We’ve gotten our hands on dozens of board rack designs over the years, but the all-new PTM Edge Clamp4RCE racks, which are available exclusively on Tigé’s 2012 wakeboard boats, are quite simply the best we’ve ever tested. In fact, no other rack has delivered this level of lock-down security with so little effort. We got inside the Clamp4RCE’s effortless function with Jeff Bohanan and Matt Reid, the president and engineering manager at Protomet, an engineering and product development company that designed and manufactures the racks outside Knoxville, Tennessee.
Elegant Grip
The crux of the Clamp4RCE’s effortless function is a linear ratchet mechanism that delivers rock-solid clamping by applying minimal force to a single lever. Pull or push the lever and the rack’s four clamping arms apply the same firm hold to everything from thin wakeboards to fat wakesurfers.
Press and Ride
When it’s time to ride, push a single button to release the spring-loaded lever and clamping fingers, freeing up your board with ease. Once released, the clamping fingers recede into the forks, creating a smooth surface for uninterrupted loading and unloading.
Child’s Play
With its single lever and push-button release, the Clamp4RCE features truly one-hand operation. In fact, the clamping mechanism requires so little force that even a kid can easily operate it.
Space-Age Strength
Protomet’s more than 20 in-house CNC setups billet machine virtually all of the rack’s dozens of pieces from blocks of aerospace-grade aluminum, which boasts a much higher strength-to-weight ratio than steel.
Friction-Free
All of the Clamp4RCE’s precision components are made from aerospace-grade hardened stainless steel and bronze, which boasts a built-in lubricant that virtually eliminates friction so the rack’s ratchet function is both smooth and efficient.
