Rep Fitness Open Trap Bar Review - $399.99
Overall
User Review
( votes)Summary
The Rep Fitness Open Trap Bar is a best-in-class product with a price tag that’s insanely low for the quality of the product you’ll receive. From traditional trap bar work to squatting and camber bar exercises, the intelligent build factor will leave you excited to start your next workout every time you look in its direction.
Pros
- Excellent build factor.
- Easy Assembly.
- Quick handle removal.
- Several handle heights.
- The width inside the bar avoids crowding.
- Awesome powder coat.
- Top-notch knurling.
- Rackable design for 47″ to 49″ racks.
Cons
- The quick-release knob gave me some trouble.
- Rackable sizing can be tight on non-Rep Fitness manufactured racks.
The Rep Fitness Open Trap Bar is my favorite piece of new gym equipment. Built with the amazing quality I’ve come to expect from Rep Fitness, the bar provides a ton of versatility while maintaining a surprisingly small footprint in my already crowded garage gym.
With a price of only $399 including shipping (see it here), the Open Trap bar is an absolute no-brainer. Let’s dive into what makes this specialty bar such a great purchase for almost any type of gym user.
Rep Fitness Open Trap Bar Shipping
I apologize for my horrible opening job on the bar’s packaging. I was over-excited to dive into using the Open Trap Bar and tore through the box.
Inside, I was pleasantly surprised to find a tightly packaged bar that was fully protected. It’s always hit or miss when it comes to large gym products arriving via FedEx or UPS but in this case, I doubt there will be many complaints about damage.
Inside the first box was a set of smaller boxes that each contain the weight horns, handles, and the required hardware to quickly set up the Rep Fitness Open Trap Bar.
The bubble wrapping around each of the product’s main components added to the included shipping protection which I very much appreciate.
If you’re worried about putting the unit together, it’s a very simple process with just 8 bolts, washers, and nuts. Just keep in mind that Rep Fitness doesn’t include the required 17mm wrench.
On a side note, the nuts are difficult to reach with a monkey wrench due to their tight positioning so a regular wrench is going to be required.
The actual assembly of the Open Trap Bar only took me about 10 minutes, although a second pair of hands would have been appreciated when holding up the weight horns for proper alignment.
Rep Fitness Open Trap Bar Design – Part By Part
The moment I finished putting together my Rep Fitness Open Trap Bar I knew I was going to love it. The bar was created using a 50mm tubular design that features angles that are perfectly rounded and weld points that showcase Rep Fitness’s attention to the small details that are often missed by other gym product manufacturers.
The Open Trap Bar was designed to be put together very easily and as previously mentioned, it only requires a few pieces of hardware.
One thing I really love with this product is the 6-inches of knurling in the center of the tubing.
The knurling isn’t overly aggressive by any stretch of the imagination. It’s essentially there to provide extra squat support while also making it easy to grab the tubing while moving the bar around your gym.
Keep in mind that at 50mm the tubular design is going to really test your grip strength if you’re attempting something like one-handed farmer carries.
Outside of the tubular design, the included stainless steel handles feature 28mm grips and provide for both inline handles (8.3-inches from floor to center) and high handles (11.3″ from floor to center). The knurling on the handles features a similar smoothness to Rep Fitness’ Olympic bars, allowing for a solid grip without overly cutting into my hands.
The handles lock firmly into place thanks to a knob attachment. I have to admit, while Rep Fitness says the knob attachment is meant for easy attachment and removal, the steel on my Open Trap Bar appears to have been cut slightly off center and required a bit of finessing with the included Allen key.
Still, once the handles were finally attached, it was very apparent that they were firmly in place and wouldn’t be causing me any issues.
As a side note, the handles are supposed to be easily removable to allow for squatting and cambered bar movements but as noted, the locking system was causing me some issues due to a slightly off-center hole.
With my 5’10” frame, I found grabbing each handle to be very simple. The handles are spaced 27.3-inches from each other, providing plenty of space within the unit for movement. When removed for camber and squat work, the spacing is an even larger 33.1-inches.
The 50mm weight horns on this specialty weightlifting bar are stellar. Rep Fitness has included a 16=inch horn on each side.
The horns are made with a chrome finish, ensuring that weights easily slide on and off the horns while providing years of protection. Given that Rep Fitness includes an excellent 5-year warranty for this bar, providing a solid build was obviously very important.
The weight horns slide into place during assembly and are tightened to the bar with several decently thick bolts.
As you can see, the weight horns not only attach inside of the bar’s main area but also alongside the handle thanks to the locking knob that is included with each Rep Fitness Open Trap Bar.
As previously mentioned, the inside area for adjusting the bolts is limited so a smaller 17mm wrench is recommended.
My Rep Fitness and Rogue bumper plates all easily slide onto the weight horns and remain firmly in place thanks to a very precise design.
Once attached the weight horns combine with the main bar for a width of 84.3-inches, or about what you’ll find on many other specialty bars. That width also allows for this Open Trap Bar to be rack mounted. While it obviously fits on any Rep Fitness Rack, it should also fit on any standard 47″ to 49″ power rack or squat rack. Rep also notes that “it will sit flush and secure and not tilt your J-cups inward.”
Here’s an example of the Rep Fitness Open Trap bar racked on my Rogue RM-4 Power Rack.
Keep in mind that the rack bar just barely fits inside my large RM-4 rack which means some precision is needed when re-racking. If you’re exhausted in the middle of a set, you might find yourself bailing on your bar.
The balance when placing the Open Trap bar on the rack is decent. I noticed some quick tilting of the bar which then remains in place after jutting forward or backward. This is to be expected with this type of bar.
Rep Fitness Open Trap Bar Specs
- Bar Use: Specialty
- Weight: 60lbs
- Overall Length: 84.3″
- Length From Collar To Collar: 50.5″
- Loaded Height Of In-Line Handles: 8.3″ From Floor To Center
- Loaded Height Of High Handles: 11.3″ From Floor To Center
- Width From Handle To Handle: 27.3″
- Width Of Frame Interior (Handles Removed): 33.1″
- Height When Vertical: 26″
- Width When Vertical: 7.7″
- Length Of Knurl On Frame: 6″
- Static Rating: 1350lbs
Rep Fitness Open Trap Bar Video:
It’s really apparent that Rep Fitness put a ton of thought into creating this gym product and here’s a video explaining the entire process behind the bar’s build.
Rep Fitness Open Trap Bar Storage
With such a big bar, even if the footprint is small for what it can accomplish, I’m sure you are wondering about storing it when not in use.
Rep Fitness recommends both horizontal and vertical storage. I personally own and completed a Rep Fitness 9 Bar Storage rack and that’s what I used for this piece of garage gym equipment.
I had to store the unit in a corner position to avoid crowding out some of my other bars. As you can see, it still managed to fit in place even when I have my Rogue Ohio bar, EliteFTS SS Yoke Bar, and the Titan Fitness Multi-Grip Camber bar also stored.
Rep Fitness Open Trap Bar Final Thoughts
This specialty bar is exactly what I wanted in my gym and now I have it. It’s priced at about half the cost of the very cable Kabuki Trap Bar and far below the Eleiko Öppen Deadlift Bar. Despite the much lower price, it still stands up and goes toe-to-toe with its competitors.
If you want to add a ton of new movements to your workout routines, the Rep Fitness Open Trap Bar should be your go-to choice.
Learn more about the bar and check out any incoming user reviews on the official Reo Fitness Open Trap Bar product page.