Any Yakima roof rack owners here? (for OBW)

[Todd H.]

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:
http://yakima.com/choose_my_rack/ProductPopup.asp?Part1=8003524&Part2=

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,

 

[Cam Penner]

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

I'll try.

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.

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.

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:
http://yakima.com/choose_my_rack/ProductPopup.asp?Part1=8003524&Part2=

This seems to be the best to me too.

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.

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

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

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

 

[Todd H.]

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.

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.

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

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

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

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,

 

[Cam Penner]

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

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

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

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

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....

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.

 

[Tim McTeague]

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.

http://www.rackwarehouse.com/f5.html

Tim McTeague

 

[Woody]

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:
http://yakima.com/choose_my_rack/ProductPopup.asp?Part1=8003524&Part2=

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.

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

 

[Pete Grey]

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

 

[Brian Wasson]

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.

 

[David]

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

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

 

[Brian Wasson]

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.