Rally Innovations
Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 12:27 pm
Rally Innovations... a company in Anaheim, Orange County, CA.
I turned toward them when it came time to outfit my new Forester with a lightbar
I had only ever seen their products on the website, and had never seen them mounted on a vehicle. From the website, the products seemed high quality, and the price for my chosen lightbar (the only one available for the MY09-10 Forester) was relatively inexpensive at $259.99 for standard black powder coat finish.
The product features the following, according to their site:
* • Compliments contour of the bumper
* • Powder coated finish protects against rust
* • Simple bolt-on to factory bumper beam
* • No cutting required to bumper cover
* • Fits most driving lights, sold separately
* • 2 week lead time from order date
My experience went as such:
- Called to confirm fitment for a MY10 Forester, as the site only lists for MY09. They informed me they merely hadn't had a MY10 to test.
- Placed order online and elected to have it shipped to me for $40, instead of driving almost 1.5 hours to Anaheim from SD.
- Got hit with CA sales tax due to in-state sale...
-sadface-
- Waited almost 4 weeks before the products arrived. I don't remember the time period exactly, but it was way longer than just the two week lead time stated.
- Product arrived quality seemed high, initial reaction was "pleased!"
Here's where it gets complicated. Upon installation (with extensive instructions, which were extremely helpful), I removed the entire front fascia as directed. Mounted two stabilizing poles using the existing bolts for the frame behind the bumper. Repositioned all removed components. Mounted the lower support bar underneath the vehicle, also on the frame. At this point, I found that this support bar was too long on one side. It collided with the tie-down hook on the right side. Luckily, I was at my shop, so I used a high speed grinder to polish off a large chunk, and allow fitment without flexing of this entire support bar. Inconvenient, but not totally unreasonable, I suppose.
Next came mounting up the visible, 1.5" portion of the bar (hereafter referred to as the rallybar), onto which would be mounted the rally lights. More problems arose at this point. On the underside, it mounted easily enough, but when it came time to attach the rallybar to the support bars that protrude out the grill from the frame, fitment was a major issue. The rally bar was constructed in such a way that its tabs to attach to the support bars were at an angle that prohibited flush fitment with the support bars. Essentially: I had to bend the support bars down, and the whole rally bar was now at an angle. With no lights on it, it made no difference, but...
It was time for lights. Long story short, I bought the biggest
-ing lights I could find. 
Maybe I was overcompensating for my soccermom car, but so be it. On the rallybar, there were two existing mounting tabs to the outside of the support bars, positioned for mounting lights on the underside of the rallybar. Into those I put the smaller, Black Magic Hellas. The larger Rally4000's, I mounted into the hole that is used to attach the rallybar and the support bars. I'll spare you my hours of hacking and bending and fighting and say this: because the rallybar was at an angle due to improper/stressed alignment with the support bars, all four of my lights are aimed almost directly at the ground. I tried on two different days to come up with solutions, including buying $50 in supplementary mounting brackets. I spent time on three different days messing with this time, and could come up with no good solution. I gave up, and left them on as decorative fittings.
Many weeks later, in preparation for an offroad run with a local group, I hastily wired up the larger Hellas. I had't tested them out at night before arriving for the run, but I found out that not only were they indeed aimed almost directly at the ground, but that the entire rallybar vibrates so excessively that the light beam wobbles around like the lights are falling off.
My total level of satisfaction with this lightbar had fallen increasingly as time went on. I have not taken up any of my dissatisfaction with Rally Innovations, so they have not had the chance to address any of my issues. It is of note, when I called to confirm fitment for my vehicle, they offered to do a trial fitting session before purchase. I declined, because I didn't want to pay for the gas to drive the 192 mile round-trip, and then only have to pay again to have the bar shipped. I will probably email them a copy of this posting at some point, so at least they're aware of the issues I ran into.
At least it -looks- good!
I turned toward them when it came time to outfit my new Forester with a lightbar
I had only ever seen their products on the website, and had never seen them mounted on a vehicle. From the website, the products seemed high quality, and the price for my chosen lightbar (the only one available for the MY09-10 Forester) was relatively inexpensive at $259.99 for standard black powder coat finish. The product features the following, according to their site:
* • Compliments contour of the bumper
* • Powder coated finish protects against rust
* • Simple bolt-on to factory bumper beam
* • No cutting required to bumper cover
* • Fits most driving lights, sold separately
* • 2 week lead time from order date
My experience went as such:
- Called to confirm fitment for a MY10 Forester, as the site only lists for MY09. They informed me they merely hadn't had a MY10 to test.
- Placed order online and elected to have it shipped to me for $40, instead of driving almost 1.5 hours to Anaheim from SD.
- Got hit with CA sales tax due to in-state sale...
-sadface-- Waited almost 4 weeks before the products arrived. I don't remember the time period exactly, but it was way longer than just the two week lead time stated.
- Product arrived quality seemed high, initial reaction was "pleased!"
Here's where it gets complicated. Upon installation (with extensive instructions, which were extremely helpful), I removed the entire front fascia as directed. Mounted two stabilizing poles using the existing bolts for the frame behind the bumper. Repositioned all removed components. Mounted the lower support bar underneath the vehicle, also on the frame. At this point, I found that this support bar was too long on one side. It collided with the tie-down hook on the right side. Luckily, I was at my shop, so I used a high speed grinder to polish off a large chunk, and allow fitment without flexing of this entire support bar. Inconvenient, but not totally unreasonable, I suppose.
Next came mounting up the visible, 1.5" portion of the bar (hereafter referred to as the rallybar), onto which would be mounted the rally lights. More problems arose at this point. On the underside, it mounted easily enough, but when it came time to attach the rallybar to the support bars that protrude out the grill from the frame, fitment was a major issue. The rally bar was constructed in such a way that its tabs to attach to the support bars were at an angle that prohibited flush fitment with the support bars. Essentially: I had to bend the support bars down, and the whole rally bar was now at an angle. With no lights on it, it made no difference, but...
It was time for lights. Long story short, I bought the biggest
-ing lights I could find. Maybe I was overcompensating for my soccermom car, but so be it. On the rallybar, there were two existing mounting tabs to the outside of the support bars, positioned for mounting lights on the underside of the rallybar. Into those I put the smaller, Black Magic Hellas. The larger Rally4000's, I mounted into the hole that is used to attach the rallybar and the support bars. I'll spare you my hours of hacking and bending and fighting and say this: because the rallybar was at an angle due to improper/stressed alignment with the support bars, all four of my lights are aimed almost directly at the ground. I tried on two different days to come up with solutions, including buying $50 in supplementary mounting brackets. I spent time on three different days messing with this time, and could come up with no good solution. I gave up, and left them on as decorative fittings.Many weeks later, in preparation for an offroad run with a local group, I hastily wired up the larger Hellas. I had't tested them out at night before arriving for the run, but I found out that not only were they indeed aimed almost directly at the ground, but that the entire rallybar vibrates so excessively that the light beam wobbles around like the lights are falling off.
My total level of satisfaction with this lightbar had fallen increasingly as time went on. I have not taken up any of my dissatisfaction with Rally Innovations, so they have not had the chance to address any of my issues. It is of note, when I called to confirm fitment for my vehicle, they offered to do a trial fitting session before purchase. I declined, because I didn't want to pay for the gas to drive the 192 mile round-trip, and then only have to pay again to have the bar shipped. I will probably email them a copy of this posting at some point, so at least they're aware of the issues I ran into.
At least it -looks- good!
I would definitely contact them. Everything that I have heard leads me to believe they are a reputable shop, so I think they would make things right. That's a hell of a drive, I can understand not wanting to do it.
