To see if this custom-fit item will work for you please tell us what vehicle you'll use it with.
Thank you! Your comment has been submitted successfully. You should be able to view your question/comment here within a few days.
Error submitting comment. Please try again momentarily.
When you’re hauling gear on long drives, loud whistling can ruin the ride. The Rhino-Rack Vortex crossbars use an aero-style shape and rubberized Vortex strips in the top channels to help reduce drag and wind noise. The result is a smoother, quieter trip—no need to drown out wind sounds with the radio.
This setup is ready for whatever adventure you’re planning. The full-length aluminum crossbars give you space to mount gear for every season—kayaks, bikes, skis, or cargo boxes. You can use accessories that fit in the top channels or those that clamp around the bars, so it works with most bike, watersport, snow, and cargo carriers you already have.
Strong, lightweight aluminum bars handle up to 165 lbs (always follow your vehicle’s roof load limit). The system includes 2 Vortex crossbars, four 2500 Series legs, and a custom fit kit for a solid connection. Integrated plastic locks in the crossbars deter theft of channel-mount accessories, and lockable cover plates on the legs secure the rack itself. You can also upgrade to all-metal locks (RRVA-LEC4 – sold separately) for added security.
Installing on a bare roof doesn’t need to be complicated. The included fit kit gives your vehicle a secure base without permanent changes or damage. Once it’s on, you’ve got a reliable platform that’s ready for road trips, camping weekends, and daily hauling.
Crossbar dimensions: 49" long x 3-1/8" wide x 1-3/16" tall; Top channel dimensions: 13/16" wide x 1/4" tall x 3/8" opening; Weight capacity: 165 lbs; Color: black; Construction: aluminum; Warranty — Crossbars: limited lifetime; Legs: 5-year limited; Fit kit: 5-year limited.
Alternate Instructions
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hello, neighbor, this is Curt with etrailer, and today we're going to be taking a look at the Rhino-Rack Vortex Roof Rack, and we're going to see how it fits and how it installs on our 2024 GMC Terrain. Now, when you're out on those long trips, you often have some gear, equipment, maybe some extra luggage or something like that, that you either don't want in the vehicle with you or simply doesn't fit in there with everybody else, passengers and their stuff. So there's a couple of options you have to carry that extra cargo. One, you can use your hitch and either use a hitch cargo carrier or even a small trailer, but that's just going to add to the footprint of the vehicle, can make it a little more difficult to maneuver and park and things like that. The other option you have is to carry it on your roof using a roof rack system like the one we have here from Rhino-Rack. So a roof rack system is going to allow you to carry all sorts of different equipment from bike carriers to ski and snowboard carriers, to awnings, cargo boxes.
The list goes on and on. There's a lot you can do up here on your roof rack. And as long as you're not worried about any clearance issues with the height of the vehicle, this tends to be a more popular way for people to travel simply because it does make everything a bit easier to maneuver. Now, the Rhino-Rack's Vortex Roof Rack is going to offer a 165-pound weight capacity. However, double check your owner's manual for your vehicle rooftop weight capacity.
Whatever number is lower is the number that you're going to have to go with. Now, the Vortex is an arrow bar, meaning it's got kind of an ovular shape here. So what that's going to help out with though is vibration and road noise. It's just a lot more aerodynamic than your square or round bar, so it offers you a quieter ride as you're going down the road. You're going to be able to use your clamp-mounted accessories with it, and it also has a T-track up at the top with some weather stripping, so you can use your T-slot accessories.
There is some added security. Your end caps actually have a special key to use with it that you can take out, and this is going to give you access to your T-track. And it's also going to have locking towers with it and keys for those as well. That way, nobody can get in here and remove your roof rack and steal your stuff. Now, the other great thing about these is that it does have an overhanging style.
