Prime Prototype Trap Bar – 4 Bars in 1

Last updated on December 5th, 2025 at 06:38 pm

I’ve owned my Rickshaw for nearly a decade. It is one of our most favorite bars in our collection for a number of reasons, for both Deadlifts and Weighted Carries. But there are definitely a few areas where it could be improved. When I was looking at a Trap Bar to add to the gym, nothing tickled my fancy, until I found out about the Prime Prototype Trap Bar.

This bar is a 4n1 bar, offering Trap Bar work, Hip Thrusts, Safety Squat Bar, and Cambered Squat Bar functionality by means of some creative attachments. Count me in!

Don’t consider this a full review, because this bar isn’t for sale yet. Instead, consider this a sneak peak behind the scenes with a really unique bar from one of the major American Made manufacturers.

Transparency Note

Prime sent the Prototype Trap Bar over at the tail end of April 2025, free of charge, for sake of testing. Their goal is to get a lot of feedback and hopefully put together an even better end product. I have an affilliate link and code with Prime, but they won’t help you much because this bar isn’t currently for sale.

Prime Prototype Trap Bar Overview

Prime Fitness has a Trap Bar in their lineup currently, and also has a Safety Squat Bar in their lineup. But this bar manages to take the standard Trap Bar design, include removable handles, which give it the ability to transform into multiple bars, even including a dedicated Hip Thrust bar.

Prime Prototype Trap Bar Specs

• Brand: Prime Fitness
• Made In USA: Yes
• Bar Weighs: 53lbs with nothing on it
• SSB Mode: 78lbs
• Hip Thrust Mode: 62.66lbs
• Trap Bar Mode: 67lbs
• Dimensions: 32.7″D x 28.7″W x 54.3″H
• Recommended Weight Capacity: TBD

Prime Prototype Trap Bar Feature Requests

Since the entire point of me having this bar right now, is to provide them with feedback, this will be a running list of the features that YOU want to see Prime address, add, remove, or fix.

You can see a lot of where this list has come from on Instagram (here and here) and on r/HomeGym.

• Moveable pads for hip thrusts to enable the thunder thighed and pencil legged would be great, but also advertisable as a floor based leg/ankle pin for Nordic curls…. Just load the barbell, it’s not gonna roll with the flat feet, drop the handles down and go. Leg rollers should probably should feed into the deadlift handle assembly rather than the base plate to enable that– I don’t immediately see a loading issue since it’s meant to carry the deadlift loads from that insertion point anyways, and it cuts down material costs and storage space.
• Potentially move to a single piece for Hip Thrust Pads
• add 2lbs to the base unit to make it 55lbs and the rest of the configurations will round off too. Add another .5lbs to the thrust mode.
• Knurl the SSB handles. Would also be nice if they knurl or add centering rings to the trap bar.
• It would be really cool if there was an attachment with 45 degree angle handles to do shoulder presses.
• make it a seal row
• try to also have iot be a multicamber bench bar
• Shorter sleeves as an option would be great for garage gyms where these big bulky bars are difficult to store and difficult to move around.
• More handle width adjustments would be interesting!
• A way for the handles to be used for a neutral grip OHP would be excellent.
• Another thing is to add a way to attach it to a landmine. You could use it for a Viking press and a lever squat. For T Bar rows.
• Use it for a frame carry
• Include KAZ and R0-T8 handles
• Include a less aggressive knurl handle option
• More handle angle options 15-degree is biomechanical friendly for deadlifting, rackable
• More handle height options, specifically an option in line with the bar itself

If you’d like to provide some additional feedback, requests, or ideas, hit this survey.

Name For This Bar

Prime currently does not have a name for this bar, but I asked and got some great ideas.

• Prime ShapeShifter
• The Prime Bar
• THE PRIME OPTIMUS
• prime morpheus bar
• Optimus Prime bar
• Apex Trap Bar

Shipping & Assembly

Prime Fitness has some of the BEST shipping out there. Their packages come DENSE and ready for battle. Receiving the Prime Shorty Bench was a thing of beauty, and the Prime Prototype Trap Bar was no different. It came in multiple boxes, each fully stacked and packed to the brim with molded foam inserts. These boxes could have been ran over by the FedEX truck that delivered it, and not had any issues.

Prime Prototype Trap Bar Features

At first glance it is a Trap bar. If it was set up in a vertical storage rack, or on a platform, you’d have a hard time distinguishing it from Prime’s original Trap Bar offering. We have the black powder coated frame, the open trap bar construction, machined Olympic sleeves, loading jacks, and the adjustable height handle options.

But we have two key design differences.

