Black Widow dip attachment for power racks

[weisgarb]

Back in November I sent Dean from Black Widow Training Gear a couple questions about their dip attachment that mounts on a power rack. It wasn't clear from the pics exactly how it attached to the uprights, and I wanted to make sure he could make one that worked with a Body Solid GPR378.

I don't think Dean is particularly fond of email, or maybe I just caught him at a busy time. After getting a partial response from him he went dark, and I decided to look elsewhere. I got an apology email 6 weeks later saying I could try contacting them again if I was still interested. I hadn't ordered anything from a competitor yet, so I decided to give it another try, and got a response after a couple days that answered my questions. I placed the order that day and it shipped 12 days later. I suggest giving him a call if you have questions, as the email response times are a little lacking.

It arrived UPS wrapped in cellophane and cardboard. There was no damage or scratches in the paint.



It's held in place by a solid steel pin that BWTG provides. The size of the holes and pin are customized to your rack specs. The dip apparatus appears to be black powder coated, while the pin looks to be hand-painted. The unit weighs around 25 lbs.



The portion that mounts to the rack appears to be made of two pieces of angle iron welded together.



You can see that the handles go through the 2" rectangular tube and are welded both to the outside and inside of the tube. If any part of the attachment ever fails, it won't be the welds keeping the handles in place. The handles are hollow 1 7/8" diameter tubing and come with plastic end caps. The attachment takes just a couple seconds to put on and take off the rack uprights.



I have a set of wooden rings that I use for body weight dips and inverted rowing exercises, but I like having a "fixed" set of dip handles when I'm using added weight. It seems like a sturdy piece of equipment and I'm glad I bought it.

[BAVE]

Nice piece. Dean makes some great stuff. I have most of his bars and will be ordering some custom pieces soon.

[DamonB82]

Nice! I also ordered a dip attachment through them, but I had him make the two piece dip handles for my rack. Im saving a lot over ordering the dip attachment from elitefts. Hopefully it ships out this week.

[Navyguy825]

Nice. Dunno if I should order a single piece or two piece dip attachment from them.

[DamonB82]

I'll let you know how the two piece is when it arrives, accompanied by pictures of course.

[Navyguy825]

I'll let you know how the two piece is when it arrives, accompanied by pictures of course.

are you getting straight bars and angled inwards?

[DamonB82]

Just like this http://www.flexcart.com/members/elit...id=167&pid=717

[matrix563]

i just asked dean if he did any of the following:

i have this rack on the way, wondering if you offer any of the following for it:

http://www.fitnessfactory.com/Home/I...id_Power_Rack/

http://www.bonanza.com/listings/Powe...ubing/43009217
the bang peg arms i saw below that you posted a photo of,
a custom monkey grip pullup bar? that i could bolt on instead of the regular pullup bar.
dip bars
and 2 half rack safeties ic ould use on the front of the rack? like this
http://www.newyorkbarbells.com/0150.html


guess i can check dip bars off the list .

weisgarb, is the body solid rack holes numbered or did you do that? any tips if you did it? how to do it?

[weisgarb]

weisgarb, is the body solid rack holes numbered or did you do that? any tips if you did it? how to do it?

The holes are not numbered, so I purchased the following decal set from Amazon: Duro Decal Permanent Adhesive Vinyl Letters & Numbers: 1" Gothic White. I put numbers on all 4 uprights, and the decal set I bought didn't have four of all the letters I needed (less common letters were in short supply), so I wound up using a combination of numbers (0-9 for the upper half), and then something like A-I for the bottom. I have a picture of everything on my camera at home; one of these days I'll get around to posting it in one of the stickies, since I'm finished overhauling my equipment for the time being.

They've held up and haven't begun to peel off in the 7 months since I applied them. If I had to do it again I'd probably opt for smaller letters, perhaps 1/2" to 3/4", as the larger numbers look like they're for someone who is vision impaired.

One thing about the dip attachment on the GPR 378 (and hey, don't you already have two other dip apparatus at this point?): if I use it on the outside of the rack, the whole thing sways a little when I add extra weight via a dipping belt. It's nothing serious--I'm not worried about it tipping over--but there's a little flexing that feels strange when you're in the concentric phase of the exercise. It's more stable if you flip it around so the handles are inside the rack, but then you have to make sure you don't adjust it too high and hit your head on the pullup bar. The size of the dip handles took a little getting used to (I'm accustomed to the thinner handles, and I think these are close to 2"), but overall, I'm still happy with the dip attachment and use it every week.

[JB426]

Nice. Thanks for the pics and review.

[iportal]

Fantastic review, it looks a great bit of kit. It's a shame that body solid doesn't include a dip attachment with their gpr378 rack.