We’re back on the GX470 build and, of course, it’s like 15° out at my parents’ place with wind ripping across the field—so yeah, not exactly “fun garage day” vibes. But I’ve got a deadline. This GX has to be adventure-ready by the end of April, and a big part of that is getting the roof rack squared away so I can actually mount my tent and gear. The truck came with a Bison Gear rack already on it, but it was missing crossbars and even a couple mounting points to the body, so I reached out and ended up paying about $350 for “replacement” parts. That’s where things went sideways. The mounts they sent were basically 3D printed plastic and didn’t fit, so I had to cut them down just to bolt them up. Then the crossbars showed up and the bolt holes didn’t line up—so I drilled out a bunch of holes just to make “factory” parts work with their own rack. After about seven hours of fighting it, I got the crossbars installed and it’ll hold my tent, but I’m calling it like I see it: if you’re paying around $1,000 for a roof rack, you shouldn’t be drilling and trimming parts to make it fit. Lesson learned… and yeah, I should’ve listened to my wife and just bought the rack I knew was 100% good.