IRON COMPANY BodyCraft Power Cage

I bought this Bodycraft power rack over a year ago. It's the "core piece" of my evolving home gym. It arrived by semi-truck. The driver was able to back into my driveway and was kind enough to unload it into my garage next to the back entry way. Good delivery service! You have to be there to sign for the delivery. This is a heavy rack, about 280 lbs. The parts are high quality, the paint looked good and the assembly instructions were fairly straight foward. With this product and other pieces of gym equipment - if you are accumulating your own "home gym"- a set of wrenches and sockets - metric and standard, a rubber mallet or rubber dead blow hammer, and a cordless impact wrench can really speed up assembly. It took about an hour to unpack, unwrap, and assemble this rack. Every piece was wrapped in plastic! it took almost as long to unpack as to assemble. That's ok, none of the parts had any scratches or dings. The parts were perfect. You will need a helper to assemble this rack. Some of the pieces need to be lifted over head and are large and awkward. Be sure to install the adjustable bar hooks (the two pieces the weight lifting bar hangs from) before installing the top. If you forget, you'll have to take the top off (with a helper) and slide the bar hooks over the columns, then replace the top. This is the only disadvantage that this rack has. You have to decide where you want to place the bar hooks and in which direction you want them facing, before installing the top of the rack. I recognized this problem before ordering this rack and came up with an easy solution - you order an extra set of the adjustable bar hooks. That way you can mount a set inside the rack on the far upright columns for squats or bench presses, and you can have the second set mounted on the columns nearest to you pointing outward for doing military presses outside the rack, or other exercises that you prefer to do outside the rack. It costs a little bit more money for the extra bar hooks, but gives you much greater versatility. I'm glad I ordered the extra adjustable hooks.Pluses: Friendly, convenient delivery (you must be there to sign!). High quality parts that are heavy duty. This is a heavy piece of equipment. Not rickety. Nice paint, no scratches or dings. You can order extra adjustable bar hooks for it (highly recommended) as well as dip bars (I bought those as well and they work well when used inside the rack. If you use them outside the rack the rack may rock a little unless you bolt it to the floor). A lat pull down attachment and weight stack are also available, although very pricey. This rack has good interior dimensions. It is slightly narrower side to side, and much deeper front to back, than many power racks found at commercial gyms. This is the way a rack should be built, especially for squatting. This way, when you back out with a weight on your shoulders you don't bang the sides of the 45 lbs plates on the sides of the upright columns. You also have more room to back out once you unrack the weight. Thus more room inside the rack to get yourself set up before starting the squat. All power racks should have these types of dimensions.Negatives: You will need a helper to assemble this rack. Sockets, wrenches, rubber dead blow hammer, will speed up assembly. A cordless impact driver will make the job even faster. You need to think about which columns you want to slide the bar hooks over before assembling the top. You must remove the top of the rack if you want to move the bar hooks to the other two upright columns. I recommend spending the extra money and buying 2 additional bar hooks for complete versatility. The Bodycraft logo is covered with a piece of cellophane tape that will peel off. That is there to protect the logo, just like the BODY SOLID brand. HMMM.... I think both these brands come out of the same factory; they both have the same way of protecting their logo, and the paint and upholstery seem the same.Conclusion: I would buy this rack again without hesitation. It is solid (not a rickety death trap) has high quality components, and a high quality finish. It should last a home owner for decades. I think it works better and has better ergonomics (slightly narrower and deeper)than power racks found at many commercial gyms. This is especially beneficial for squatting. It's also not super tall, about 81" so it should fit in most homes and basements that have 7 foot ceilings. With an extra set of adjustable bar hooks you can work inside the rack or outside it.

The core of my home gym. The safety bars are solid and easy to manipulate. The cage has a rear cross-bar for counter-balance though I plan to bolt it to my platform if the day comes when I decide it is where I want it (I keep experimenting with different placements on my plywood platform to figure out how to make best use of my limited space and still work out side of the cage, i.e. overhead presses, power cleans) Speaking of moving it around, I have been able to do so by myself with no difficulty. Nice!My favorite thing about this cage is the pin system. Makes moving the safety bars and j-hooks a breeze. The holes are adequately spaced for my needs. There are no numbers on the holes as others have indicated, but this has not proven to be a problem for me at all. Chin-up bar is great.What I did not like... Putting the thing together was an absolute nightmare for me. I did it by myself which added to the stress, but come on really? When you are dropping this much money it should not be this hard. You are given what is little more than an exploded diagram and a thank you for choosing Bodycraft. For the price, a DVD on assembly alone could have been included. Certainly more of a manual could have been written than some diagram. What's more I ended up getting an updated version of the cage so the instructions were not totally spot on. And for $800 they need to be. But I got it done and so will you, but be prepared and get a buddy to help you.The j-hooks. I prefer for them to be more flat to the cage. The j hooks the way that they are designed have plastic molding that jut out a bit and could make racking the barbell from a heavy squat or bench press an issue. The j-hooks on the outside of the cage have the push-pins right on top so I have to be careful when re-racking after a overhead press as to guide the barbell into the hook as opposed to walking forward to the cage and quickly lowering the barbell (which can be the case on the last rep if you are winded); all of this can be worked around though using good form and common sense, just got to be careful.The cage I got did not require an extra set of j-hooks for outside-the-cage work, like overhead presses FYI. It must have been an updated version because it has them on the outside on the ends on the safety barUPDATE: 10/23/13; After steady use I can still vouch for the cage doing all that I wanted it to do. One thing, the padding on one of the J-hooks is starting to fall off which surprised me as I am the only one to use it. Minor issue at best. The issue I was having with the j-hooks on the outside of the cage was resolved by me taking the top of the cage off and turning it the other way. I am very pleased with this purchase overall and would think it would make a fine addition to one's home gym