Gorila Loadable Pin

Great pin !

Build & Quality: Solidly made. Durable powder coat. |
Performance & Use: Plates fit snug on 2” tube; no movement. I made a DIY pulley system and use the Gorila Loadable Pin to add weight (Gorila Ox Bumper Plates); I use the loadable pin for multiple exercises every workout. |
Durability & Longevity: Powder coat holding up with no chipping after 1 year of use. Solid construction. |
Pros: Solid, well made. Holds plates securely. Made in Canada. Gorila Fitness is a Canadian Company. |
Cons: None. |
Recommend: Yes

The pin is quite tough, although I have some complaints, notably about the accuracy of the advertised weight, lack of pictures on the product page, and rough bits on the pin. Even with the gripes, it's still a good pin.

Most importantly, the pin seems pretty tough and could hold a lot of weight. Even though it was advertised as being 5lb, I was still pretty surprised at the heft of it when I first picked it up. It felt extremely solid when I added ~70lb to it, and it could probably take at least a few hundred pounds.

However, a complaint of mine is the difference in the advertised versus actual weight. It is stated to be 5lb, but I measured the pin on a kitchen scale, and it was 1534g, which works out to 3. 382lb (a 32. 35% difference from advertised weight!). I weighed a 1lb plate I had on the same scale, and it measured 435g, which is 0. 9590lb (basically 1lb). Because of this, I'm fairly certain that the actual weight of the pin is pretty off. This doesn't bother me too much though, but it might for some people.

The pin also looked a bit different from how I expected it to look. The product pictures make it seem like it's pretty smooth and seamless. But, the texture of the pin is slightly coarse, and the bottom ring is attached to the main cylindrical body by 3 welds, leaving some gap, as well as a small notch at the bottom, which I think would probably be a bit weaker than a fully welded ring with no gaps. It is still pretty tough though, and I don't think it will matter if you have human strength (not putting thousands of pounds on this).

Biggest gripe of mine though is that there are some unshaven rough bits. When I first got the pin, there was some rough bits at the top part part of the circular hole where it would attach to a carabiner or something similar (as shown in the picture of it with the caption "Before"). Luckily, I had a hand file, and was able to smooth it down in just a couple of minutes (in the "After" caption picture), which made me wonder why it didn't just arrive smooth in the first place if it was so easy to do so. If you don't smooth it down, it might be annoying if you're feeding a rope through the hole since it could snag the fibers, or it might scratch up a carabiner you would attach it to.

Despite my complaints, it's still a good, sturdy pin that does what it needs to, and I'm quite happy with it after smoothing it down with a file. I plan on using it for years, and don't doubt it could outlive me. I'd just like Gorila to put some better pictures on the page that show it closer up and in better detail, have the advertised weight be closer to the actual one (whether they change it to saying it's 3. 4lb, or changing the design so it's actually 5lb), as well as shave off some of the rough bits on the outside.