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This custom fit kit lets you mount 4 Rhino-Rack 2500 legs to your vehicle with a naked roof. Clamps mount to legs with bolts. Includes 4 clamps and 4 pads.
Features:
Specs:
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
How's it going everybody, it's Ethan here at etrailer. Today we're gonna be taking a look at and showing you how to install the Rhino-Rack Vortex Aero Roof Rack System on our 2021 Ford F-150. So with the F-150, obviously we have a good amount of bed space, but if you wanna get something longer or larger up there and maybe couple this with like a ladder rack to give some longer loads like a ladder or a lumber or on the sports and rec side, maybe you have a larger kayak you wanna get where you need it to go, a roof rack system like this one is gonna be a great solution for you. So let's take a closer look. The roof rack is going to have a weight capacity of 165 pounds. It's going to fit on our roof with the fit kit that we'll show you in the installed portion.
But 165 is gonna be a pretty solid or pretty common number that you see with roof racks like this, which is gonna be fine for most of the things you wanna get up there. You just wanna double check and make sure that your roof weight rating is in that same ballpark. Make sure you know what each of those are and go by the lowest ready component just to be safe. The crossbars we have on our system right now are gonna be 59", which is a solid length. We stay pretty much well within the width of our vehicle overall.
They're going to be elliptical so they taper on both ends to cut down on some of that wind noise and drag. But anytime you put something up on the roof, you're gonna deal with that. Luckily, we also do have a vortex strip on the top which is how the bars get their name. So that's going to help again cut down on some of that wind noise, otherwise we just have that open channel up here. Speaking of that channel though, that's gonna be great for your T-track accessories.
If you have those, you can slide those in. But with the strip you are going to have to trim it up if you wanna leave this strip in with those accessories on. So it's not a horrible idea to just grab another strip if you want to, in the event that you do end up doing some trimming. On our end cap here, we do have a plastic lock which we can use to unlock or lock our end cap but you can upgrade those to metal if you'd like. On the underside, you do have the option to use a measurement strip that you are gonna trim up and put wherever your towers are not.
In our case, this is just for demonstration and we'll talk a little bit more about that in the install portion as well, but that'll cut down on that whistling noise underneath as well. And using the provided key, we can take our end cap off and just show you how that works. So it's just a metal lock core there that will expose our fit kit hardware. So as long as our end cap is on and it's also locked up, no one is going to be able to access your fit kit hardware and remove the rack from your roof. From here I'm just gonna get a quick measurement to give you an idea of how much height you're going to be adding to your roof with the system. So from here in the middle, you're going to be looking at adding about 4-1/4" from the highest point. So if you're thinking about storing this in your garage, especially if you have something on there, add about 4-1/4" to whatever that's gonna be to find out whether or not it will fit in your garage or if you'll go anywhere where there might be some clearance issues. The roof rack system is gonna be made out of an anodized aluminum so it's gonna be really lightweight, easy to work with, but also very durable and rustproof at that point. It's got a nice matte black finish so it looks good. I think it fits the aesthetic of our F-150 really well. Overall, the install portion isn't too terribly difficult. It can be a little bit tricky, but you just need to be patient. Use the measurements that the instructions give you and make sure that you know where everything is gonna go. But if you need a little bit of help with that process, we'll walk you through it right now. To get started, the first thing we'd like to do is to slay everything out so that we know where and what it is. So we have our crossbars, we have towers, our fit kit, the clamps, and the hardware. We've got the pads and the bases for our towers. We have the tools and I would recommend picking up some kind of fabric tape measure as well as a regular tape measure. And then we have this measurement strip that comes included that we'll have to trim up according to our needs and definitely keep the instructions close by 'cause we will have to reference those often. But we'll begin by removing the end caps on our crossbars. We are going to use this plastic key to fit into the end cap. Just turn it and pull it out as long as we have it rotated fully, and we need to remove that in order to get our towers on. So we're going to line up this metal plate here with the underside, with the channel underneath our crossbars and just slide those on. And now is when you're gonna use that measurement strip. So for our case, ours has already been trimmed up so we can't use it effectively but you're gonna basically line it up with your tower, find the measurement on your instructions. In our case, we're looking for 169, so I'll get that roughly to where it needs to be. In your case, you could actually use the full measurement strip and trim it up if you need to. We repeated that process on the other side. We just slid our tower under this channel here and line it up according to the measurement, removed our end caps and now we just need to replace those real quick. Again, just put 'em on and tighten 'em down with the key. From here, since we're doing our front crossbar, just be sure to reference the instructions but we're going to attach one of our base pads to the rest of the base, and we wanna make sure you can see this arrow on here. We wanna make sure that ends up facing forward, so in our case, we're going to get these on and then we'll line it up with the tower. With the pad connected to the base, you can see where these openings are, and where they'll fit on our towers. So from here, again, we just wanna make sure that that arrow is facing forward, and