Unleash the Kraken! The rack mounted functional trainer by Bells of Steel

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The Kraken is a compact rack-mounted cable system, turning your 3” x 3” 6-post power rack with ⅝” holes into a dual-handle cable tower with 5lbs to 210+lbs of resistance! All of this while maintaining the use of your barbell and rack attachments.

It comes in two versions: Plate-Loaded, where using your weight plates saves you big bucks, or Weight Stack: offering convenient 210-pound stacks for quick, no-fuss adjustments. And with all the time you'll save, you can finally tackle that science experiment growing in your never-been-washed support wear. Sicko.

Thanks to the knurled handle, nylon rollers and chrome-coated pop pins, the trolleys are adjustable with a single hand. By using your uprights’ holes for height selections, you can fine-tune the feel of nearly all your cable exercises.

The Kraken saves the clangin’ & bangin’ for your barbell lifts; its aluminum pulleys and dual guide rods deliver the kind of velvety smoothness you'd expect at a commercial gym — but without the crowds, the dude grunting in the corner, and that fit-fluencer hogging the Smith Machine for “just one more angle.”

The dual aluminum handles have 6002 bearings, rotating as smoothly as a barbell, and allow bilateral exercises from a single upright. A single cable features a 2:1 pull ratio (10lbs feels like 5lbs), tackling everything from rehab work to isolations. Plus, the cable travel offers uninterrupted focus during sport-specific drills or while getting that joooooicy bicep pump.

When connected with the cable adapter, the Kraken converts into a glorious 1:1 pull ratio — perfect for heavy lat pulldowns & low rows — with no need to buy a separate weight pack expansion down the road.

Safety is no afterthought either — the Weight Stack version features an optional Shroud that does double duty: protecting fingers (big and small) AND acting as a pegboard, keeping your cable attachments neatly stowed using their included hooks. This means more family time while keeping your little ones safe… because a home gym shouldn't need a “Caution: Dangerous Sh*t EVERYWHERE” sign.

00:00 - Intro
0:23 - Kraken Weight Stack
00:58 - Dual Pulley System
01:51 - Weight Ratio
03:20 - Cables
05:25 - Trolley System
06:00 - Things to be aware of
07:31 - Modularity
10:06 - Shroud
11:41 - Kraken 6-Post
12:35 - Kraken Plate Loaded

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[steverapos]

Love the 2 to 1 and the 1 to 1 feature - so smart and useful!

[JaDjok]

We are at the point in history, where one can buy a Kraken, a bench, barbell and a few plates and a whole family is good forever. I love it!

[Josh_TXGarageStrength]

BoS, I think you all killed it with this! Glad to see rollers on the trolley. The shrouds are the best on the market IMO - they’re functional and look great! The fact that it’s modular and can fit different rack heights is fantastic. And the double handles making it so I can just add it in one side of my rack…Man, I’ve been sitting on the sidelines seeing all the options and man, I think this is the one I’ll be adding to my rack.

[jared.freedom.gym]

bearings in the handles - great touch!!! Looks like a winner

[SBavailablehandle]

For the plate storage that would conflict with the plate-loaded version they can just put it on the back of the rack pointing at the wall so that it is perpendicular to the weight plates on the guide rails

[NoFate]

Home Gym Discord is a cut-throat brutal realm. Love the editing

[MakingGains-]

Great Canadian company - keep pushing!

[j.benjamin]

Currently the only plate loaded functional trainer that can be mounted on a 4 post rack. Take my money.

[aaronquach]

I was so excited for this to come out but now disappointed that there is no 1" pin Manticore version. I don't think any other companies design products around their 5/8" racks and tell you to fit it loosely in the flagship 1" line of racks. Also all the confusion around having to use the adapter and 1:1 ratio since that reduces the cable length and increases the weight increments to 10lbs.

[hugues-alexandredery]

Wow great product!!
In about a year I wanted to upgrade my cheap rack for a 6 post with a pulley system. You just made my decision very easy! Its hard to consider another brand for us Canadian buyer since you are spot on for price/quality and customer service.
Cheers!!

[chrisbowler]

Around 2:30 you mentioned a tip on reducing wear and tear on cable. Why is there more wear applied to the cable when you're using it in the 2:1 mode as opposed to 1:1?

[Scintillius]

ITS TIME! Been waiting for this to drop!!

[brianm]

Bells of Steel hits the sweet spot between quality and price point, at least for me. Every item I've purchased from them has been great quality at an affordable and fair cost. Great Canadian company!!

[shadmandogar]

Please provide assembly guidelines also. Waiting for assembly video and docs to understand compatibility

[raven-x]

Love the dual pulley design! Much more useful for home gym use cases imo.

[joshb]

Video says 24" cross member depth but website says it needs to be 30"? If 24" does work, is there any plans to have an alternate lat pulldown cross member that bolts on the inside of the rack? Looking at my rack right now, the cross member looks like it would be in the way of the weight stack.

[Rob]

Wait, so are you saying that it’s not recommended using one cable at a time, without the adapter if I wanted to do single arm exercises? (@ 2:18)

So if I wanted to do cable flies by using 2 uprights (because using 1 upright is really tight), it would cause more wear and tear if I used one cable at a time on each upright?

[bbuchner]

Kaevon this looks great for the most part. It would be better if it had band pegs integrated into the stack and bottom crossmember. As far as adjustability of the pulley position, if the pop pin was on the back you could take advantage of the extra holes in the upright. Since you're all about modularity, maybe you could source and offer as an upgrade or stand alone retrofit part, uprights with closer hole spacing on the sides if you can't change the pop-pin position as mentioned earlier. Some other manufacturers are offering a covered pop-pin (with Delrin plastic?) so the rack can't be scratched by a pop-pin not fully retracted-- this would be good to have to keep rack looking nice. Needs an adjustable foot brace for low rows. Did you mention the stack weight? Is it 220lbs like the cable towers? Hoping I can make this work with my REP PR-4000/Northern Lights "Frankenstein" rack somehow.

[mattward]

Would be amazing to get a version of this working with SML-2 type racks. The Kraken + additional uprights to turn the squat stand to a half rack.

[trevorn]

Any idea when the handles with the bearings will be available on their own? Those look amazing.