And an overhanging style just gives you more bar space to use than a flush style. A flush style means that the bar is going to end inside the tower. Nothing's going to hang out over, but what that does is limit your bar space and it forces you to put whatever accessories you have toward the middle of the vehicle and that can make it a little bit more difficult to reach and load and unload when you need to. The overhang, because we have a little bit extra space over here that we could even put a clamp on if it's a small enough accessory with a small enough clamp, and that could allow us, as long as we're under our weight capacity, to possibly put accessories side by side up here that most flush mounted bars don't allow us to do. So a big concern that some people have when it comes to an overhanging bar is, "Hey, what if I get out of the car "and I hit my head or something "The Terrain is not the tallest vehicle out there." Well, to be honest with you, with this bar, we just barely come past the door threshold here and we're well inside the door threshold by our feet. Whenever we get in and out of a car, we're not going straight up like this, we're going out. So I'm not really worried about this hitting my head at all. But we we inchesre going to talk a little bit about how this roof rack fit on the Terrain. So let's get up on the roof and take a few measurements. So from up here, the first thing that we want to take a measurement of is our crossbar spread, and that is the distance between our two bars. And the reason that's so important is because every rooftop accessory has a minimum and a maximum crossbar spread that it can go on. So from up here, we're going to measure from the middle of the bar to the middle of the bar and we're going to come right out at 28 inches. And honestly, that's a really good spot to be. Most roof racks have a minimum, maximum anywhere in between that 25 to 35 range. So having a 28-inch spread makes me feel like I don't really have to worry too much about finding accessories to go up here on my roof rack. Now, the other thing that we want to take a look at is how much height is this going to add to your vehicle And if we go right from the center here, this is going to add about four and 1/2 inches of height onto your vehicle. So if you're worried about roof clearance, take your vehicle height, add that four and 1/2 inches plus however tall your accessory is, and you'll be able to determine if you've got the clearance to make it under any low hanging garages or branches or anything else like that that you might run into out on the road. We're also going to take a look at underneath here and how much space that gives us. And that's going to give us right at about three inches, which is more than enough space to fit most of those clamp-mounted accessories around under here and get them tightened up. Plus if we have something up here on a roof rack that's a bit longer, it's also going to clear the shark fin antenna that we have toward our lift gate. So these bars are 49 inches, so they're going to give us a total of 49 inches of bar space to work with. And that's from the inside end cap to the inside end cap. And if you're wondering just how much room you have outside of the tower rather, you've got about two to two and a quarter inches here if you have a small enough clamp that you can get around that. But installation of these is actually pretty easy. There are some details that you're going to want to pay attention to, but hang out for a minute and I'll show you exactly how we got these on the roof of our Terrain. So to begin our installation, we're just going to kind of lay everything out that we've got here. So we've got our crossbar and we've already attached one tower that we've assembled. We're going to go ahead and walk you through how to assemble the other tower because they basically go together the same way. The main thing that you want to pay attention to though is check out your instructions. They are going to have certain part numbers for what pad goes where and what clamp to use where. So to start, we're going to look at our pad. So on our driver's side for the back crossbar, we're looking at M415. It's very difficult to see, but it is stamped there on the rubber. And there's a little arrow right here too. We want to make sure that arrow is pointed outward toward the outside of the crossbar. So we're going to take our tower here and we're going to go ahead and just kind of fit it onto here, pressing it in all around the edges just to make sure we've got a good flush fit. Make sure that that rubber goes all the way around and then it doesn't catch up anywhere on the lip of it or anything like that. And once we have that completely assembled, we're going to go ahead and take this little blue key that we've got here that goes to our crossbar end caps. We're going to unlock that, pop that out. Then we're going to take our tower and using this metal block that we have right here, we're just going to slide that in to our T-slot that's located down underneath here. Now your kit is going to come included with this metric measurement stick here that actually slides right into our T-slot. Now your instructions give us a measurement. However, we found that when we got it up on the car, that those measurements weren't really accurate. So we had to play around a little bit and kind of figure out what the best measurement would be. So if you put it in at the end that starts with a zero and it'll count up from there. On our back bar, we discovered that the 80-millimeter mark is going to be accurate for us. On the front bar, we discovered that the 70-millimeter mark was where it was accurate. So we're going to slide our tower over until it bumps right up against it. We're going to take our Rhino-Rack tool and through this bolt right here, we're going to go ahead and tighten our tower down onto the crossbar. And we're going to remove that little measurement piece as well. Once we have that tightened down into place, we can go ahead and grab our end cap and lock