BD-7 Power Rack - Squat Rack

I was looking for a power rack for a long time. Even considered some used ones from local ads. In the end, the Valor BD-7 seemed to be too good to be true considering it comes with the Lat pull and lower pulley. Why buy a used one when you can get a new one for about the same. Assembly was relatively simple. Took me about 2 hours by myself. Some better labeling of the parts would have saved some time but not a big deal. I thought since it is inexpensive it will be quite flimsy. It is not. Honestly I don't see the need for a very thick gage of steel like some of the very expensive brands offer. As long as it is sturdy and safe enough (well beyond the weights I will be using) who cares. The room inside the cage is quite enough. I am 6 -2 and I have no problems. However after a few combinations, I have decided to do the bench press in side the cage and squats outside. The safety bar is more important for the bench press. For the squat you can always drop the bar safely on the floor anyway in case of an emergency. This way I do not have to change and move around the bars and safety rods. I do agree with a few other reviews that talk about some minor issues. The bar supports (J hooks) that come with the system are a bit too long and also they incline downwards so the bar slides out and rests against the ends. In my opinion it is still safe so I am not taking a star off. I did order the short bar holder from the same vendor. Not only will it give me a better bar holder, I will then have more bar storage (3 plus the safety stop). I did apply a spray(silicone with teflon) to lubricate the pulley system just as a precaution. I have not seen any issues that some people talked about. All the weights I have are standard so I am glad this is built for standard weights. If someone has Olympic they can always add the adapter so it is smart to have everything sized to standard. I am planning to add more accessories as well slowly. In addition to the short bar support (J hooks) I have also ordered a landmine (T bar row) equipment that can be attached to the bottom of the frame for T bar exercises. I currently also have a pull up tower with knee ups and dip bars. A lot of that is now redundand with this power rack. I am planning to buy the elbow straps and dip bar handles and then this will be able to do everything the tower does allowing me to sell that and make some badly needed room in the home gym. Some other possible enhancements that I can do later are adding a tennis handle grip band to the pull up rod for a more comfortable grip as well as adding band pegs using PVC pipe. Th elatter will be a bit of a project as it may involve drilling some holes. I am also wondering if I can add foot plates for the bottom pulleys. The BD-33 and BD-41 models come with them. I will try to contact the vendor directly to see if they will sell me the foot plate. Or I can improvise something.Overall an excellent product for the price.

Overall, this is a pretty good and diverse rack for the price. The Lat Pull attachment offers an overhead pull and one at ground level for a variety of exercises. The cage is small, but not small enough to prevent you from doing squats if you so choose. The rack is very solidly built and goes together easy. I have no question the safety bars would catch me if I needed to. In the picture, the padded bar across the back is designed to be used with the lat pull down. It very easily sets on top of the safety bars and has a small clip which wraps around the bars to keep it from moving up. Your knees will go under the pad so that when you pull down your body doesn't go up. This bar does it's job, however it is a little loose so it rattles a bit. To adjust the height you have to adjust the safety bars so it's a little clutzy. All in all, it does the job. There are a few things which I wish were different about this rack. - I'd like to see a 2" support option for the rack weights. It's not a big deal on the side ones as much as the lat pull down. An adapter can be purchased, but to adjust all of them would be pricey. - My big complaint is the pull down bar. I didn't think about it until assembled, but it would be much nicer if it were another foot higher. However, this is mostly my fault for not thinking about the height dimension when I ordered. I'm 6' and I can grab it with my feet touching the ground. So if I'm using bands to assist pull ups my feet touch the ground and I end up getting a little push off. Second complaint about the rack / bar, I'm a former Crossfitter so most of my pull ups are kipping and not bands. However, if I kip on this rack the back of the rack comes off of the floor (even when loaded with 350 pounds of weights) and makes me nervous. So now I use bands, however, now my feet touch the floor. The pull up bar was a big reason I bought this, so I'm somewhat disappointed. There is no way to bolt to the floor. Even if there were, I'm not sure I would. Overall a good buy. If I were to do it again I would buy a full sized rack probably without the lat attachment.