First is that the loading jack feet transitioned from some basic blocks, to the wheeled concept in the Prototype bar. More on that in a bit. And second, the money maker for our discussion today, is the fully removable handles that create an attachment point on the bar. So when we are done with our trap bar work, we can take them off entirely for cambered bar work, add on the Safety Squat Bar Handles, or get to work on some Hip Thrusts.

Handles and Hardware

Each of the handles above attaches to the Prime Prototype Trap Bar in the same fashion. The handles work in a keyhole fashion, where they pop the large attachment hole onto the large bolt, slide up and lock the small attachment hole into place. The pop pin secures it in place so it doesn’t slide, and they include a tension knob as well.

A quick note because this always comes up… No, sorry, this new bar design is not compatible with Prime’s current Trap Bar and your old bar can not be upgraded in any way.

Trap Bar Mode

This is clearly the “primary” mode for this bar, as it is by default, a Trap Bar. The Prime Prototype Trap Bar comes with a couple of handle options. The first set is in line with the sleeves, but I found them to be TOO tight to the hardware of the bar. Essentially, I would scrape my hands using them at all. Instead, I opted for the adjustable handles every time.

It adjusts in 1 inch increments from the lowest at about 14inches off the ground, and the highest about 18 inches off the ground. This lets you skip adding blocks for different pull heights and helps accommodate different athletes. And if you take the handle out and turn it around, it’ll adjust the width as well from about 25 inches on center, to 29 inches on center.

I think they might be able to take this another step further, either put holes on all four sides, or use something like the BulletProof Isolator adjustments to give you multiple angle options like Supinated, Semi Supinated, Pronated and more.

A big win for this bar over my Rickshaw out the gate is the knurled handles. I handled 4+ plates per side without any chalk or straps for a weighted carry. Something that was very difficult with the Rickshaw. This has the same knurling as the KAZ Handles. Speaking of which, Prime’s current Trap Bar offering has multiple handle options such as the RO-T8, KAZ Handles, etc. I’d really love to see those here.

The jack for loading works pretty freaking well. Instead of having to have a bar like my Rickshaw with the flat feet, or use a deadlift jack, we just flip it up and load our plates. The only issue I ran into here, was largely because I use older plates with not as tight of hole tolerances. As the bar gets loaded heavier, I found that there was a bit of a sag and the plates could drag a bit when being loaded.

I got a lot of questions about whether this bar is Self Balancing or not…

From some research I believe they aren’t allowed to claim this due to legal reasons, but the bar is pretty well balanced. If it is left alone, loaded, it’ll mostly hover where you leave it.

It doesn’t exactly balance to that neutral point on its own, but it’ll balance well enough that you aren’t grabbing handles that are out of whack for your heaviest 1rm attempts. Prime also includes rubber stoppers on the ends of the sleeves, which serve two purposes. One is to keep the plates from bumping and scratching into the hardware, the other is to create friction to keep the plates from rotating on you.

When the plates don’t rotate, the bar doesn’t move as much.

Overall, I think this works very well for a trap bar. If it was just me in the gym, the Rickshaw would probably move on. If we got some less knurled handles, my wife might convert as well and we’d replace one bar entirely.

Safety Squat Bar Mode

This is probably the most “WOW” feature of this bar. Which is saying something. When I sent the promo video to a few friends, they all said they audibly were shocked at the SSB mode. Right now, the general construction of the handles, the pads, and the overall feel of this is very similar to the Super Squat Bar.

What you’ll notice is that they don’t have the more traditional padding a lot of SSB bars do. Instead you WEDGE into the front bar pads and the back panel. This locks you in, and helps you stay upright. The goal with this bar, unlike a lot of other Safety Squat Bars, is to nail the quads. An upright posture for me, is the ideal posture for squats. Easy on my knees, does everything I want it to do, and is a really strong position for me. I actually think I might squat MORE with the Super Squat Bar than a traditional straight bar.

I think a potential upgrade would be to add removable handles. If we went the route of the SS4 from Bells of Steel, we could have a number of handle options. This would address any potential problems people might have with range of motion with the handles. I didn’t struggle here, even with a pretty deep squat for a 6ft 250lb dude, but depending on your stance, this might not be your experience.

The SSB mode is pretty damn balanced, and since it uses a similar wedged in feel as the Super Squat Bar, you can easily go completely hands free if you want to.

Both the prototype and Super Squat bar struggle in storage, in maneuverability, and in set-up. Both use the same back pad design that WEDGES you into the bar. They have the same handles, with the same measurements, angles, and the same padding. While the construction is different, the overall concepts are the same.

I spent my entire prep for the Fall GGC using the Prototype bar, and the last several weeks after before filming this with the Super Squat bar. The bars feel so similar, I had to rewatch videos, even film some side-by-side clips to see if the bars sit on my shoulders different, where the camber landed, or anything else that might give me some insight.

Objectively, there isn’t much of a difference I can see. If you see something I don’t, let me know in the comments.