it back onto our crossbar. So at this point, I'm going to grab my crossbar and towers and I'm going to set them up here on my roof. And generally kind of right in the middle of the door right here, I just want it in this general area, we are going to take a measurement to figure out exactly what our bar placement would be. Now our front bar is going to be measured from the door seam to our bolt in the middle right there, and that measurement should come to seven and 7/8ths, which it does. Now we're going to use this front bar to determine where our second bar goes. And we're going to do that again by measuring from bolt to where the bolt is placed here. And that measurement we're looking for is 27 and 9/16ths, so just a hair over 27 and 1/2. So we're just a little bit far forward on this. We're just going to move this back and we're just going to adjust this measurement until we get it correct on both sides. Now it is really important to double check this on both the driver and the passenger side. We need that measurement to be equal here and there so that we can guarantee that our bars are parallel to each other and therefore much safer to carry that cargo down the road. At this point, we're going to attach our clamps. Now our clamps are going to be specific to the front bar and the back bar as well. So pay attention to the number that's on the back of them. On our rear bar clamps, the number on the back is going to end in 369. On our front clamps, it ends in 155. Now the reason for that is because our rear clamps are going to be a little bit longer just to account for more of the vehicle roof line up here to account for. So this has to reach a little bit further to get down into our door seam. But we've got our correct clamp, 369 here. And what we're going to do is just simply take this bolt out, then we're going to line this up just like so and replace the bolt. So I'm just holding this in position around the edge of my roof here. And what I'm doing at this point is I'm really just getting it to the point that it's snug. I don't really want to tighten it yet. I still need to put the clamp on the passenger side and if I tighten this too much, it'll knock itself out of place over there. It'll kind of force itself to come to the driver's side and I really don't want to do that. So I'm just getting this to the point where it's snug so when it does come time to tighten it up, it'll be just that much easier. Now that I've got both sides snug, I'm going to go ahead and take my Rhino-Rack tool and I'm going to use this bolt right here and I'm going to really tighten it down completely. Now, I don't want to over-tighten one side next to the other. So I'm going to give it a few good turns over here, go to the other side and do the same and just kind of work my way back and forth. Again, I don't want to over-tighten one side and knock the other out of place because it's looser. So I've tightened up a little bit here on the driver's side. I'm going to go to the passenger side, do it over there and just bounce back and forth a little bit until we're tightened down completely. And once we've got it tightened down completely, go ahead and grab it, give it a good shake, make sure that the bar and the towers aren't moving or slipping around anywhere. As you can see, we're actually moving the car a little bit when we're doing this. So I'd say we've got a really solid fit. It's time to put on our tower covers and we got two tabs over here on this side. We're just going to slip those into place, pop it in, grab our key and get it locked up. Now we're ready to load up and hit the road. So let's look at the Rhino-Rack Vortex Roof Rack on our 2024 GMC Terrain. Now, if after watching this video, you decide that this is the roof rack for you, you get it, install it and you have the opportunity to use it a little bit, we would love for you to share your opinion on it in the comments below. Sharing your experience with us helps our other neighbors make the best decision for themselves. Once again, this is Curt with etrailer. Thanks for stopping by.
Ratings & Reviews
I purchased the Rhino Rack roof rack as an alternative to the factory installed products and the more popular Thule and Yakima brands. The Rhino Rack is solid and sleek and is largely silent while driving (if I have the roof open you can hear a soft whistle). Not only does the rack look fantastic, but the non-slip top and the strong bars make carrying things on top a real pleasure.
This roof rack works great! At first I was skeptical about putting a rack on my IS250, but it couldn't have turned out better. Paired with the Yakima Highroad, I can easily transport my bikes around without worrying about anything coming loose while driving. The installation instructions for the legs and bars are pretty straightforward. Takes about 30-45 minutes total to install.
I wanted to share the items I used to be able to haul two Wilderness Systems Tsunami 145 kayaks on my 2006 Scion xB. This may help others who struggle with deciding what to use. I am pleased with my purchase and hope this helps. I originally thought I wanted the Thule Hull-A-Port Aero, but they discontinued making the fit kit for their roof rack systems and I ended up going with the Kuats. I am glad that they didn’t make the fit kit for approximately $[XX] and so they missed out on the rest of my business. Here are the items I used for anyone interested – pictures included. Custom DK Fit Kit for 4 Rhino-Rack 2500 Series Roof Rack Legs - Naked Roof #DK138, Kuat Class 4 V2 Kayak Carrier w/ Tie-Downs - J-Style - Folding - 1 Kayak - Black #KU53VR and these are really cool, Rhino-Rack 2500 Series Legs for Vortex Aero Crossbars - Naked Roofs or Fixed Mounting Points - Qty 4 #RRRLKVA, Rhino-Rack Vortex Aero Crossbars - Aluminum - Black - 54" Long - Qty 2 #RRVA137-B2. The 54” crossbars fit really well and the perfect length in my opinion and it doesn’t stick out like the longer ones would. Also purchased two sets of these Malone QuickLash T-Style Hood Loops for Bow and Stern Tie-Downs - Qty 2 #MPG308.
