Best 2012 Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen Ski And Snowboard Racks

E trailer I have a 2019 Mazda6 and purchased the rhino rack series 2500 parts (fit kit #DK289, foot pack #RRRLKVA, aero crossbars#RRVA126B-2), and the rhino rack snowboard/ski carrier #RR576. My car does have fixed mounting points underneath the strip on the roof so I opted to add them to my roof and not use the clamp for kit that goes in the door jam. Every time I entered the year, make, and model of my car, the parts came up with the clamp fit kit part #DK387 which I did not want. But after some research, I found the correct fixed mounting point fit kit. The site of course told me that this part wouldn’t fit my car but after looking at the customer reviews, I saw them used on Mazdas. All of the rhino rack instructions were not the best. We did have to make some adjustments. One of the instruction packs tells you how long you’re supposed to cut the rubber pieces that go into the crossbars based on your car but unfortunately, the measurements were wrong for my car (picture- front 166mm is wrong). The front bar length was about an inch too short and I had to add more rubber to make it longer to fit the fixed mounting points on my roof. After some time of trying to interpret the instructions, and looking up whatever available instructional videos were online, we finally finished installing them and they do look really nice. At higher speeds on the highway I can definitely hear more noise. The actual snowboard carrier is fine, fits all 4 boards fine. It is a little difficult to close once I have my boards in there because you have to push the top bar all the way down and hold it down to be able to turn the key to lock it. I’m just happy I don’t have to shove the boards in my trunk. I do like that all the parts in this series come with locks and keys. So far no problems. Overall good product.

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

This rack works great with the four pairs of skis I lugged from Oregon to Alaska. I'm using it on the beef rack cross bars that came with my go fast camper which are very difficult to find mountings for. This one worked great though with a little bit of metal grinding on the bolts that slide into the t-slot of the rack. It locks and unlocks fairly easily (with a little bit of jangling involved), but so far so good!

Click to Enlarge

Howzit etrailer.com & staff. the rack itself is sturdy and more aero than comparable units. For my 2017 Subaru Crosstrek (OEM) Aero Bars, it was necessary to shim the (rear) lower/leading edge clamp assembly with two 1/8” x 1.5” x 1.5” (EPDM) rubber pads. The bars are shaped like a wing – and these shims helped to level the rear rack with the one in front. Overall - it looks very clean and functional. I might screw on some rubber ends over the ends of the mounting bolt to complete the project. Time to make some turns. Thank you!!

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

The Rhino Rack was easy to put up on a 2018 Subaru Outback. Took me about 10 minutes. The only issue is that the rack bottom bracket piece is is convex with an acute angle which makes it not fit perfectly on the Subaru crossbar that has a flat bottom. Loaded 2 pairs of skis and poles and the rack kept them securely fastened during transport on the highway. There was some noise from the rack during highway driving but it was minimal.

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

This rack works well. I did however need to manufacture a rubber wedge to go between the lower cross bar (TH9033) and the bike rack so the attach point would lay flat against the bike rack. Many thanks to Cathy at etrailer.com for the excellent customer service she provided.

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

I just used the ski carrier. I had to get used to the small amount of movement as I drove. I checked it out several times and every thing was fine. I just put 1100 miles on it , along with the bike rack and the new hitch.