Yakima PowderHound Roof-Mounted, Locking Ski and Snowboard Carrier - 4 Skis/2 Boards

Video Transcript for Yakima PowderHound Ski and Snowboard Carrier Review

Today we are going to show you the Yakima PowderHound roof mounted ski and snowboard carrier, part number Y03081. This model will hold up to four skies or two snowboards. It is a available in a larger model, called the Big PowderHound, part number Y03082 that will hold up to six pairs of skies or four snowboards. The PowderHound engages and idengages with a large push button that is easy to manipulate, even with gloves on. The PowderHound includes a set of lift brackets if you have tall bindings and need a little bit more clearance between the rack and the roof. It also includes two lock cores from Yakimas SKS locking system. These lock cores can be found on many Yakima accessories and are interchangeable so that you can use the same keys for locks on your ski rack, or your bike rack, or your roof rack. The soft rubber pads on the top and bottom jaws of the ski rack securely grab your gear without damaging it. The included universal mounts will not only fit Yakima round cross bars but they will also fit square load bars and many of the OEM cross bars found today. The PowderHound also includes a lifetime warranty. 1:10

If your skies are under 170 centimeters in length, make sure that your cross bar spread from center to center is between 12 and 24 inches. If your skies and boards are over the 170 centimeters, make sure the cross bar spread is between 12 and 36 inches. The first installation step is going to be to attach the mounts to the ski rack. But, before we do that, we are going to check to make sure that the short screws are adequate for our round cross bars. If the cross bars are a little thick and you need more than the preinstalled screw length, you can use these screws to give you some more length. Now that we have determined that the preinstalled short screws are going to be adequate, the first thing we need to do is open up the rack. To install the mounting brackets, we are going to remove the screw from the top and we are going to it through this slot and into the hole on the inside. We are going to slip the slider top onto the bolt and we are going to loosely screw the bolt into the slider nut on the inside of the mount. Inside the mount is a nut that slides on a little track. This way, you can adjust the position of the mount depending on the shape and curvature of your roof. 2:19

You do not have to tighten it down yet. Just make sure you have enough threads so that it will not fall off. Repeat the same process for the other mounts. Before we head over to the roof rack, we are going to the screws in from the top, but only through the top. We are not going to start threading them yet. With our mounts loosely attached to the underside of the ski rack, we can go ahead and attach it to the cross bar. Get the one side started and then start the second side. As we tighten down, we may need to move from the back side to the front side to keep it tightening evenly. Once we have the mounts clamped down to the cross bars, we are going to open up the ski rack and tighten the bolts that hold the top slide to the ski rack. Once we finish tightening the rack to the slider, you can go ahead and close it and move on to the rack in the rear. 3:12

Should you find that some of your ski bindings are too tall and are making contact with the roof and you need more clearance, Yakima PowderHound includes a rack lift that will help give you some more clearance. To install the rack lift, pop open the carrier. Loosen the front bolt that attaches the carrier to the top slide. Do not completely remove it. Just loosen it to give yourself some wiggle room. Then on the rear of the rack, completely remove the bolt that attaches the rack to the top slide. With the carrier out of the way, we are going to lock the slide top down by itself. Take the lift bracket and one of the longer hex head bolts and attach it to the base. Take one of the carriage bolts and run it through the square hole on the ski rack through the high raise bracket. On the other side, we will use one of the included wing nuts to tighten it down. With the carrier lifted, we have some extra clearance space between where the skies are going to go and the roof. So that if we have tall bindings, we will still be ok. OK, with everything tightened down, we can go ahead and test it out and load up some skies. And there you have it for the Yakima PowderHound roof mounted ski carrier, part number Y03081.