I bought this last yr to haul my kayaks on my Toyota camry. Being 5'2", getting them on top of my SUV was next to impossible for me and my daughters. Since then, I have traveled from Michigan, all the way to the west coast with two 13' ft kayaks. These racks have been absolutely perfect in every aspect. I mounted them myself, and checked them regularly to see if they needed adjusted. Not once did they loosen or move. They with stood Traveling with speed limits reaching 80 mph on I84, along with the windy weather on our cross-country trip. My car moved around from the high winds, and the racks stayed put. These racks have by far reached and surpassed every expectation I had when purchasing them. I would not recommend another. Only thing I would recommend is showing installation for both front and back bars, since the measurements are slightly different for both. As I had to figure this out my self, after watching the installation video. Thank you Rhino for providing such a high quality product.
Great product. Great quality. Fast shipping. Easy to install on my 2011 chevy cruze. Low wind noise, nothing annoying so definitely doing the aerodynamic job. Happy so far
The quality is very good. Ordering was easy and installation using the video made the process so simple. Glad I order them from here instead of somewhere else.
Delivery was a little slower then I would have liked, but otherwise it was perfect. Great customer service when I called to ask about them. Make sure you read the instructions when you install (I didn't and wasted an hour fooling around with the wrong parts) other then that, the install was smooth as silk.
The bars look and feel great. They have such a tough presence while still being aerodynamic. I love the look of the rubber grip strip on top and I like how the rubber strip on the bottom ends have graduations so you can easily match the overhang with the other side. They feel incredible strong, no bend in the them at all. If the platforms were a bit more robust this thing would outshine all the competition. However, it competes with every other system at a much lower price point so that gets 5 stars in my book.
I spent a week reading reviews and forums to find the right one for my 2019 Jeep Cherokee that I just bought a few weeks ago. I just have to overthink everything but it paid off. I just received them this morning and installed them myself! First time for everything! It was really easy. The only part that was frustrating was the very first part... sliding the rubber pieces into the crossbars. They would not slide very well so I ended up using a bit of oil to make them slide better. Other than that, installation was easy and quick. I LOVE the looks of them. Very gorgeous!!! Thank you so much!! Very happy with the end result!!
Easy to read instructions, easy to install. Watched the install video a few times just to be sure! They do whistle a bit at highway speeds, but certainly not unbearable. In fact, I was surprised as to how quiet they are. It's to be expected, especially when paired with kayak j-racks. So happy with this purchase and I would definitely recommend them!
The instructions were clear and the rack installed perfectly. I am impressed with the custom foot mouldings that match my car's contours exactly, and the rack is still as tight as when I installed it 4 weeks ago. I have been using it frequently to pick up 8' lumber for a large shelving project I have underway, and I hope to soon use it to carry my kayaks. The rubber strips on the top hold the lumber so securely I have no worry of having the load slip off the car. The two negatives I have are: (1) the crossbar end-caps consist of 2 locking and 2 slip-ons. I have come out to my car to see 1 of the slip-ons half slipped-off and I expect I will lose one or both of them in short order; and (2) the instructions should put the forward bar at least 1 inch further forward. As you will see in the photo, Rhino's guidelines result in the front bar being higher than the back bar, which results in additional wind pressure on the goods being carried. Finally, I would like to thank etrailer for shipping the product exactly as promised and also for packaging the entire order in an additional box as I requested. I found your service to be outstanding! You are welcome to post my comments and or photo if you should wish to.
Love these aero bars. Perfect for on my 2018 Grand Cherokee Trailhawk. Run fairly quiet and perform as expected. As always the customer service from etrailer was top notch.
Rhino-Rack installed on my 2022 Jeep Cherokee. There was wind noise (whistling) when all the rubber spacers were not installed, now it’s very quiet. I also installed the Yakima fishing rod//Ski holder. I wound up deviating from the directions and using the third lot, so the clamps would close on the bar. So far so good, without the fishing rod holder it’s low profile enough to get into garages, etc. Fast delivery on the products.
I ordered the complete Rhino-Rack with legs for my 2009 Subaru Forester. I watch a couple of videos prior to installation. Followed instructions and installation was completed without any issues. Product was delivered promptly and Natalie helped me with my order and she followed up to inform me of the status of my order. Thanks for the help and thanks for a product.
