Serious home system

I recently purchased this system through Amazon. I work out at home in the AM before work. I was looking for a Smith machine so that I could lift heavy in the basement without the danger presented by free weights w/o a spotter. You'll find Smith machines cheaper than the Caribou but they fit in the category of "home gym" equipment. Commercial machines are generally a lot more expensive than the Caribou. I settled on Caribou because of the solid construction and flexibility to add on features later as my needs demand (such as a pec deck cable cross dip station).



The system delivers in 5 boxes weighing 485# (2 or 3 are more than 100#). I broke the heavy boxes down before taking the equipment to the basement. There are a lot of parts. This is not a hard machine to assemble but it took me 2.5 hours by myself. (I'm handy. Two people would have made the job a little easier but this is not hard to put together alone.)



The system is solid. 300# is easily handled. I don't have need for more but I'd bet another 200# is well within the range of this system.



My only complaint is that the system is a little small. You cannot use the supplied bench with the back upright to support shoulder presses (the bench cannot slide deeply enough into the rack to do that). I do shoulder presses without the bench back raised. The lat pull down and chinning bar are also lower than I'd like (I'm 6'2"). But I compensate by doing pull downs kneeling on the floor and chinning with legs bent 90 degrees at the knees. Frankly a bigger machine would have a hard time fitting into a home so I think this is why the dimensions are what they are. (This is the reason for four vice five stars.) However for bench presses and squats this is a full sized olympic system.



Finally this system doesn't come with weights. I recommend you either buy these used off eBay/Craigs List or look for a deal at Sports Authority. The money you pay to deliver the weights will probably exceed the cost of the weights themselves. (I got a 300# set including an olympic bar for $140 from Sports Authority. Beat that if you can!)



If you're serious about getting/staying in shape at home you cannot go wrong with this system. More detail ...

BEST FREE WEIGHT SYSTEM FOR THE PRICE!!!

In case you are not aware muscles react 30% better to free weights then they do to machine weights. The problem for many people is getting that free weight motion safely if you have to workout alone. This Smith Machine concept tackles that nicely.



I researched for weeks what would be the best free weight (or similar) home gym at the lowest price possible and as safely as possible without a spotter but without sacrificing quality. This Marcy smith system won the toss. There were a few other possible runner-ups (like the Body Solid Series 7 Smith Machine at $2800 or the PowerTec Multisystem Leverage Gym at $1500). Both had their pros (quality) and cons (size/price) but in the end when I compared everything this Marcy gym won hands down. The Linear Bearings used in it dramatically increase the quality factor and while some reviews said they were not "Thompson" bearings I find them to be of very good quality and extremely smooth (besides how "brand name" do you really need little steel ball bearings to be anyways).



Anyhow there are a few things to note about this gym:



PROS:



GREAT price at only $982 on Amazon w/ free shipping (and it arrived in a week)



EVERY major exercise you can think of. I pulled out my exercise routine I followed when I was a member of Bally's Gym and I was able to do every single exercise on my list. I am still amazed at everything this gym has!



THE SIZE of it is even more compact than I thought. The frame is only about 5 feet wide by 5 feet long (but keep in mind that the smith bar extends about 7 feet across and the bench sticks out about 2 feet longer than the frame itself).



LOOKS - it is probably the most stylish smith gym I have seen in blue and white (coincidentally our walls are the same color blue so that was a bonus)



CONS:



You need to buy separate olympic weights. This is not actually a CON since most of these free weight gyms require the same but you can tack on a few hundred more for those (I found the best deal at Sears for 300 lbs + the bar at only $275)



The instructions - although they are fairly easy to read they are aboslutely horrible for matching parts. NOTHING not a single solitary part (and there are about 100) have labels. You have to actually hunt through the boxes to match the right piece with the right step and diagram you are on to make sure you have the right match. What were they thinking here? The good news is that ech part is pretty much one of a kind so you shouldn't have too much trouble matching the piece it's just finding it amongst 100 pieces that is the trouble. They could have made this much easier. The build time as stated in several reviews online said 5-8 hours and yes it took me all 8 hours simply because of the hide and seek of matching parts. Proper labeling could have easily cut this down to 6 hours at a maximum.



Lastly two of the frame pieces were bent when they got here (although no visible damage to the boxes). I had to hammer one piece back to it's correct shape and the other had an elongated hole in it for a bolt to fit through but because it was bent so much I had to drill about a 1/4" more space to accomomidate the bolt.



All in all I would absolutely buy this again as long as you don't mind an 8 hour build time and the "possiblity" of a little extra handy work.



My logic with this product was to buy it for $982 buy the Bowflex SelectTech dumbells (see my 2009 model review of those on Amazon) as well buy the free weights and buy an extra EZ curl bar but still stay under $2000. I did exactly that while at the same time maintaing the ability to keep free weight quality and encompass all necessary exercises.



MISSION ACCOMPLISHED AND WE ARE 100% SATISFIED!More detail ...