we can snap this on into place. And then we're gonna repeat this process again on the other side. Once our towers are roughly in place, we're going to get a measurement. In your case, you could use the measurement strip. In our case, we would've to trim that up, and this is just for demonstration, so I'm gonna use our fabric tape measure to find that 169 millimeter mark in our case. And now I'm going to use the Allen key provided to tighten this down. As we tighten down, something important to note is that this tool does have a built-in torque spec, so just the way it's designed. Once we start turning, as soon as we see that line straightened out, that's about as tight as we want to go. Once we have our towers all set up, our measurements where we need 'em to be and both bases in place, now we can place our crossbars roughly on our roof, whereabout we think they're going to go. Just a matter of getting them roughly in place for now. And then we're gonna come back and get the measurement to make sure that they're in the right place. From here, again, since this is the front crossbar, I'm going to be using the measurement A in our case, which is 280 millimeters or 28 centimeters from the center of our door jam to the center of the tower. So in our case, I need to slide forward quite a bit. It's gonna be kind of hard to tell for now until I move the other one forward as well. So I'm gonna go to the other side and get that measurement now. Once we have everything in place and all our measurements are good, if your end caps are on, make sure we get those out of the way. If they're locked, go ahead and just use the provided key to unlock it. But now we're going to fit the bolt through this hole here on our clamp and make sure that it threads into that opening there inside our tower. Once you get the bolt here to start threading, it's probably gonna be easier just to use the tool to get it most of the way in. In our case, I'm gonna go to about 70, 75% here. I'm not gonna tighten it down all the way 'cause it might start pulling the whole system towards me, rather I'm gonna tighten this one down, and then I'm gonna go back to the other side, tighten that one down, come back and finish this one up, and then finish the other side up as well just to make sure everything's even as possible. Now that we've gone back to the other side and tighten that one down, I'm gonna finish tightening this bolt here. Again, just using this tool. Once it gets to the point where it straightens out, that's how you know we're at the desired torque. So I'm right about there now. All that's left to do is to replace our end caps and lock those up. So overall, if you're looking for a really effective way to extend your load space, whether that's getting some larger or longer items up on your roof, the Rhino-Rack Vortex Aero Roof Rack System is gonna be a great option for you. We just took a look at how to install it and how it fits on our 2021 Ford F-150.
Customer Satisfaction Score:
94% were satisfied with this product
6% of customers were not satisfied
Ratings & Reviews
Recently bought a Rhino rack for my 2018 Ford F-150. Took my time, followed instructions exactly, and it fit perfectly. Plan on using the rack to carry my kayaks, especially when pulling my travel trailer. Haven’t put it to use yet but am very pleased with how it fit my truck and appears to make very little noise on the road.
This rack worked out great... I installed in on a 2017 Ford F-150. We drove 6 hrs through wind and rain with a SUP and Tandem Kayak on top. It really took a beating in a storm the whole way. One bracket was a little loose and shifted because of the wind on the Kayak, but it held together. Super happy with Rhino rack!
So helpful! Bought a roof rack back in 2019 and have since bought a new vehicle. The roof rack was no longer compatible and I lost some of the parts in a move. I called customer service and they helped find a solution so that I could use them on my truck. Super helpful and super friendly! Product worked great and I can still continue to use my roof rack instead of buying a whole other one. Thank you!
eTrailer is "on it" -- from online order to doorstep 3 days -- order status update, great -- product arrive via UPS, IMO the only professional shipping service -- installation video along with product manual very helpful -- suggest reading the book first and then watching the movie -- installation took about 1 hour -- now I have to remember the roof racks are on the truck and watch the overhead door clearance, 'coz they ain't coming off --
Well I should get a dummy award for this product, I was convinced that I had the wrong part but etrailer customer support is the best. First they are knowledgeable and quickly realized they were dealing with an uninformed customer, 2nd they are patient and walked me through the process of how to correctly install the pads, & 3rd they laughed right along with me. This was the correct product for my truck and fit perfectly once I attached them properly. Can't say enough good things about your customer support. Thanks.
Fits my truck perfectly, looks really good, and was a great deal less expensive than the bigger name brands you probably know about. The customer service was fantastic and the installation video they supplied was customized to my specific truck and rack kit making it a breeze to put on the roof.
The Rhino racks are excellent. They are easy to put on and take off. They are quite without the need for a fairing. My kayak racks clamp down tight. Much better than the round racks.
I have to admit that I was a bit hesitant to go with a rack brand I never heard of as opposed to the “Y” or “T” brand. Those concerns soon disappeared as I assembled and mounted the Rhino Roof Rack onto my 2020 GMC 1500 Denali.
As an engineer, I appreciate engineering attention to details:
- the fit to my vehicle was accurate to +/- 1mm
- the hold done bolts are theft deterrent
- the mounting towers include locks
- placement of the mounting towers is mistake proof with integrated measuring system
- all of the surfaces that may whistle in the wind are closed
- the end caps are held in place with a unique latching mechanism
- even stickers are provided to allow you to remove and replace the racks without error
Rhino Rack ... your engineers and product execution team are #1 in the business!!!