This Rhino Rack is high quality and exactly what I needed for the “naked” roof of my ‘23 Equinox. Highly recommend this product and eTrailer. Thank you!
i George from etrailer,
The rack is awesome! Strong, firm hold and nice looking. When doing surveys, I put my ladders on the rack.
I highly recommend this etrailer.
My inital thought of these crossbars were that they were going to be too small. Two of the other big makers call for 53" min and 60" recommended. However after installing, 49" is a perfect fit for the Cayenne I feel. The rack is extremely quiet (make sure you use the channel rubber on top and bottom) The Cayenne is fairly quiet car inside and it was one of my big concerns but I only hear what sounds like a slight rush of air, no buzzing or whistling at all.
The downside to this rack is I think the black paint is too thin. Just laying it on the pavement while setting up caused scratches to appear. Silver would be the way to go if your getting these, or spray them plastic.
I bought this rack for my son who is a rower so he could take his single shell and oars to regattas using his new Chevy Cruz. First trip from Wyandotte, Michigan to Boston, Massachusetts and back was great. A learning curve to get in the right spot on roof but very sturdy & strong. He is looking forward to many regattas with this car and roof rack. Very Satisfied with etrailer and the rack itself and thank you for the quick shipping.
Easy to install. The pins on the legs clamp perfectly into the fixed points on the car's flush rails. This is a nice low profile set up. The top of the crossbar is about 4" above the roof glass and does not interfere with opening the sunroof. This is a very sturdy setup for our Thule Motion XT XL. etrailer shipped extremely fast. Very pleased with my purchase.
These crossbars were easy to install, are sturdy when installed and look great on my factory side rails when installed with the SX Series legs. The standard end caps are an all-plastic affair and use a little key to engage a cam lock. That plus the distance from the end of the crossbar to the nut that tightens the foot onto the rail keeps things relatively secure. Most people probably want to opt for proper locking end caps, though.
The rubber vortex strips look nice and give items something grippy to rest on. I haven't tried a load test yet but did drive around in moderate wind on the highway in multiple directions. Other than a slight whistle at 70 mph, you'd never know they were there. Overall, real happy with the product and looking forward to hauling some stuff around with them.
Got this for a 2015 Prius. High quality works great. Use their measurements included as a guide and measure everything out yourself before cutting the spacers and when installing. I had to make minor adjustments to make it perfect.
You have to order the cross bars and connector hardware separately. I also ordered the end cap locks.
I consider myself a pretty good DYI person and it took longer than I expected according to other reviews on here to get everything installed and overlapping the same on both sides.
Once installed the crossbars are very solid. I do get noticeable wind noise at say 70+MPH.
I installed these on a 2020 Jeep GC Overland and they look and function great! Was a bit concerned about the sun roof retraction with the bars, but there is plenty of clearance. No issue.
I for sure recommend the Rhino Rail crossbars. Etrailer is a great site to get the bars. Given the COVID issues and supply chain breakdowns retailers are facing, they still had everything I ordered to me in a very reasonable time frame.
Great sturdy rack. I put it together myself and have already started using it. I was concerned that it would cause leaks in the door the way it has to mount..but its Florida and its rainfall in the past few days and no leak! The weak link would be the end caps..two do not lock on and im concerned the will fly off at some point.
Purchase for a 2019 Jeep Grand Cherokee, black rails. Perfect fit.
etrailer.com's videos and additional customer support made the purchase of a Rhino Rack system from them for our 2010 Malibu a no brainer. The rack fit the car perfectly, and with the videos and clear instructions that came with the kit, I got it installed on the car with only one misstep. The instructions came the the measurements in centimeters and inches. I didn't have a metric tape measure, and ended up messing up converting fractions to decimal.
My Daughter is going to college 500 miles away and is moving into an unfurnished apartment and needed to pick up some small furniture that wouldn't fit in her Malibu. She purchased several items from Facebook Marketplace and was able to transport a twin bed and mattress, a medium sized desk and some dining room chairs (in several trips) with no problems.
The only thing I can think of to improve the installation would be to have the Inches measurements in decimal or to include an inexpensive metric tape.
Do you have a question about this Roof Rack?
Info for this part was:
At etrailer we provide the best information available about the products we sell. We take the quality of our information seriously so that you can get the right part the first time. Let us know if anything is missing or if you have any questions.
Tyson
9/9/2025
Very well! I take this rack on and off as we travel, and it’s very quick, both on and off. Quality has held up as well. Very pleased.