Home Gym Upgrades | Stealth Spotters | Spotter Arms Redefined | Surplus Strength Safety Arm Review

[@FrankFSUalumni]

Just bought these during their Black Friday event. Looking forward to using them. Solid review

[@TheKurtlocker]

Thanks for watching. You’re gonna love them when they come in

[@Gnoll-1337]

Wow that was brilliant! I have the safety spotters and rarely use my UPS low, will be giving this a try tonight!

[@TheKurtlocker]

The ROM can become shorter but it works

[@clb121781]

Hands down, the best spotter arms on the market. The side mount design is incredibly underrated.

[@TheKurtlocker]

Facts

[@TheCarterHomeGym]

I just picked some up during the black Friday sale. I was hoping they'd knock that price down a little (which they didn't) but at least they offered free speed pins with the purchase. Very impressed with the build and quality.

[@TheKurtlocker]

I do know that the amount of wiggle room Surplus has on the price here is minimal. He’s a literal one man operation 90% of the time so it’s tough to compete with big sales

[@chrisdonnell2575]

Please tell them to make this in 5/8 and then have an adapter that goes over it for 1" holes that way everybody can buy from them.

[@TheKurtlocker]

I’ll pass the word

[@pob1845]

​@TheKurtlocker ive ask many times to Jason, probably they will never make it...not enough demand and poor placement on the side of the rack

[@chrisdonnell2575]

I love these and so mad at myself for getting Rep PR4000 and the 5/8" holes. Stuff like this typically isn't made for those.

[@TheKurtlocker]

I am not a big fan of 5/8”. You’re always limited with the best attachments.

[@chrisdonnell2575]

Yeah I agree but for me this is only thing I want that I can't get. Rep's spotters are OK but you're right take up too much space and harder to put on but I only use them for bench and squatting but these are clearly better.@@TheKurtlocker

[@joecowan3719]

These spotters def look like the best on the market. I have never moved mine since I use each portion of my giant rack as stations, but I def see how much flexibility these spotter give you.

[@TheKurtlocker]

I end up moving mine around a lot because I don’t have the ability to dedicate parts of my rack to certain lifts. They are awesome

[@Eccles_basement_gym]

They are great looking, spendy for sure, but taking up minimal holes is key. Someday I will upgrade

[@TheKurtlocker]

They are definitely worth it but I get that upgrading can take time

[@Invictus13666]

I can’t believe I watched 11 minutes on safety arms...dang. Good review, Kurtis. I’m not sure they’re worth the $$ to me personally at this moment, but I’d say they’re definitely worth it based on functionality and quality.

[@TheKurtlocker]

You should have seen how much of this review I cut out. I don’t know if I just go too deep or if I just talk slowly

[@Invictus13666]

@@TheKurtlocker it’s a desire to be thorough. One of the things I enjoy about your reviews. You answer questions I hadn’t thought of yet.

[@scooobyj8714]

Those are some quality spotter arms.

[@TheKurtlocker]

Some of the best. What other arms have you seen that you like?

[@scooobyj8714]

@@TheKurtlocker I have the titan X3 arms. They work great. Not much play. My go to is safety straps.

[@TheKurtlocker]

@scooobyj8714 safety straps are something I enjoyed using in the past. I want to get a set now and I’m leaning towards the straydog design

[@fwiffo42]

The slim design and side loading make these some of the best spotters available.

[@TheKurtlocker]

So true. The side loading also makes it easier to know what height you’re putting your safety arms at. It’s the small things that count

[@carps_gym]

You beat me too it but the more the Merrier for Surplus

[@TheKurtlocker]

Still do a video Coach! I love multiple viewpoints. It’s a rising tides thing for content creators and benefits the consumer pool all the more

[@greentube461]

You should try black widow low profile spotters

[@TheKurtlocker]

A lot of Black Widow is on my short list

[@barbellrescue]

Great review! These are #1 on my wish list and have been since I saw them at HGC.

[@TheKurtlocker]

Good choice!

[@squealer42]

There are 3 reason my credit card is relatively safe from a glorious $475 purchase today. 1) I already have a pair of huge real-estate eating spotter arms & it hurts to eat a loss 2) I only have a 5/8 hardware rack - which spares me from many premium accessories 3) That 2" ramp to spare one's shnozz from bench failure ... I might need 3".

