Legacy Roof Rack capacity

The capacity for the 98 Forester is 150 pounds. Since the designs are similar, I would expect your Legacy to be about the same.

"George Adams" wrote on 11 Jul 2005

Hi,

Thanks for the answer-back. Had found a couple of indirect references suggesting 120lb capacity, but thought that was low.

Thanks again.

Tim

I don't know about that year, but on a '95 it was enough to protect my roof from being dented when a branch fell on it during a storm. Maybe mine was an exceptional case, but the branch was a good 20-30 pounds and fell from about 40 feet or so.

-Matt

"Hallraker" wrote on 11 Jul 2005

Thanks for the info Matt. Sounds like the 120lb figure I'd heard is low.

Tim

Ya Tim,

Your right to figure the 120 lb capacity. I think my 98' OBW has a sticker on the rack that reads 100 lb.

Anyhow what I wanted to tell you is that I have had 200 lb on the rack with no ill effects even at highway speed. Other than the fact that it "felt heavy up there".

I picked up some Thule racks that mount on the rails running from front to back; the Thule's are 60" wide. I recommend them over the Yakima racks as the Thule's are square and the Yakima's are round. So if your strapping some lumber down or something a round bar does no good if you know what I mean.

Have fun!

-

Another thing to consider, at least as important as the ultimate load capacity, is how much lateral loading the rack will have to withstand when the vehicle is in motion, or particularly, where there are significant cross winds. I routinely carry two 16.5ft canoes on my WRX wagon's factory rack using a set of Yakima towers/crossbars. The ~70lb combined weight of the boats is no big deal, and 65-70 on the highway in calm winds doesn't present much problem, as the boats are pretty slippery fore-aft. Gusty crosswinds are pretty scary, tho; you can feel the entire car shudder. As this has to put severe stress on the rack mounting points, I will either slow way down, or even pull off the highway until the winds die off a bit. Just one more thing to consider when planning for a rack system.

ByeBye! S.

Steve Jernigan KG0MB Laboratory Manager Microelectronics Research University of Colorado (719) 262-3101