CaliRaisedLed Products Review

Cali Raised LED is one of several available retailers and manufacturers of off-road, dare we say overland, and Toyota products as well as many others. Options from various LED lighting systems, to roof racks and other accessories. Within the community reviews very from great to absolutely terrible, but as stated in a previous post of mine, we all tend to have varying experiences with products and companies. My experience covers both great and sub-par.

In an attempt to keep things honest, clear and unbiased, I will start with the CaliRaised LED 43" dual function amber/white single row lightbar, which has been fantastic and works without issue. As I progressed with this build, I knew night driving on a trail was going to be at some point, inevitable. At the same time, I did my best to keep things within a set budget while avoiding too many Amazon or eBay products, although those that I have used have been great and I will have reviews on those later. However, when it came to a primary off-road lighting system, I found myself looking at the heavily popular names such as Diode Dynamics, Baja Design, Rigid as well as several others. Problem came with price tag and knowing that I would be avoiding situations that would have me driving a trail at night. So I needed something more effective on the cost-to-use spectrum without subjecting myself to junk. This is when I stumbled upon CaliRaised LED. Reading reviews gave me a sense of money being well spent, with 99% of the reviews I had come across being very positive and only a couple with small problems that seemed to have been remedied quickly via CaliRaised LED. So the decision was made, and upon receiving the light bar, I quickly noticed the weight associated with it that no one hand mentioned. While not super heavy, it has a weight to it that simply cannot be found with other "entry/budget" level lighting. Its solid, the lenses don't flex when cleaning, and after several months of sun, rain, wind, snow and every other element that can be thrown at it, the lenses are still crystal clear with no signs of condensation or discoloration. Light output from both the amber and white is significant and has proven to be very applicable without hesitation on night or lowlight trail runs, even in adverse weather.

And now we come to the portion of this that I would rather not do, the CaliRaised LED roof rack. The sub-$1k rack is sleek, no drill, has 9 aluminum extrusion crossbars and adds a modest 5" to the top of the 5th Gen 4Runner platform. Touted to have a weight capacity of 1000lbs, far exceeding any vehicle roof load rating, I have been nothing but disappointed with this rack, and the lack of follow through with CaliRaised LED concern for the not so minor issue I had. One would assume that with a substantial claim to fame weight rating, a 130lbs Ironman4x4America Classic roof top tent would be of no concern to the rack. However, after completing 2 or 3 trails with the brand new roof rack and RTT, driven very slowly and gentle as I always do, I ran into an issue..and it was not a small problem.

Before completing the last trail, I had developed a very loud squeak that was present on any bumps that pushed that roof load in a lateral direction. Several peeks underneath the truck revealed nothing, tire carrier was solid, and all initial on-trail visual inspections yielded no signs of issues. It was not until another 80 miles when I returned home and gave the truck my religious post-run inspection that I found the problem. Both of the front roof rack brackets had broken in the same exact spot. Now, being that this rack was not only still brand new and less than 3 months old and less than 1 month with the RTT on it, its safe to say that I was less than pleased and felt as if I had wasted almost $1k on the exact type of products I was trying to avoid, JUNK. However, as irritated as I was, I sent a very professional-toned and concerned email to the CaliRaised LED team. At this point I had figured I would get nothing more than a few back and forth emails and some empty apologies, but I did receive a tad more than I had expected...before being let down again in the long run. While I do not recall who called me, the level of concern and action was apparent and surprising when I received a phone call and not some generic email. This was a very pleasing feeling, and while on the phone with the gentleman at CaliRaised LED, it was made clear to me that it would be made right via a set of replacement brackets, a hat and a shirt. However, it was also stated, and I will tread on this lightly as I do not have proof via email as I was also promised to received, that the lead engineer would make some stronger brackets specifically for me as this was a fluke and isolated incident. And after doing some digging, I had found zero complaints regarding any similar situations with this rack. I sent CaliRaised LED the picture above September 27th of 2022. At the time of writing this, its now February of 2023 and all I received was a shirt, a hat, and a set of the same exact brackets that had previously broken..no follow up, no emails, no phone calls and no replies to the emails I had sent 8 weeks after my phone conversation.

However, I still have the rack on the 4Runner, and I am sure many would wonder why I would leave it on being that it risked not only damaging my 4Runner, but the potential for an accident had it completely come off on a public roadway. Well, I know how to weld good enough that I was not only able to repair and reinforce the broken steel brackets, but I also now had an extra set. So I did the unthinkable and drilled holes in my 5th Generation 4Runner, which within the community is apparently pure blasphemy. I used the additional set of brackets that were sent to me, drilled 4 holes in alignment to the already in-place front and rear brackets, and added the additional 2, center to the existing 4 brackets. A couple of threaded rivets and some silicone later, my CaliRaised LED Economy rack now has 6 mounting points instead of the original 4 that allowed lateral flex in between the original mounting locations...thin aluminum side panels and an engineering oversight had been remedied. I have now completed several trails with my RTT and two small boxes with tools and have had no issues to speak of. Before adding the brackets, I did some digging on various 4Runner based roof racks and noticed another issue. The CaliRaised LED roof rack brackets are attached to the extrusion crossbars, while 99% of other racks have the brackets attached to their side-panels. While this may account for some of the design flaw, I think adding the brackets center to the existing mounting points has not only solved the issue, I wouldn't hesitate putting a heavier RTT on the rig now.

Now for full disclosure, the replacement brackets were sent to me at no charge, as well as the hat and shirt, which I do wear on occasion. Up until this review, no one except myself and CaliRaised LED was aware of this issue as I aimed to not only give them a chance, but remain neutral and understanding that defects do occur. I am in no way defacing CaliRaised LED or their products, just disappointed that I had to resort to my own remedies to prevent a repeat of the problem after I had been promised a one off product to solve these issues which I had looked forward to working them on to ensure it happened to no one else. And with that said, I have purchased a couple of small products from CaliRaised LED since this problem occurred, however, they are non-load bearing items that will cause no harm if defective. I will continue to recommend them, however, I do not advise using a RTT that is in excess of 100lbs on their roof racks.