[@TheKurtlocker]

Bahahaha. Well I’ll find a better spotter with better Schnozz protection

[@JaredLn]

I was not expecting a jump scare at the start of this video lol

[@TheKurtlocker]

That would be me trying to amp myself up to make my videos more energetic. Ha

[@gregoryanderson7103]

I used your discount code for 2 orders. One for speed pins, and then another for Stealth Spotters.

[@TheKurtlocker]

Awesome to hear! Glad you saved 5%!

[@billymckee9438]

What do you think about the vs the oak club spotters? I like the oak clubs ability to givenyou effectively Westside hole spacing when you flip it around but a couple videos i have seem show a fair amount of side to side play

[@TheKurtlocker]

Everything Oak is really nice and I just haven’t bought anything yet. The spotters seem awesome. I think that the play in the fit could be due to what rack it’s on. If it’s an import rack, there will likely be more play because Oak uses imperial measurements to construct their equipment.

[@Garage_gym48]

Awesome video. I have done some heavy homework on the capability and specs of that!

[@TheKurtlocker]

You gonna get yourself one?

[@Garage_gym48]

@@TheKurtlocker I would if they were available in Australia 🥲 seem like a great option.

[@TheKurtlocker]

@Garage_gym48 that does suck. I always have a little sympathy for folks living in areas where they can’t get the items available to me

[@Garage_gym48]

@@TheKurtlocker in time.. hopefully we get included haha.

[@KevinKaneCanada]

It’s an interesting innovation but is there a need for a gusset-free spotter arm? In my experience, the gusset never gets in the way of anything. Any J-cups are placed above the spotter arm, not below it. And when you want to move the spotter arm, you have to adjust 2 pins on this one, rather than only 1 pin on a traditional spotter arm. Moreover, most people can use Rogue’s spotter arms without bothering to use the pins at all. My spotter arms support at least 500 lbs without the pins and that’s more than I’m benching. (I have safety straps for squats.)

[@TheKurtlocker]

These pins can be adjusted closer to a horizontal crossmember than any other safety using a larger gusset. Additionally, only 1 pin is required to be moved, the other is attached to the actual stealth spotter. The implication is a safety arm that also acts as an easily adjustable vertical or horizontal crossmember for setting up whatever movement you can dream up in a standard power rack. There is nothing “wrong” with Rogue’s spotter arms, or any other large gusset spotter arm, but this is the natural evolution of a product. No sense in being satisfied with “effective” when you can have “excellent”

[@KevinKaneCanada]

@@TheKurtlocker Agree and well said. Less wasted space and more options are pros for sure. It seems there is a bit of a trade-off though: Removing the gusset lowers how much load the safety can support. Granted, I suspect that your safeties can support a load that no human will exceed.

[@TheKurtlocker]

@KevinKaneCanada I thought surplus did a good job testing it with a fairly unrealistic load test. It seems foolish for other safety arms to not go to a similar design IMO. If you’re really looking for the heaviest duty for safety, strap safeties, chain suspension, or drop-in is the name of the game.

[@ClarksvilleBarbellClub]

Great review, brother!

[@TheKurtlocker]

Thank you! I appreciate you dropping by to watch it

[@ClarksvilleBarbellClub]

You bet! @@TheKurtlocker

[@Tlevy2]

How do these compare to the oak club spotters? These do look awesome and one day I will upgrade as I'm tired of how many holes the rep fitness spotter arms take up.

[@TheKurtlocker]

The oak club spotters are longer by a couple inches with a 27” landing area and the unit is installed on the front of the upright with lateral pins holding it to the upright

[@djbakasan]

@@TheKurtlockerI do wish Stray Dog had made it so that there was a UHMW lip when orienting the Stealths “upside down” as well. I have the Oak Clubs and it’s been handy to be able to flip them either way to play w/ the vertical height that your arms are set at-dialing in bench press for example, or for a common use case of mine, to dial in a starting position when doing pin presses (both bench and OHP). Coming from a Westside spacing rack, I 99% of the time prefer 2” spacing but in those times I’m doing one of these movements, the flexibility the Oak Club Alphas provide is pretty nice. I don’t see why the Stealths can’t fill this niche too, just with a small tweak to the design. At the time, I chose the Oaks mostly on aesthetics, but now w/ the hindsight of having used them, looking at the Stealths more closely, this def would have been a feature I missed having.

