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REP fitness PR-4000 rack vs TITAN series home gym

Written by Pascal Landshoeft | May 31, 2021 4:00:00 PM

REP fitness PR-4000 rack vs TITAN series home gym

This is a comparison between the Rep Fitness PR-4000 rack and the TITAN series home gym. Follow the links for more details.

Titan Series Home gym $1400 to $6500

The Titan Series Home Gym will put you back about $1400 to $6500. TITAN is well known for their very good prices compared to their competition and will get you started on your home gym. This review was originally posted in “which Titan rack to buy for over $500”.

Overview of a TITAN Home Gym

 
The Titan series home gym is Titan’s way of providing you with a fully configurable home gym with the attachments that fit your needs best. With this approach, Titan makes the ordering process easy so that you do not have to put different attachments on different pages into your basket. The base rack they are using is the Titan power rack. The Titan power rack has the following specifications: 
 
  • Overall Weight: 388 LB
  • Overall Height: 100”
  • Footprint (including bolt-down plates): 53” x 55.5”
  • Overall Depth: 48”
  • Inside Depth: 42
  • Overall Width: 48”
  • Inside Width: 42”
  • Assembly Hardware Included
  • Titan recommends bolting down your rack for added stability
 
And comes with the following features 
 
  • 3” x 3” 11 Gauge Tubing and bolt-together design.
  • Includes (2) 1” Diameter Pins w/ 1.5” Pipes for a heavy-duty pin and pipe safety system.
  • Includes (4) Bolt-On Weight Plate Holders.
  • Includes (4) Band Pegs.
  • Includes a pair (2) Sandwich J-Hooks.
  • numbered laser-cut holes throughout the uprights and lower cross members.
  • Keyhole side spacing For array attachments
  • 1” bolts
  • Max height of 94” for a pull-up bar
 
With this, you get a very beefy and spacious rack for all your training needs that can be upgraded at a later stage. With this center cage you can start to think about attachments. There is a wide array of different attachments available for the rack itself which come with additional cost. Here is an overview: 
 
 
Be aware that too many attachments might inhibit the possibilities to move freely around the rack. Always keep in mind when you configure your home gym that the barbell is wider than the rack and therefore might touch off attachments. Especially keep this in mind when you want to use the rack to train multiple athletes at the same time. 
 
If you want your home gym to be a leg press as well you can use this attachment to be able to also use it as a leg press machine. Leg presses can be advantageous when you either want to isolate the legs only and want to go very heavy or when you don’t particularly like the barbell back squat. It can also be used when you have a shoulder or lower back injury. 
 
The rack-mounted H PND is a back extension machine that can be directly attached to the TITAN rack. This is usually a good tool for seasoned athletes to take care of their lower backs and younger athletes to train the lower back area which otherwise can easily be overlooked. 
 
The vertical and horizontal barbell holders can be used to store your barbells nicely for your home gym on the rack itself. Another possibility is to mount the barbells to the wall. 
 
If you also want to do dips at your station you can add the Y dip bar. Be aware that the upright you attach it on will be blocked for squats, bench presses or other exercises where you would like to rack a barbell in one side. 
 
The TITAN lever arms can be a great addition to your home gym and rack to widen the possible exercises you can do. The lever arms have a length of 39.25” so think about whether you would like to install them inside or outside of the rack. With the lever arms, you can simulate many machines from a traditional commercial gym which otherwise would take up a lot of space. 
 
With the heavy-duty pull-up bar, you can bring a classic bodyweight exercise to your home gym. My personal opinion is that it would be an oversight not to get one when you buy your rack. 
 
The J cups are not a necessary extra investment if you will only train for yourself as there is one pair included. If you want to use the rack with multiple people in parallel, stock up on extras.
 
As the base model of the Titan rack does include 4 weight plate legs I personally do not see a need to add additional ones to your order. Double-check with Titan that they are actually included. I am personally not a fan of storing plates directly on the rack where I do my workouts when they have four uprights. Titan does offer extension kits to turn the rack into a six upright version. 
 
Spotter arms are a good investment if you want multiple athletes to use the rack in parallel. If you will be the only one using the rack stick with safety pins. They are more secure and can also be used for pin squats. In case a barbell drops they usually deform by bending, while spotter arms are more likely to break at the weld which attaches them to the upright. Ultimately I prefer to just drop the barbell if I am working outside the rack. Inside the rack I try to lower to the pins as slowly as possible. 
 
