learning from mistakes is the fastest way to the best product.

Website: www.SherpaEquipmentCo.com Instagram: @SherpEC Facebook: /SherpaEC

Vehicles we support:

(1996-2002 Toyota 4Runner)
THE MATTERHORN (full-length)
THE ANTERO (half-rack)

(2003-2009 Toyota 4Runner)
THE PRINCETON (full-length)

(2005-2019 Toyota Tacoma Double Cab)
THE GRAND TETON (full-length)

(2003-2009 Lexus GX470)
THE QUANDARY (full-length)

Platforms in Production:
(2000-2007 Toyota Sequoia) status: 80%
(2005-2015 Toyota Tacoma Topper Rack) status: 60%
(2009-Current Toyota 4Runner) status: Initial Measurements

Welcome aboard. Stickied this so it will always be up at the top of your section.

Awesome! Glad to have you guys here sharing your products! You may even be able to convince me to actually end up with a roof rack one of these days. As you all may know I have always said "I don't need a roof rack for the stuff I do". I'm quickly finding out how hard it is to not have the additional storage space of a roof rack. Your products are tempting me to change my stubborn ways haha

AssBurns said:

Awesome! Glad to have you guys here sharing your products! You may even be able to convince me to actually end up with a roof rack one of these days. As you all may know I have always said "I don't need a roof rack for the stuff I do". I'm quickly finding out how hard it is to not have the additional storage space of a roof rack. Your products are tempting me to change my stubborn ways haha

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I think my next purchase is going to be some weather proof cases for spare parts and tools to mount on the rack. CV Axles take up a lot of space and eventually I'm adding a 3rd member and drive shaft to the collection of tie rods, drive belts, and cv axles. Rather have that stuff mounted up top than inside.

AssBurns said:

Awesome! Glad to have you guys here sharing your products! You may even be able to convince me to actually end up with a roof rack one of these days. As you all may know I have always said "I don't need a roof rack for the stuff I do". I'm quickly finding out how hard it is to not have the additional storage space of a roof rack. Your products are tempting me to change my stubborn ways haha

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We were the same way, it seems that all the crap we accumulate for this lifestyle slowly makes its way to the roof. It's what all the cool kids are doing.

Have you guys run into any copywrite or design issues with Prinsu yet?

4runner DOA said:

Have you guys run into any copywrite or design issues with Prinsu yet?

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We haven't for a couple of reasons. The first is that there really isn't anything patent-able/trademark-able about Prinsu's design aside from maybe the shape of their fairing or their logo itself. The second being that we have made it a priority to improve upon the platform Prinsu started for the off-road community and we have made numerous changes to our product. The only things that are similarities between our two products are the crossbars we use and the fact that they have a contoured aluminum side plate.

We get this question from people from time to time and we like to give our honest opinion on the matter. Prinsu builds a great product and it's no surprise that everyone has jumped on board. Even companies like KC Hilites have built upon what Prinsu started. It is what happens in every area of the off-road industry. Most sliders, bumpers, drawer systems, skids, and tires all look the same. What makes each company unique from the next is how they put their spin on the little things, the materials they use, or a bend that is slightly different. The important thing is to note that these companies are moving the progress bar forward and that's what we truly believe we are doing at RMR.

With that being said... It may be a good time to touch on these improvements we have made.

To start with the side plate, we use a thicker (1/4") and stronger (6061) grade of aluminum. We are able to do this because we have separated our mounting solution from the side plate. What this allows us to do is get our side plate as close as possible (without risk of vehicle damage) to the roof lines of the vehicle. With all that extra real estate we are able to integrate things like handles and tie downs.

As mentioned above, our mounting feet are a bit different. We use 1/4" aluminum to form our brackets independently from the side plate. We have also taken a few notes from Toyota and decided to work with rubber to form our mounting seal so that our customers aren't having to pile on globs of silicone.

Rocky Mountain Racks said:

We haven't for a couple of reasons. The first is that there really isn't anything patent-able/trademark-able about Prinsu's design aside from maybe the shape of their fairing or their logo itself. The second being that we have made it a priority to improve upon the platform Prinsu started for the off-road community and we have made numerous changes to our product. The only things that are the similar between our two products are the crossbars we use and the fact that they have a contoured aluminum side plate.

We get this question from people from time to time and we like to give our honest opinion on the matter. Prinsu builds a great product and it's no surprise that everyone has jumped on board. Even companies like KC Hilites have built upon what Prinsu started. It is what happens in every area of the off-road industry. Most sliders, bumpers, drawer systems, skids, and tires all look the same. What makes each company unique from the next is how they put their spin on the little things, the materials they use, or a bend that is slightly different. The important thing is to note that these companies are moving the progress bar forward and that's what we truly believe we are doing at RMR.

With that being said... It may be a good time to touch on these improvements we have made.

To start with the side plate, we use a thicker (1/4") and stronger (6061) grade of aluminum. We are able to do this because we have separated our mounting solution from the side plate. What this allows us to do is get our sideplate as close as possible (without risk of vehicle damage) to the roof lines of the vehicle. With all that extra real estate we are able to integrate things like handles and tie downs.

As mentioned above, our mounting feet a bit different. We use 1/4" aluminum to form our brackets independently from the side plate. We have also taken a few notes from Toyota, and decided to work with rubber to form our mounting seal so that our customers are having to pile on globs of silicone.

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Yeah I'm not knocking your design, was just curious about it. I'm sure you've heard about or are aware of the Gobi vs Whitman rack fiasco, didn't know if you were guys were concerned about running into that issue with CBI. There weren't a lot of options when I bought my Prinsu and I probably got one of the last racks from Prinsu before they moved to CBI.

4runner DOA said:

Yeah I'm not knocking your design, was just curious about it. I'm sure you've heard about or are aware of the Gobi vs Whitman rack fiasco, didn't know if you were guys were concerned about running into that issue with CBI. There weren't a lot of options when I bought my Prinsu and I probably got one of the last racks from Prinsu before they moved to CBI.

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Yeah I didn't mean to unload all of that on you just figured it was good to get it all out there. Yeah, coming from the 3rd gen community we were pretty worried about a "Gobi Incident". But after looking a little further into what happened we see why Gobi made the move they did. CBI has done a pretty awesome job of exploding Prinsu and we are super happy for them.

But do you make one for Isuzu rodeos?

because I'm not hugely keen on making one even though I know I'm gonna have to.

How the wind noise ? This rack I have is wicked on wind noise