Any Yakima roof rack owners here? (for OBW)

The story continues. Anyone with a Yakima roof rack care to enlighten me?

With sheer dumb luck, I stumbled over a garage sale today and picked up a 2-bike Yakima roof rack in good condition for...err, delightfully little.

I appear to have gotten a direct roof mount system with: o 2 Raptor bike mounts (these are the type that have rail the assembled bike sits in, a locking strap for each wheel, and one arm that pivots up clamps onto the down tube). o Q towers Yakima #00105 - set of 4 ($125 new) o 4 lock cores for the above ($40 new) o The Q clips for whatever car this was on, 4 total ($50 new) o Pair 58" round crossbars Yakima #00409 ($42 new)

It's clear to me that this Q tower and Q clip combination is useless to me, ripe for reselling since a) the OBW isn't compatible with Q towers and b) the clips are car model-specific anyway.

So what's the best way for me to proceed? So far it seems this is the best approach at $27/set:

o Grab two sets of Yakima 24H Mighty Mount clips to affix the Raptors directly to my factory crossbars. Looks like I need 6 clips total. Graphic:

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or o 4 Low Rider clamps ($125 for the set) These would allow me to use the Yakima round crossbars and mount em to the side rails of my rack. Rather pricey and clunkier looking. But with those long 58" bars, I guess i could manage to get 4 bikes on the roof there.

Do I have a handle on this, or do other Yakima-savvy folks have different ideas?

TIA for any insights,

Best Regards,

-- Todd H.

2001 Legacy Outback Wagon, 2.5L H-4 Chicago, Illinois USA
Reply to
Todd H.
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I'll try.

The clips for sure are useless (unless you EXCEPTIONAL as opposed to merely GREAT blind luck.) Are the Q towers out for you because of the factory rack? Can they not co- exist? Have you tried them? I have the Q towers on my RS.

This seems to be the best to me too.

The downside here is that the big bars make a lot of wind noise. Trust me on this one.

Try contacting RackAttack.com. They seem to know their stuff. (at least the retail shop I bought mine from did.)

Reply to
Cam Penner

I tried to install the rack as-is on the roof rack, and the clips that are on these Q towers are too "tall" to clamp onto the roof rack rails. If I added some height to the rails (small block of wood), then perhaps the lip of this Q clip might be able to clamp down, but I'd be very hesitant to feel that it was at all safe.

The RS lacks a roof rack right? IF so, I can certainly envison these working on such a verhicle.

Oh, I'd believe it. Seems reason enough to veer away from that.

Cool--I'll see what htey can do.

I've since called my local Yakima dealer who seemed delightfully clued in -- they indicated that the Mighty Mount clips would be the way to go unless I was hunting for doing more with a roof rack system than just carry bikes.

Now I'm curious how many bikes I might be able to get on the factory rack. Gotta look up the weight limit on those crossbars....

Best Regards,

-- Todd H.

2001 Legacy Outback Wagon, 2.5L H-4 Chicago, Illinois USA
Reply to
Todd H.

Yeah, there's no factory rack. The Q tower rests right on the roof, and the clips grab the lip right above the window.

The upside is that the bars are way stronger than the factory bars. Those Yakima bars are pretty heavy metal.

It's pathetically low. My rack and box alone take up 30-

40% of the allowable roof load. 110lbs would be my guess for your rack.
Reply to
Cam Penner

You need a set of "Lowriders". I have them on my 2004 Outback and they hold onto the factory rack very well. I just took a trip with two fiberglass sea kayaks and one road bike and the load never moved a bit.

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Tim McTeague

Reply to
Tim McTeague

This is a form vs. function decision.

We just traded in my wife's '98 Forester that had Yakima clamps, 58" crossbars, and kayak stackers. I removed the Yakama rack stuff prior to trade in and put the factory crossbars back on. We will use the Yakama clamps and 58" crossbars on the new 2004 Forrester that is in the yard.

IMHO the factory crossbars are made to look nice but have little to offer in terms of function. The Yakama crossbars offer a wider and flat surface that I can place kayaks, ladders, ect. on and they will not slide off prior to tie down. If you put a priority on form and will use the rack only on rare occasion, the factory crossbars may be for you. If you want a real roof rack with general utility, go for the chunkier but much more useful Yakama crossbars.

My form conscious wife wants to leave the factory crossbars on until the first time that we really need the rack. Then the factory crossbars will go off to storage 'till trade-in 7 or 8 years down the road.

Woody

Reply to
Woody

Yakima low riders are the ticket, hands down.

The factory units are really wimpy, I wouldn't want two bikes up there in heavy cross-winds.

I've had four bikes on my 58" bars no problem, in really heavy winds.

The bar-rating is very generous, I bet you could stack double that up there without a problem, although I'm not endorsing it:-]

-pete

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Reply to
Pete Grey

I completely agree about the Low Riders. While the mounts for the factory racks are fine, the Low Rider towers give you an incredibly sturdy system (not as good as the old-style 1A raingutter towers, but oh well...). I'm on my second OBW using the Low Riders and have no complaints. We routinely carry a tandem on the OBW using a Yakima mount, and I've also had my sea kayak and canoe up there (not all together).

We have no problem with wind noise since we installed the cheap Yakima Windjammer mini-fairing. It doesn't look like it will help, but it really does.

Reply to
Brian Wasson

I've only carried bikes on Yak (& Thule) bars, never on the factory crossbars, but the factory bars are quieter up on the roof,, and I'd be tempted to go that way. Especially if you have a sunroof. The rack fairings help a little but not enough.

It may be that the factory bars are less stable, and you'll want to switch, but it probably doesn't cost that much to find out.

David

Reply to
David

I should have also mentioned that when I installed the Yakima bars and towers, I removed the stock Subaru cross bars. This helped reduce the wind noise, too, as there were less surfaces parallel to the wind.

Reply to
Brian Wasson

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