The blues city and bombshell barbells are Titans cerakote bars. Cerakote coating is a special way of treating metal so that designs can be applied. It is also less like to corrode and was originally developed in the weapons industry. The only downside is that it is more likely to scratch when it touches metal. So if you do a lot of work of the pins instead of the j cups maybe get another coating. 
 
The 86” bar is a no-nonsense bar for 1500 lbs load. It comes with a tensile strength of 190.000. The material is steel with a chrome finish. 
 
An Olympic technique bar might be of interest to you if you have many beginners in your gym or children at home. This is a lighter barbell to focus on technique and explosiveness for the Olympic lifts. For advanced athletes technique plates with a normal barbell are usual preferred. 
 
The atlas bar is the bread and butter barbell from Titan. A solid 20kg barbell for all purposes. 
 

Pros of the Titan Home gym 

 
The rack has 3x3 11 Gauge tubing in a bolt-together design. This makes this rack a tank while it can also be assembled fast and transported in pieces. Titans prices are very good on this type of high-quality material. Combining your rack purchase with other pieces to complete your home gym saves shipping cost and is recommended if you exactly know what you want and have the budget for it. A high-quality home gym for one of the best prices in the market for this quality. 
 

Cons of the Titan home gym 

 
Configuring a while home gym on your first purchase might not lead to overspending. It is very easy to get excited and carried away. 50 dollar here and there and all of a sudden you are 2000 above what you originally intended to spend. Just make sure, that you only buy things, that you will actually make use of. These are usually the rack, a barbell, plates, and a bench. If you want to spend extra money above this get a pair of 55-pound plates extra to grow into and a gun rack for your barbells. 
 
With a highly competitive price, you can also expect that Titan might save on customer service. If you offer a great product on this low a price, you either save on staff, finish or shipping. As shipping is free with Titan, there are only two other options left. 
 

Alternatives to the Titan home gym

 
Alternatives to the Titan home gym are: 
 
 
If you want to take it slow or already have quite some equipment at home you can get the Titan series power rack by itself. This lowers the cost and puts you at a lower risk to overspend because you are getting excited. If you purchase your equipment in drips and draps you will end up sinking more dollars into shipping costs. 
 
The X3 is basically the same model as the Titan rack with two differences. It doesn’t have numbered holes on the uprights and the keyhole design. This means that you can use fewer attachments with it which you have not necessarily bought from Rogue. 
 
The T2 model comes in various shapes and heights and can be configured differently for your home gym to make it fit your space. The main difference to the other Titan racks is that the uprights are 2x2 instead of 2x3 or 3x3. 
 
The T3 rack model is also very similar to the Titan rack but comes at a lower cost. It is the same as the X3 except that it has 2x3 Gauge uprights instead of 3x3. 
 

Summary of the Titan home gym

 
The Titan home gym is a great option for your home gym if you want to save some money compared to other options in the market. This is the flagship which will cover your needs with a barbell. If you live in Europe you, unfortunately, have not the option to order without getting your material handled by a freight company in a container, which means extra cost and hassle. Maybe Titan will expand to Europe at some stage as other companies have. The only downside is that Titan equipment is known to have inconsistencies in the quality of the finish of their equipment. Lately, they also seem to not keep up with demand as a lot on their website is sold out (status Sep 2019).
 

Overview and review of the REP fitness PR-4000 rack

This is an overview of the REP fitness PR-4000 rack including the pros, cons, and alternatives. This article was originally posted in which rack to buy from REP Fitness. Follow the links for more information.

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Overview of the REP PR-4000 Rack $623

 
The PR-4000 line of REP fitness is their answer to the Rogue Monster lite series. While it uses the same 3x3 uprights as the PR-5000 the holes are smaller and therefore the nuts and bolts are also smaller. This makes the rack slightly cheaper but leaves you with fewer options for attachments. Some of the specs are:
 
3x3” 11 gauge steel
1” hole spacing through the bench zone
5/8” pinholes
 
This is a good rack if you want to stretch your budget as far as possible without compromising on quality too much. Especially if you are not planning on upgrading your initial purchase.
 

Pros of the REP PR-4000 Rack

 
Pros of the REP PR 4000 are:
 
  • Excellent value for money
  • Westside bench spacing
  • Smallest depth option from REP
 
If you are already on the “slight compromises for savings” train you might as well ride it all the way and get the PR-4000 instead of the PR-5000. With this, you are optimizing for brand and within the brand for a product for savings.
 
Westside bench spacing is relevant if you train with the west side method. With this, you can work better with partial ranges of motions for the bench press or with bands on the squat and bench press. Don’t make it a reason to buy this rack if you are not regularly training westside already. Chances are high you will regret that decision.
 
