I’m back with another Bells of Steel Trap Bar review. This time, I am taking a look at the Open Trap Bar 3.0. Here are my first impressions of the Bells of Steel Open Trap Bar 3.0.
Unboxing the Open Trap Bar 3.0
First off, the box arrived in seriously rough shape. It was so bad, the UPS driver offered to take it back if I didn’t want to accept it. This is sometimes common with large, heavy items like this trap bar.
I decided to accept the package — and luckily the trap bar was mostly undamaged. All the welds looked great, the sleeves spun just fine, and nothing was bent. The only thing was some scuffing damage on one of the top handles.
Luckily, I tend to care more about functionality than aesthetics when it comes to my home gym equipment, so the scuff doesn’t bother me for now.
Best Features of the Open Trap Bar 3.0
- The trap bar features standing feet that allow you to prop the bar up on its side and elevate the sleeves. This allows you to easily add or remove plates without needing to rig up some apparatus.
- The sleeves are compatible with standard collars, so I can use my Lockjaw collars on this trap bar. They slid on, locked down, and slid off just fine.
- Once you are done loading your weight, you just grab the handles you want to use, gently roll the bar forward, and then roll it back to where you’re going to use it. It works really smoothly.
- This trap bar features nice knurling that is grippy but not super aggressive. I was able to use it with and without chalk.
Negative Features of the Open Trap Bar 3.0
- One thing that is not ideal is the bar will tip to one side when you load your first plate. However, it’s not a big deal because it should balance out as soon as you put a plate on the other side.
- Since there is no counterbalance on the bar, you also have to be careful to grab the handles in the center when you are lifting to make sure you’re not off-balance.
- One other thing that isn’t necessarily a negative is that the sleeves are shorter than they would be on a straight bar. If you train with bumper weights, this might be an issue.
- However, the sleeves are still large enough to fit a lot of weight. Also, they designed the plate block to be thinner to help accommodate for the shorter sleeves.
First Impressions Lifting with the Open Trap Bar 3.0
I did a challenging but not super heavy workout with the trap bar to test it out. Overall, it felt good. I was able to get 405 pounds on the bar no problem. The knurling felt good and the different handles worked well.
My first impressions are that this is a solid piece of gym equipment for a home gym. I will continue testing other exercises on this open trap bar to give my full review — so stay tuned.
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If you’d like to learn more and see some of the visuals from the app, you can watch my full video review of the Bells of Steel Open Trap Bar 3.0 on my YouTube Channel.
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