It was many months ago that I started seeing the YouTube videos of Overlanding adventures from the likes of @TrailRecon and @CoyoteWorks (two of my favorites). Overlanding called to me. It took my love of camping, that I experience with my boys in the Scouts BSA program, and my love of Jeep life and put them into one. Since buying my Jeep in 2013, we did attempt some technical offroad trails, but my boys were bored, and my wife was scared to death that we would break something (truth be told so was I).
One of the things that will truly make my Jeep unique, and may set me back, is that I have a soft top, and have NO desire to go to a hard top. This cuts down on my useable space for gear quite substantially. Seeing rear cargo area storage racks peaked my interest, and I knew this was one direction that I wanted to start with. The one that I was introduced to in the videos was Vector Offroad, which by about every review is a great company. 
The problem here is that I make a living wage, but not one that could justify me spending the $499 that this rack costs.
I searched and searched for something in my price range that could do the job, and looked good. During this time, I had been the recipient of many social media ads from a company that seemed to have many various items, but I had never heard of them. The name was Hooke Road, and since I had never heard of them, I wanted to test their products. I ordered two low cost items (door sill guards and led light bulbs).
I was disappointed in this attempt at trying this new company. The door sell guards, that were paid for, were not in inventory anymore. The light bulbs did not fit. I was about to give up, but the solution that customer service gave me was a 20% discount on a future order. If it hadn’t been for this, I probably never would have given them another shot.
For my second order, I decided to get something real. I chose the cargo rack that goes between the roll bars in the back. This was one of the things I wanted to get from the beginning. It served the same purpose as the $500 Vector one at only $197. I also had the 20% off from the first order being messed up, so that was another $20 I saved.
This came quickly, was made and packaged well, and was easy to install. The only problem was that it took 4 factory hard top bolts and retainers that I do not own. I had to go buy these at Jeep, and they were not cheap.
Overall, I was very pleased, and posted the install video on my YouTube. The customer service team also shared the video and were very appreciative of my feedback. They offered me links to earn commission if someone bought from my link. I will be ordering from there again.
Budget Built Overlander 