Prototypes and Testing
We stand behind our product, and we don’t take this phrase lightly.
Taking VelociRAX from a prototype to a market-ready product has been a serious journey, and is an adventure that continues to this day. Let us walk you through the process!
Our friend @Tec_Gnar out for a cruise in his VelociRAX-equipped RZR (for reference, this is light-duty use compared to how hard we pushed the racks during testing)
Before the fabricating and the off-road testing, products are engineered and strength calculations are performed. If you’re designing a product that needs to withstand large forces, you have to do strength calculations and determine safety factors to guide you in what materials to produce your products with. We chose steel--not mild steel but high strength steel--in critical parts because it has a high strength to weight ratio, and because it is more durable than aluminum (which is important for fatigue life when you’re hauling lots of weight over bumpy terrain). Using the weight values of modern bikes, a knowledge of how we’d actually fabricate this rack, and an idea of how rowdy we like to get while off-roading, we were able to calculate the specifics for building a bombproof and functional rack.
Next came the hands-on fabrication. In 2018 we began prototyping and vehicle testing to make sure our calculations stood up in real world scenarios. With our first prototype racks in hand, we spent hours overloading it and seeking out the biggest dips and speed bumps on our city’s back roads. Bryce would stand on the corner with his slow motion camera and Blake would juice it around sharp turns and through the bumps with a fully loaded rack. The footage was a riot to watch! However we were hitting uncomfortably fast speeds and could not get the rack to fail. We honestly stopped because we felt bad for our vehicles.
We realized it was time to take our terrain to the next level.
In 2018 we took two rack-equipped trucks out to the desert: one rack loaded over the limit with bikes and the other empty. We told ourselves, “We are not gonna leave this desert until we have broken this rack.” The second truck was there to carry the bikes back home after the first rack was destroyed.
We spent all day flying through desert washes, crawling through off-road trails, and got to the point of actually taking our truck airborne.
In the end, we were never able to produce any catastrophic failures, despite sending it when load to 150% of our listed 230lbs capacity. We did, however, find numerous small adjustments to make to our design along the way that have helped make VelociRAX an industry leader in both durability and functionality.
We stand behind our racks and know that they will stand behind you. If there are ever failures please hit us up! We want to hear the crazy story while getting you fixed up and rolling again.
