Summer Starts Here - Save up to 70%
To see if this custom-fit item will work for you please tell us what vehicle you'll use it with.
Heavy-duty crossbars mount to Yakima towers (sold separately) to create an aftermarket roof rack. Top and bottom channels let you add channel-mount accessories. Tie-down points in endcaps let you easily secure cargo.
Features:
Yakima HD Bar-SM:Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hey everyone, it's Evangeline here at etrailer and today we'll be taking a look at our Yakima SkyLine towers. These are designed for your fixed mounting points, your flush rails, or your track systems. So if the roof of your vehicle looks like this, you probably need these. If you wanna carry around roof mounted accessories like kayaks or ladders or maybe you need to bring a Christmas tree home, you first need a roof rack system. Now this is gonna be the Yakima SkyLine towers for those vehicles that specifically require a custom fit kit for their fixed mounting points. Now if your vehicle does not look like this you might have a naked roof or raised rails.
That's why it's very important before anything to use our fit guide here at etrailer.com. Put your year, make model and then find the right fit for you. And if this is one of them let's take a look at how it works. Etrailer.com also helps you get the full kit for your vehicle because the skyline towers don't work alone you also need the appropriate crossbars as well as the correct fit kit or landing pads for you. But with this, you get a low profile roof rack so it doesn't stick too high up.
You get a heavy duty weight capacity since this is an aluminum roof rack. So usually they have 165 pounds capacity, depends on the vehicle, and you have this very sturdy but also very custom fit kit for your vehicle. That way, no matter what you put on it within reason and wherever you go, you know it's gonna stay there. But my favorite feature about this roof rack is the door design. So you pinch on the door to open it and that's it.
Just like that, you can lift the whole roof rack off of your roof. When you need to install it, you just pop it right back on. So the height of the tower is about 3 1/2" from your fixed mounting point to the top of the tower. The actual height can change depending on what crossbars you have and what rails you have, but compared to a lot of the other flush mounted crossbars and roof racks, it's just very low to the roof. Now with this style of a rack though, you are limited to the fixed mounting points or the flush rails of your vehicle.
So wherever they are, that's how much crossbar spread you get. For example, ours is set to 28" apart. On the other hand, if you have an aggressive tilt to your roof, you can actually adjust this up to six degrees forward or six degrees backward to help even out the playing field. Now I like to leave my roof rack on my vehicle and Yakima is pretty known for its durability. So the SkyLine towers are made of glass reinforced plastic, aluminum, stainless steel and elastomer. So all that is combined to help them stay strong even if you leave them on all day, all year. But if you do need to take off your roof rack you also have a feature to make it more low profile. Start by flipping both doors open and then you can lift the roof rack up and off of your roof. This way you can store it inside of your garage or in your house. You can leave your base on your roof rails. All you need to do is cover them with the included cover and that's it. You're done. The covered bases sit about 2" high up off of your fixed mounting point and makes for a much more low profile look. Your towers will have everything you need to install them which really is just one tool. And your fit kit has the hardware needed to undo the factory mounting points on your vehicle or for your track system if that's what you have. Now, that install process is extremely simple. Let's take a look at it. So these are what your towers look like when they are not on your roof. So they come all assembled in the box. All you need to do is get the appropriate landing pads for your vehicle. These landing pads can look different depending on your car and that's why it's very important to use our fit guide to get the right fit for you. You have four towers as well as the torque tool. And depending on your crossbars, you will also get a separate adapter to be used with those specific bars. With your landing pad kits, you'll get a part that fits your specific vehicle. You will get the hardware needed to install that part and you will have the base as well as the base cover. So if the towers are not on your vehicle you could just cover that base pad and take the cover off to install the tower. Here's an example of how the landing pad can be used depending on your cars. So you have a factory mounting point in this specific flush rail. So the pad goes over that hole and then you're gonna get your base which goes on top of that pad. And then you have a bolt with split washer and flat washer which is used to tighten down those two pieces to your car. The torque tool for your towers comes in handy whenever you're tightening down those bolts because it has a setting for tension. Once you get enough tension, it automatically clicks and prevents you from over tightening. Now to set up your tower for your crossbars there's different adaptor pieces. We're using the one for the JetStream crossbars. So we start by pushing in this plate into the tower. So you are gonna hear some clicks and that's how you know it's secure. Now we're gonna open up the tower door. So this involves pinching the door and pulling. Be careful because if you slide your fingers forward it doesn't feel as good. But with the door open, you can then loosen this bolt up front. It says to do it eight times. I just go until the bolt underneath is visible so you can see underneath what I mean. Notice how you have this little bolt head hiding around. You're gonna try to get at it with the tool. You can see how I do have access. That means as we flip this tower back over I can put this plate up top and then I can tighten down and thread onto that plate. With adapter and plate, this can now slide into your crossbar. For other adapters, they're designed to slide over or around your crossbar. With this specific style, I do recommend for the initial slide making sure that this is loose, but after that even if you have it fully tightened down you'll still be able to slowly adjust it on the crossbar. So with the towers on you're then ready to put this onto your roof. Now what I do is I just kind of roughly measure how far apart our landing pads are and that's when I can measure on the towers the distance apart they roughly need to be, in my case, 43 1/2. You could be off by 1/2" or so 'cause you can still move them. Also, supposedly this is when you put the rubber pieces inside of your crossbars. I do that after I've already installed them onto the roof. I take them back off and then I push them in so that I know exactly where the towers will be sitting. Make sure your towers are torqued down at their bottom bolt. Do that for both sides before installing. This is a lot easier with a friend on the other side but still doable with one person. So leave those doors open so that you can gently place them onto your roof. The bottom bracket with the door open fits onto your base so see how that just pushes into place. And then to secure it, just push that door close and you've got a sturdy fit. If you're using Yakima same key system lock cores, this is a time to switch them out on your towers. But other than that, just double check that all the towers are strong and secure and everything is sturdy. And that's it for the install of your roof rack. That right there was a look at the Yakima SkyLine towers for your Yakima crossbars for when you have vehicles that have fixed mounting points, flush rails or track systems.
