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Yakima Roof-Rack System Review
Featured Product
Yakima Q Towers Roof Rack Feet for Naked Roof (QTY 4)
Y00124
$159.00
Manufacturer Instructions
Review of a Yakima Roof-Rack System
Today we are going to cover the typical components of a Yakima roof-rack system. We will start from the bottom and work our way up. On the bottom part are the actual pieces that are going to make actual contact with the vehicle, and those parts are referred to as Q Clips, part number Y0605. They actually adapt the rack to the car itself. And this is a set of the Towers right here, part number Y00124. These go from the roofline to the crossbars. And the Q Towers are lockable, so no one can take them off your vehicle. They do come with the cases for the locks themselves. These do not have the key lock inside them you do have to add the cores to them yourself. And that is part of Yakimas SKS System. And then the last part is the crossbars themselves, part number Y0408. And these bars come in various lengths, designed for specific applications. What we will do now is go ahead and assemble these components and actually install them on a typical application. In this case, we are actually going to install this on a 2005 Volkswagen Jetta.
We have the components for one corner of the rack system to give you an idea of how they go together. First off, we are going to open up the latch here, and there is a little adjustment screw right here. It actually fine-tines your adjustment to snug down the brackets to your car. And when you have them tight enough, you just close them to latch into place. We will go ahead and take out this screw and install the Fit Kit first. What happens here is that this Fit Kit part will fit on the bottom side here, and these corners - these corners right here - will actually fit into these slots. It is kind of a press fit, so you have to push pretty hard to get it in there. All right, once you get the corners started in there, then just push it together. And you can see how it fits into the corners here. And the next thing to do is to get it lined up with the keyhole here so we can attach the lock holder itself. And it is keyed, so it can go in only one way. And when you have it installed, put your clip in there that holds it in place. Now we can go ahead and reinstall this back into our Tower. And you do not have to go all the way in, maybe halfway, because you will have to go back and adjust both sides evenly when you install it on the vehicle. Now we will put our pad in for the Fit Kit, and the pad simply snaps into place. And that takes care of the Tower, and we only have three more to go.
When they come from the factory, the clamp for the bar itself is compressed, so you need to take the clamp loose so you can slide it on the bar. What you want to do is, this little plastic cover here, you want to pull that back out to get to the little assembly screw right here. And you have just got to undo it with the included Allen key. And then you just want to loosen it up a little bit and then push that tab down so you have a nice, round circle on the inside. This is the part that actually gets clamped up against the crossbar so it does not go anywhere. And then install our endcap. Repeat the same procedure for the other side of this bar and for the other bar, too. And then this rack will be ready to install on our vehicle. Now the instructions that come with the kit and the Fit Kit will tell you exactly where to mount these on the vehicle. So you actually snug this up, then the bar here actually snugs it down to the roofline. And you may have to adjust it a little bit left and right and on the threads of the center bolt to make sure you latch it on tight. All right, and then just repeat the same process for the rear crossbar. And with that, your roof rack is ready to add your accessory to it.
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