Video Transcript for Hands-On with the Yakima BaseLine FX Roof Rack for Naked Roofs

Hi everyone, Aiden here at etrailer. Today we're gonna be taking a look at the Yakima BaseLine FX roof rack system for naked roofs. This is gonna be designed to work with roof that doesn't have any pre-existing rails or crossbars, so a naked roof. Now this one is going to have a variety of different fits and kits available for it, so be sure to plug your vehicle information into our fit guide and find the right kit for you. Between all of those different kits though, they're gonna share a lot of the same features and install in a very similar way, so let's check 'em out. So the BaseLine FX system is designed for roofs that have no existing rails or crossbars, and no existing dedicated mounting points like threaded holes underneath this piece here.

So they use these rubber pads for the fit kit, clamp into the door jams like this, and all of these parts are gonna be custom fit for your different vehicle applications. So you can see here on our vehicle that this pad matches the contours and the bends in this roof here, and the clamp is perfectly sized to reach our door jam and fit really well for a solid attachment point. Now that fit kit isn't included with the BaseLine FX crossbars. That's just what's needed to make them work with the roof. That's the point that sits on the roof and actually serves as the attachment point, but they are designed to work with those BaseLine FX crossbars.

So what's included with those is going to be the crossbar itself, and the tower here that has all of our different adjustment points, and the locking points as well as, if I can get this cover off, the points where we can get this clamp in place and tightened down. So all of this is kind of the brains of the operation and it's going to work in tandem with the fit kit to contour and match to the roof. The other thing to take note of for the BaseLine FX series is that they're all a flush mounted design. What that means is the crossbar here, the part that actually extends over top of your roof that you'll mount your accessories to, ends in the tower here. So it doesn't extend out for vehicles like this that are lower to the ground as you're getting in them.

That's really nice because nothing's out here in the way of your head as you duck down to sit down in there. But overall, a lot of people like this flush mounted design because it gives it a very sleek and custom fit look. And that's great because all of our different kits are gonna use different lengths of crossbars ranging from extra, extra smalls all the way up to extra, extra large. So depending on your vehicle fit, it'll use different length crossbars to make it fit and make sure it ends in the foot pack like it should. These roof racks are gonna utilize Yakima's JetStream bars.

It's an aerodynamic bar where it's thicker in the front, thinner in the back. It's gonna cut down on wind noise and just give it a nice sleek look. On the top of those bars, you'll find that there's going to be a channel for your T slot accessories. So if you wanted to mount things up like that, you could. Most people probably are gonna go for the clamp around method where your accessory just clamps around the bar, but the T-track up top is a nice alternative too. It's gonna give it a cleaner look overall. Now with that T-track, it's going to have a large weather strip in there to help keep any wind noise out of there and keep things nice and clean looking. The access point for that T-track is actually in the middle of the bars here where we can drop our T slot accessories down through and bring them over to the side. The weather strip is going to slide and conform around those accessories, so you don't have to cut it to length like you might on some other roof racks like from Rhino Rack. For me, I like this design a lot better because it simplifies it, and if you're swapping accessories frequently you don't have to worry about making multiple cuts. The crossbar's gonna be in aluminum construction with a black powder coat finish giving you really great weather resistance. Shouldn't have to worry about any sort of rust and corrosion here and they're gonna maintain a lightweight design. Now the look of those bars translates over to the towers too, where we have a nice matte black finish that's going to give it just an overall a very clean look. And something you've probably noticed is these removable end caps are very clean as well. There's no locking mechanism or anything on the outside that's visible. All of that is actually contained within the tower. So on the outside, you're just left with a nice smooth panel, a nice embossed logo, and everything's just clean. On the inside there, that's where we're gonna have the locking mechanism that secures this to your roof. Now, right out of the box it's going to come with these plastic cores. Not necessarily a super solid locking core. Anyone with a flathead screwdriver or even a quarter could slot that in, turn it and open it. But you can swap these out for Yakima's same key system lock cores and match it to your other Yakima accessories. Just be mindful that you'll have to get that aftermarket, but you can find them here at a trailer. And then with the construction of the bars it's gonna be able to handle 165 pounds of weight capacity. Now that's going to be for the roof rack kits not necessarily the vehicle you're putting it on. So be sure to check your own vehicle depending on what fit kit you go with, and make sure that your roof is rated for that kind of weight. And if it's not, go by the lowest rated component there to make sure you're not overloading either the roof rack or your roof. And that's really all there is to it. Again, make sure to find the right kit for your vehicle by plugging in your vehicle information into our fit guide and finding the right kit that fits your vehicle. Because all this is designed to be custom fit applications. The bars are sized to be perfect fits for the roof length and width, so you wanna make sure you get the right kit. But overall, I think when you get this installed and you find the right one for your vehicle it's gonna be a really solid fit. I like the flush design on the end caps. I think having the lock cores and everything on the inside of those caps is actually really nice and really clean because all of this on the outside is pretty smooth and it doesn't leave much for the eyes to look at. It's just a nice simple system that sits comfortably on the roof without much clutter. So if you're looking for something that's gonna look like it fits from the factory and have a really solid attachment method too with all the different points of adjustment then I think it's gonna be the way to go. But that'll do it for a look at the Yakima Baseline FX Series Roof racks here at etrailer. Thanks for watching.