[@TheKurtlocker]

@djbakasan good feedback. I’ll pass that along to Jason at Surplus Strength

[@gregoryanderson7103]

Hey, I just purchased the pins, because they went on sale. I also use your code. Hoping for Stealth Spotters to go on sale. Have they been on sale before?

[@TheKurtlocker]

The Black Friday deal was that they came with the speed pins. They’re seem like they may be more expensive to produce so putting them on sale really digs deep into any profit margin that may be present

[@futbol1972]

Do i really need to insert the pin in the back? Are they reversable like the oak club ones? Trying to decide between the oak clubs the surplus and the low profile black widow ones. Want to use them to mount pad for low rows, to mount dip handles to do weighted dips with rhino, barbell work etc..looking for the ones that are lighter, easier to move and easier to mount. I hate the rogue and titan ones i have lol. They are so big and clumpsy

[@TheKurtlocker]

I would say you absolutely need to insert the pin. I haven’t used the other safeties so I can’t give you a direct comparison. It the safety can be mounted upside down if that’s what “reversible” you’re talking about

[@TheGhu123]

What do you think about the Oakclub Alpha? It is a bit longer. Price is similar.

[@TheKurtlocker]

The oaks looks awesome and in some cases make more sense. If you’re using it on an upright that has a cable system built in on it for instance, the oak’s pin is more convenient. I love my SS Stealths, but the Oaks are also very awesome. The decision will likely be based on whether or not you want the longer arms. For some it may actually not make sense. I also suspect that the Stealth arms are stronger but the likelihood of that being a factor is negligible since both hole extraordinary amounts of weight

[@sheelpat]

If you have a cable system on your rack (Rep PR5000 with Ares), how does the Oak make more sense than the Surplus strength Stealth? Just the orientation of the pins? Are the SS Stealth spotter arms still good for racks that have cable system attached to them?@@TheKurtlocker

[@TheKurtlocker]

@sheelpat depends on there the cable tracks. The oaks don’t wrap around the upright so they’re theoretically weaker, but don’t interfere with cables that run close to uprights (SD, Rep to name two)

[@BrimhallBarbellClub]

No 5/8 options? 🧐

[@TheKurtlocker]

That is one downside but the side holes on a 5/8” rack would be awful for adjustment intervals

[@gregoryanderson7103]

How many holes does it occupy on the upright? Thanks

[@TheKurtlocker]

3

[@gregoryanderson7103]

@@TheKurtlocker My rep spotter arms on pr 5000 take up 6 holes. Stealth would be much better, but they are pricey

[@TheKurtlocker]

@gregoryanderson7103 I do agree they’re pricey but they can be a big change for the better

[@NoFate247]

Looks like a more versatile spotter arm

[@TheKurtlocker]

That it is! If money wasn’t a limiting factor would you do the stealths or the oaks?

[@NoFate247]

@@TheKurtlocker absolutely!!! If money was no factor they seem hard to beat

[@RachidMolinary]

Do you know how this compare to the Oak Club Alphas? I was studying those and the seem similar in execution.

[@TheKurtlocker]

Oaks load from the front of the rack and have UHMW on both sides and a different look. Face savers also appear to be 1” longer ramps and the catch space is bigger by 3”

[@IronMayne]

4 hunnerd dollars 🥹🥹

[@TheKurtlocker]

It’s a hard cost to stomach but it’s totally worth it in the long run for me.

[@IronMayne]

@@TheKurtlocker I would fosho like to get a set! Im looking forward to attending the home gym con in April also.

[@TheKurtlocker]

@IronMayne it’ll be awesome to meet in person then. I’ll be the guy losing my mind in the strongman area!

[@IronMayne]

I hurt my back recently but still plan on attending just to meet some fellow crazy vets lifting heavy shit lol. I’ll be cheering everyone on!!! ⚡️⚡️⚡️