The Dane 3.0 | All-in-One Squat Rack Functional Trainer

I was lucky enough to get one of these before the public launch and I am definitely impressed. Everything bolted together with no issues, it's very solid and everything from the cables to the trolleys are nice and smooth. You're probably going to want a 35MM socket or at least a larger adjustable wrench because the tools included were not the best. The instructions could have been a little better but it's not hard to figure out. Overall, I'm very pleased with the 3.0. Coming from a 14 gauge 2x3 plate loaded rack to this is night and day. This seems like the kind of rig that I can use with my family for decades.

I love it!! Everything I would have compromised/ disliked about the Dane2.0 along with other racks from different manufacturers has been fixed with the Dane 3.0. This may be my first rack/ functional trainer but I did hundreds if not thousands of hours of research before choosing this one. I’m primarily using the Dane 3.0 as a functional trainer and not as a rack because i plan on buying a rack separately for benching and squatting. That being said:
What I like about the Dane 3.0.
1. It’s has its own designated lat pull down and low row
2. It has both option for your weight stack 2:1 and 1:1 with 220lbs
3. I LOVE the red accents makes the rack look more appealing. I went with the stain less steel uprights as well as it makes the rack look more beautiful.
4. It has a very small foot print and its design very well. It has no wasted space.
5. Everything works and looks properly build no scratches, scuffs, dents, or bad welds.

THE BAD ( these are just nitpicks TBH ) the only real negative I have to say is that they no longer include the lower rear crossmember
1. I don’t like the J-cups they are loose and I don’t like how they look from the front .
2. The cables twist it’s not the end of the world for me and it doesn’t affect the functionality but they do twist. It doesn’t really bother me for now unless it’s something that happens very regularly but only time will tell. It only takes 5 min to reroute the wires once you get the hang of it on each side.
3. The low row is in the way and reduces the functionality to place the cable trolley all the way down I don’t really care but it may bother others
4. The instruction book is not 100% accurate is more like 95% accurate. It missed labeled how many rubber stoppers I needed. Instruction book said I needed 8 but I only had and need 4. Also the very first step said I needed to insert the bolt in the very first hole when in reality it was the 2nd hole. The rubber stopper were also packaged with all the attachments so we were confused if they were the right ones because they were out of place.
5. The cables were not packaged separately it was obvious to tell the difference between the low row and lat pull down cable but not for the trollies. Since they took the space of 2.5 rooms to spread flat it made it less obvious to tell they were different lengths.
6. Some of the pulleys weren’t properly tightened and when routing the cable of the top 4 pulleys there is a bracket in the middle that makes it impossible to route the cable. It’s no longer an issue for me but it took my dumb self 2 hr to route the cable the first time because of it. Now it only takes me 5 min on each side

The Dane 3.0 is an absolute beast of a functional trainer rack! The fit and finish is on par with a lot higher end set ups. My favorite part of the rack is the seamless switch between a 1:1 to 2:1. All you have to do is pull on either the lat pull/low row portions for 1:1 or the trolley boxes for 2:1. The weight stacks and integrated weight horns ensure you’ll never have to upgrade.
You would be hard pressed to find a rack that has the features all rolled into this price.

The Dane 3.0 is the focal point to my small garage gym. The cable travel is smooth with plenty of distance, especially for the 2:1 pulleys. The height of the lat pulldown is plenty high (I'm 5'8" and I clip my pulldown bar about halfway down the chain when sitting on my bench) and it is also adjustable with the included chain. I also really appreciate the "El Toro" horns on the cable stacks as something that comes standard with their squat rack. Overall, the squat rack is a beast and is perfect for hitting most of my training movements. The included 220 lb stacks give me plenty of room for growth. I would highly recommend this squat rack to anyone building their home gym.
A few drawbacks:
- Some of the assembly was a bit confusing, the two long cables are almost identical in length and I ended up routing the shorter cable in the wrong area and had to redo that. Not a big deal, but labeling the cables probably would've helped me with that.
- My Dane 3.0 did NOT include magpins for the spotter arms. I find it very frustrating that you can't properly use the equipment you purchased without buying additional attachments (especially magpins). At the very least, I would've thought that Fringe Sport would mention that the magpins weren't included and that you had to buy them separately.
- I'm a bit dissapointed that Fringe Sport did not include the landmine attachment that they included in with the Dane 2.0, I know its a tradeoff, but at their price point it would've been nice to have had this included.
- After routing my cables, I had to tighten the cable bolts to their maximum tightness to get the an adequately tight pulley system. If I need to tighten the cable system more in the future, I'll probably have to trim the cable (maybe Fringe Sport has a better suggestion).

The setup took me about 5 hours over the course of a couple days to assemble by myself (someone with some experience setting these up might be much faster). Like I said earlier, I'm overall quite happy with my purchase and I expect to be able to use this setup for many years to come.