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (189 Customer Reviews)
Heavy-duty crossbars mount to Yakima towers (sold separately) to create an aftermarket roof rack. Top and bottom channels let you add channel-mount accessories. Tie-down points in endcaps let you easily secure cargo.Great quality! They come with two different style bases. One flat, and one that is stepped to account for the raised area near the gutter trim. Good variety of screws to meet your application. My 2015 Mazda 3 (with fixed points) needed the medium length screws. Seems very solid!
I left the plastic gutter moldings on and just drilled holes for the screws to go through.
Fit our Subaru Forester perfectly. Install was a breeze. For the money I wish they came with the core locks.
Everything came in a timely manner and ready to install. Looks great, solid rack.
etrailer was a great place to order, quick and easy. Yakima products however are over priced and overly complicated.
Very nice quality towers. Very heavy duty! They have a cool "snap" on / off mechanism for quick removal and installation.
You guys provide great products and excellent customer service.
Thanks
The customer service in ordering theses par tea was amazing!! I spoke with a wonderful specialist named Kate F, and she was super helpful and patient answering all my questions and helping me make sure I had the correct parts I needed for my type of car. The bars are very sturdy and have proven very worth the money!!
These adapters were easy to install and made my system fit together nicely.
Your service is nothing short of excellent! Thank you
Parts arrived quickly. Installation was a breeze. Everything needed for a quick and professional installation was included in the shipment.
I ordered the Yakima roof rack for a 2019 Hyundai Ioniq. I went with the heavy duty one for extra strength but it is quite a bit thicker, likely increasing wind noise. So I might have chosen the aerodynamic lighter weight one if I was to do it again. Also, I needed to get larger bolts for my kayak holder to get around the crossbar. The instructions and video on website were very helpful but they did not explain well how to adjust the toe and pitch. For the toe adjustment, you have to push the metal post with the tool before tightening. That was not obvious. For the pitch, it helped to do that once the towers are attached to crossbar. Then you can tilt tower while cross bar is laying flat (upside down). I ended up having to add tilt on both front and back crossbars for them to be flat when installed. Website said only front one would need to be pitched. I am very pleased with the look and sturdiness of the product. My Hyundai Dealer had zero options for this car.
Yakima Landing Pad 22 is the only product I could find that is suitable for my Mercedes E450 Coupe. The car's panoramic glass extends close to where the fixed mounting points are, but Yakima has accounted for that by designing the LP 22 so that the small part that sits on the glass is not transferring the load. Also, the LP22 accommodates the flip-open doors for the four fixed mounting points on the Mercedes. Yakima instruction manual and etrailer.com videos are highly useful.
Only complaint is with the LP 22 Covers, which are supplied for when the roof rack (Towers and Crossbars) are removed. These covers are not usable - they do not snap into place and appear as if they were designed for a different landing pad. This is not a deal breaker for me because I remove the LP 22s whenever I remove the roof rack, but it will likely be a concern for others.
Yakima SkyLine Towers are well-designed and well-executed. They easily fit into the Yakima Landing Pads and form a tight fit when closed. And they also fit nicely into the Yakima JetStream Crossbars when following the Yakima instruction manual and various YouTube videos. I did run into a snag at first where I found the rubber seal on one SkyLine Tower getting caught on the JetStream Crossbar track, but after that I was careful not to let that happen with the other towers.
I find the appearance of the Yakima SkyLine Towers to match their level of quality in materials and design.
Easily supports the RoofNest! The Customer Service with Roger was Excellent!
Great company. Fast delivery.
The Yakima products are doing great. Just got home yesterday from a 18 day trip using them in Michigan's upper peninsula. Love them. Great products. Thanks again.
This part adapted like no other adapter
These really look so much better then the factory racks! Easy to install. Easy to order! Great product!
Have worked quite well for what we need. Very happy.
These Yakima crossbars are very HD, just what I was looking for. The Small size was hard to locate but etrailer had them in stock and delivered in short order. Instillation was quick and straight forward.
I had a difficult time identifying whether these were the correct adapters for the rack towers that I was purchasing to fit my tracks but that has more to do with yakima doing everything a-la-cart instead of having kits that include everything you need if I hadn't already had the HD bars on my other rack and wanted to be able to transfer them to this rack I probably wouldn't have went to this expense because I think they are overpriced.AS far as etrailer is concerned I always receive great service and products and they are always well packaged and never damaged by poor delivery care and always fast delivery speed.
Product required a bit of customizing because the pads are a little tall and hollow, so when you tighten center bolt, pad will try to collapse inwards unless you find a proper spacer in length under the pad (NOT PROVIDED BY YAKIMA, NOT ETRAILER'S FAULT), but once that spacer was put in place, it turned out beautifully.
The fit is good on the 22 Wilderness but there is definitely wind noise and I will add a diverter soon.
All parts arrived in good order, haven't completed assembly yet as I had cross threaded one of the support brackets. Hopefully soon
Used these on my 2011 BMW 335. It took a little while to get the threads to catch on the roof attachment the first time I installed them. Otherwise they do what they are supposed to do and don't scratch the roof.
Do you have a question about this Roof Rack?
Info for this part was:
At etrailer.com 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.
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.