Noisy, but secure. Noisy enough that I don’t like it on my truck. Wish I had gone with a different product.
Everything arrived amazingly fast and install was a breeze. Super happy with the finished product and will definitely be shopping at etrailer in the future!
Bought the 2500 Vortex kit for my 2015 F150. Very well made kit. Installation was a breeze. Just follow the directions and you can not mess it up.
Great packaging, timely delivery and good quality Rhino products! I watched a utube video on installing the rack system which made the install much easier.
The rhino rack assembled easily, fit the channels in my roof perfectly and looks great! 5 stars for on time delivery, good packaging, super easy ordering also. Very happy customer!
Fits 2017+ Super Duty!
I had the vortex 2500 on my previous truck which I removed when I traded it in for the 2017 super duty. I knew all I needed was the foot kit to make the switch over to the new truck. But, for some reason Rhino rack didn’t have a kit for the new body super duty. They did however have kits for the 2015+ F150 which I knew would work because they share the same cab. My hunch was correct and the foot kit worked great.
The measurement for the spacing between the feet were a little off. The F150 calls for 169mm and 166mm between feet (front bar/rear bar). I found that to be a bit too narrow. I added about 5mm on each and it fit perfectly.
Great product, very well built, heavy duty. the assembly and settings instructions are easy to follow and when I placed it on the roof of my 2015 f150 super cab, it fit perfectly with no further adjustments necessary. I am very impressed with this Rhino Rack and feel it will probably outlast me and be handed down through many generations. Also purchasing from etrailer was an awesome experience, fast free shipping. easy website to navigate.
Shipping was on time and it was the exact product I need for my 25 f150.
These replacement legs for my Rhino Rack are really great. They are a big improvement over the original legs. The fit is much tighter and secure. very happy with this product.
The roof rack continued to get loose and I lost 2 kayaks going down the highway. I was able to recover them after significant damage. The whole rear rack fell off. Once reinstalled I added numerous straps and continued to stop every 50-75 miles to retighten and adjust so it didn’t happen again. I will not be using these roof racks again.
I've had Thule & Yakima products over the years, with no issues. But I'm really glad I ordered this set-up for my 2021 F-150. I think you get just as good of a product from Rhino, maybe even better, for a slightly lower price. Everything feels sturdy and well made (with the possible exception of the locking covers, which feel a bit flimsy). I really like this set-up, and the precise measurements and guides made for a perfect snug fit. The rubber strip running on the upper long edge of the bars feels like it will definately help keep accessories from sliding out of place.
I just finished the install of the Rhino Rack 2500 with the Vortex Bars. It looks fantastic on my 2020 Silverado. It's solid and very well built. I'm a surfcaster on Long Island and I use 1 piece fishing rods up to 11ft long so the easiest and best way to transport them is on top of my vehicle. I selected this rack because it's aerodynamic and with the accessory channel I was able to easily attach them by sliding a 1inch stainless bolt and stainless washer in the channel. This hides the attachment and makes it impossible to remove unless you have the keys to access my rod rack which has a padlock.
We originally got this rack system (Custom DK Fit Kit for 4 Rhino-Rack 2500 Series Roof Rack Legs - Naked Roof Item #DK427) mostly for our Kayak racks on our 2015 Ford F-150, which worked great. Then we totaled our F-150 and the racks actually fit on our new 2022 GMC Sierra 2500 HD P/U. We took it on a 16,000 mile trip from the East Coast to Alaska with both 12 ft. kayaks on the top. Through the various speeds (sometimes up to 80 mph), weather conditions, and the high crosswinds of the mid-West, the racks help up perfectly. No issues or problems. I would recommend these to anyone.
I needed roof racks on my 2023 Silverado to accommodate the shape of my canoe. I had Yakima racks on the camper shell but the canoe was hitting the top of my truck. My Rhino racks showed up yesterday evening and I’m ready to go this morning!
Larry
7/1/2024
It’s now been a year and I have used my racks several times. They are easy to put on and take off and I’ve had no problems. My only complaint is the rubber along the top of the rack keeps cramming down into the slot.
This kit has been perfect for my new truck and allowed me to use my bars from my other truck on the new one. This kit is actually more succeed than the ones that I replaced. I use the rhino rack to carry the kayak shown in the picture
Brooke M.
4/26/2025
Man, looks like a lot of fun having a kayak! I see lots of gear aboard - do you use it for fishing?
Fits well. Using RhinoRack system for ladders. Residential Light Construction. I made my own air deflector.lol
Kate F.
5/6/2026
Install looks great Raymond! Great work with making your own deflector as well. Glad we had the right parts for transporting your ladders =)
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John
7/30/2025
Still very happy with the product and would recommend it to others.