If I’m giving you my subjective opinion, the Super Squat Bar sits back just a tad more on the upper back, making it an ever so slightly more up right squat bar. But that is me REALLY digging to find a difference.

Overall, the question of “how does this feel and handle compared to the Super Squat bar…” Is that the prototype bar wedges you in, handles heavy loads, and feels and move and grooves just like the Super Squat Bar.

Cambered Bar Mode

I have owned a Cambered Squat Bar for a long time, and it is one of my FAVORITE squat bars. A lot of people hate them. I find it to be a very fantastic squat pattern. Maybe I’m weird, maybe I’m built different, but the Edge Fitness Systems Cambered Squat Bar is a regular in my rotation. I love adding chains to this bar too, something about it feels VERY West Side Barbell.

We have no knurling on the frame, and the powder coat is very smooth. Add in the thickness of the frame, and this bar doesn’t exactly want to stay on your back. If you compare the Prototype Bar to my Cambered Squat bar, you’ll also notice one big difference. The cambered squat bar racks on the upper part of the bar, where your back and hands would go. The Prototype Bar racks down by the weights.

This creates a couple of issues. For squats, it doesn’t provide the same comfortable hand placement as a typical cambered bar would.

And for bench, it creates a problem with j-cup set up as they need to be REALLY low, as you grab the bar up top here.

You could tinker around with using it for overhead press and some other variations like zercher squats, but overall I don’t find this to perform as well as my dedicated cambered squat bar… i.e. I’m keeping that bar in my rotation.

Hip Thrust Mode

I was told before the bar shipped, that “it was good for Hip Thrusts”. I had no clue what that could mean. How could a Trap Bar, do Hip Thrusts? Well, now I know! The pads slide on like the other attachments, and they leverage the rollers that help with loading the bar, to let you roll the bar in and out of place. This is pure genius.

Out the gate, the bar is wide enough to fit around my Booty Sprout, which is a plus. I think they might be better offer with a single pad instead of dual though. And ideally, we probably have some adjustable pads for different sized users.

I was able to hit a 636lb Hip Thrust here, using my Nighthawk bench with the front seat pad dropped, and this was the most stable and best feeling heavy hip thrust I’ve done in a long time. I got this idea from a comment on my bench video… I might be the expert here, but I learn a lot from all of you too. So thanks for that.

With our garage having a bit of a slant to it, a normal bar often rolls on us, requires multiple pieces to keep it in place, pads, and more. This is a nearly one stop solution without any of the headache. The frame of the bar almost acts like a handle to help keep the bar balanced on you. It’ll take some testing and figuring out to get it centered with every rep, but this works really well.

If I’m going heavy on hip thrusts, I think this is my new winner. We haven’t abandoned our Booty Sprout yet simply because of the band function, but my wife likes it, I like it, and we feel stronger, more stable, with easier set-up and use than anything else we’ve used to date for Hip Thrusts.

Storage & Mobility

This is one piece that this bar is definitely struggling in. To be fair, the Super Squat Bar struggled here too, and so do MOST specialty bars. I’ve passed on buying a few bars in the past due to awkward storage requirements. The Prime Prototype Trap Bar is heavy, long, and difficult to move and store. My wife absolutely can not navigate this bar in the gym. I have to get it out for her. The bar is easier to move and store than the Super Squat Bar ever was… and being able to take the handles off does help with this.

But… since the handles are all an individual piece, they all take up space. Prime is typically really good at offering wall storage options for their equipment, but since our goal was space saving with combining bars, this eats into that a bit.

One thing that might be cool for this bar, is to have different sized sleeve options that can easily be changed like the attachments. This would give us the ability to potentially make storage and movement easier, as well as use smaller sleeves for tighter spaces and smaller athletes.

Wrap Up On The Prime Prototype Trap Bar

I covered a lot more in the video version of this write up, so make sure to check that out.

The final two pieces… When is it available?

No idea.

Since we are still in prototype, we could be a ways away. The fact that I’m allowed to show you this bar, is a good sign that it is moving forward.

And last… how much will it cost?

Again, not sure. Their current trap bar is $775, and the majority of the attachments for the Shorty are in the $150 to $200 range.So if we assumed $775 for the base trap bar, and $200 for the Hip Thrust and SSB mode, we might be around $1200. Now that’s a lot for a bar, but if you bought the Trap Bar and Super Squat Bar, you’d be out $1400, and wouldn’t have the Hip Thrust… so maybe it makes sense?

As always, Prime isn’t fast, nor are they cheap. But their equipment is American Made, top notch, and often a first of its kind.

This bar checks all of those boxes.

💲Want to buy The Prime Prototype Trap Bar? You can’t! At least not yet.

But you can use my code to save 5% at Prime Fitness. Code: GGC