NHTSA Complaint #11489994 — 2017 NISSAN FRONTIER

The two square head carriage bolts that secure the roof clamp to the rack were poor quality. The heads sheared off which cause the roof rack to rip off from the top of the truck and fly into traffic on the freeway. The items being held by the rack did not exceed the 150 lb limit. When the rack broke free, the kayak and camping bags broke the rear window on my truck, hit my 2 dogs, and landed in the roadway causing cars to swerve to avoid collision. The damage to my truck alone is in excess of $1,000 not including the camping equipment and kayak that have to be replaced as they are irreparably damaged. If traffic were heavier, this incident could easily have caused a major collision as there was a large roof rack and equipment strewn about the freeway. I had to run onto the freeway to remove the items to not cause further collisions. I retained all the broken pieces of the rack and photographed the incident. I read multiple reviews on the website where I purchased the product and this appears to be a common problem. There were no indicators of failure prior to the rack breaking off from my truck and flying onto the roadway. The hardware used to secure the clamp to the crossbar is completely insufficient. There appeared to be no adhesion on the weld that held the head of the carriage bolt to the shaft. The galvanization appeared to be the only thing causing the bolt to stay in one piece prior to it bearing weight.