I personally think the strongest reason you swing it for this rack is that this is the smallest depth REP fitness provides for a 3x3 gauge steel rack. If you have to optimize for space and budget, but don’t want to go into the low-quality range where you might as well go to a random Amazon seller instead then this is a great option.
 

Cons of the REP PR-4000 Rack

 
The cons of the REP PR-4000 rack are:
 
  • Smaller holes
  • Numbering
  • The backplate of nameplate
  • Colors
  • Imported
 
Quite a few people like to save on the price for a rack compared to the Rogue Monster series and then get some of the Rogue accessories like the Rhino or lever arms from rogue fitted with the PR-5000. With the PR-4000 this little trick is not possible as it runs with the Monster lite series from Rogue. There are also fewer attachment options out of the REP fitness line up for this rack than for the PR-5000.
 
The uprights for this rack are only partly numbered. If you are not OCD that is probably not a big issue for a home gym. For a commercial gym, it might better to opt for the slightly more expensive since PR-5000 has full numbering for the convenience of your clients.
 
This is a rack that has to cut some corners on production quality compared to Rogue to be a high-quality competitor at a lower price. One way of doing that is to have the logo on the nameplate just on the front. You will not have a logo at the back. If you are planning to place the rack against a wall that might not be an issue. But in a middle of a busy commercial gym, it will come across a little cheap. Of course, that depends on whether or not you think that your clients will care. I would.
 
Colors are another great way to save some cost while still keeping a good quality rack. REP fitness uses colors with a slightly lower pigmentation than Rogue fitness which makes the color cheaper by the liter. Anyone who paints Warhammer miniatures knows exactly what I am talking about when I mention pinkish reds ( that means the color manufacturer is cutting cost). Nothing to be hugely worried about, but still worth mentioning.
 
Probably the biggest con for REP fitness is that their racks are imported for China to keep the lower price. If you care about that, chances are high that it is VERY important to you that everything comes from the US. If that is the case rep fitness is not an option for you and you are better of with Rogue Fitness who made it an integral part of their brand to keep as much of their production in the US as possible. If you are not that patriotic REP fitness is a great choice. Kind of a similar decision as to the one between Volkswagen and Skoda or Honda and Acura.
 

Alternatives to the REP PR-4000 Rack

 
 
 
 
The REP PR-5000 is the big brother of the PR-4000 and comes with bigger holes, nuts, and bolts. The PR-5000 is the bread and butter rack from REP fitness to rival Rogue’s monster series. It is fair to assume that this rack will get a lot of love from product development at REP Fitness in the future and as you are already deciding to save money by going through REP Fitness, rather than Rogue you might as well upgrade as long as you have the space to do so.
 
The REP PR-4100 is the foldable version of the PR-4000. This is a great budget option to get a 3x3 foldable rack for your garage gym to still be able to park your car after you are done training. The same would go for a playroom for the kids or basement that also is used as a hobby room.
 
The Rogue RML series is the most comparable to the PR-4000 out of the Rogue portfolio. Within the Rogue Monster lite series. The main options are the 690c, 490c, 390c, and the 390WC. All of these racks come with a choice of color, Westside spacing, and numbering on the uprights. The 690c is a six post rack, 490c a full rack, 390c a half rack, and the 390WC is a foldable rack. The main differences to Rep Fitness are the higher quality colors used and that they are made in the USA, not China. So if you want the best in the industry while feeling good about yourself keeping production local, then Rogue is the right choice.
 
The TITAN T3 series is the TITAN fitness 3x3 steel version with smaller holes running along the lines of the Monster lite and the PR-4000 series. This comes also as a finding rack of that is your preferred choice to save money and space. TITAN fitness usually bears the highest risk of minor quality flaws compared to REP Fitness and Rogue. In return, they are the cheapest. Decking out your Homegym / garage gym with TITAN gear is an especially good choice when you are a handyman and know how to fix minor issues and want to build a big gym that combines machines and free-weight sections. TITAN has a vastly wider range of gym machines available than the other two vendors.
 

Conclusion for the REP PR-4000 Rack

 
The REP PR-4000 is a great choice to maximize your budget if you do not intend to do many changes once you are up and running. It is also the right choice for anyone who wants a good rack with a minimum depth. Personally, I would use the choice to go for REP to upgrade to bigger and better things for the same budget rather than fitting more things into the same budget. But that is the question you have to ask yourself between the PR-4000 and 5000 when you depart from Rogue.
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