BodyCraft F430 Power Rack
- Rugged 11 gauge, 2″ X 3″ Steel Tubing
- Easy Spring Pin Adjustments on Safety Spotters and Bar Catches
- Chin Up Bar
- Lifetime warranty
Built for people who know how to push their bodies to the limit, the BodyCraft F430 power rack delivers a powerful workout performance. By itself, the F430 is ideal for squats, lunges, and other leg exercises, with a pair of adjustable spotter arms and bar catches making solo workouts safe and efficient. However, you can also combine the power rack with a host of other BodyCraft strength-training attachments, including a lat/low row station, a cable crossover attachment, dip handles, and a flat/incline/decline bench.
Add it all up and you have everything you need to get fit and build strength in the comfort of your own home. Other details include a chin-up bar, 12-gauge steel tubing, triangular gussets in the corners for extreme rigidity, durable rubber on the safety bars and bar hooks to prevent scratching, 0.75-inch hardened steel bolts at all connection points, and a capacity of up to 800 pounds. The F430 carries a lifetime warranty.
Reviews of BodyCraft F430 Power Rack
Review 1: Built like a Tank and Easy to Use
I ordered the BodyCraft F430 rack after looking and researching several other models including the Body Solid Power rack, and the Power Tec rack. The F430 uses Pop pins so it’s very easy to adjust your safeties and your J hooks up and down.
Many power racks require that you remove a safety pin and then twist and pullout the saftey and then repeat for the J hooks. Others have a Steel Rod that goes all the way through the holes like a sword called a Sabre style. If you just Bench Press and do Squats it’s no big deal but if you use it for other exercises and change the positions a lot then the Pop pins make sense. My wife is the primary user of this rack and she likes the ease of use of the pop pins over the other methods.
The F430 was the only rack to have pop pins. The Power Tec rack was too tall for our basement and it did not have a straight chin up bar. The Body Solid was really good as well but it didn’t have the pop pins.
I ordered the BodyCraft F430 Rack from Amazon.com the price was a bit higher than it’s competitors, however we are very happy with the rack. The F430 arrived about a week later via freight truck. The box was damaged on the outside and had a few holes in it. Inside it was packed extremely well and nothing was damaged in any way.
I assembled this myself in 3 hours taking my time. I do not recommend that you do this unless you’ve assembled a lot of things by yourself. Keep in mind that most of this goes together very easily and it only has 2 sizes of nuts and bolts, 3/4″ Hex and 9/16″ Hex.
The biggest issue is when you assemble it if you do not have lot of height you will have to put the safeties and J hooks onto the supports before you attach them to the base. Also after that is done, you assemble the top pieces and then raise it up and bolt it to the top of the supports. Putting that piece into position by yourself is difficult because it’s about 4 feet by 4 feet, fairly heavy and cumbersome. So doing it yourself you have to balance it and then slide the bolts in. For 2 people it would be easy and only take a couple of minutes.
There is a manual of sorts but honestly it’s not all that helpful. There is an exploded diagram which is more useful, however it will show washers where it doesn’t use any. When you assemble this be sure to only finger tighten everything initially. Yes it will wobble like Jell-O but everything goes together much more easily. Tighten all the bolts later from the bottom to the top. This is a pretty easy rack for 2 people to assemble.
Once it’s all assembled it’s very easy to use. Just pull the pins and slide the safeties and hooks up and down. The F430 is very well made. Everything fits just like you’d expect it to. I ordered and extra set of J hooks because once they are on you can’t put them front to back or on other supports. This can be a deal breaker for many people, so if you really need to move your J hooks to the front or back you will either buy another set or get a different rack.
The safeties have holes in the to attach Dip handles which are an option. I bought these. You have to figure out when you assemble the rack how you want the dip handles to go. I have them facing into the cage on one safety and on the outside on the other safety. This allows you to dips either way. While the safeties look like the handles will fit on either way, they won’t.
So check the alignment before you assemble everything and be sure you’re happy with it. The dip handles can also be used for push ups as well. If you do your dips on the outside you might notice a little wobble on the opposite side of the rack. It’s no big deal but inside the rack you have a lot more stability and no wobble.
The F430 is built like a tank, easy to adjust and is well built and very solid. You will not need to buy another power rack. This one has a lifetime warranty and I can believe it will last that long. My wife loves using it.
I really can’t think of any negatives except that you can’t use a 6 foot bar with it. But I knew that before I bought it and we have a 7 foot olympic bar.
Review 2: Solid, high quality power rack.
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.
Review 3: Best Power Rack for Price/Quality Ratio
The best power rack for the money.
+ It has a strait pull up bar which is far more useful than those annoying curved bars as you can hang olympic Rings or Blast Straps on them.
+ The rack has lots of space and has the feel of commercial rack.
+ Shipping is free
+ The height is short which is nice for home gyms
+ It is pretty tough power rack and can handle more weight than other power racks in its price range.
– The rack will not fit standard power rack accessories ie: 3×3 or 2×2 J Hooks/Dip attachments
Consequently buy the dip bars when you buy the rack in case the company stops making the model.
