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These crossbars combine the strength of steel with an aerodynamic shape to create a heavy-duty yet quiet roof rack for your vehicle. Full-length bars work with most clamp-on accessories. Install to fixed mounting points on your vehicle's roof.
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Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hi Matt with etrailer and today we're talking about Yakima Roof Rack on top of our 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Now this can be a great option for you if you're running outta space in the back of your vehicle, whether you have a lot of people back here already or you have any items that are longer that just can't fit back here, anything like skis or a kayak. So let's check it out. The kit we have today is gonna be a fixed mounting point kit. So what that means is since we have flush rails, the way this is going to attach is we're gonna have two bolts that go into the fit kit itself and bolt into your roof. And you won't be able to really play around with your crossbar spread like with some other roof rack options.
Our kit today is gonna be comprised of three parts. Up top, we're gonna have our crossbar. Beneath that, we're gonna have the tower, and that's gonna attach to our fit kit. Now let's talk about the crossbar. So the crossbar is gonna be 50 inches long and these are gonna be our aero crossbars.
So what that means is we're gonna have this aero shape to 'em, and this shape's gonna help it be more aerodynamic to help reduce that wind noise. Another thing that's gonna help reduce wind noise is this built-in weather strip at the very top. So what that's protecting is your T channel. Your T channel's gonna be a point where you can put on your T channel accessories, anything that's not gonna be a clamp-on accessory. Because maybe if you ever run into the case where you have a clamp-on accessory that takes up a lot of space underneath and you just can't fit on top of your roof, that's gonna be another option for you.
That weather strip's also gonna keep any debris from getting in here too. And we're also gonna have another channel on the bottom. Yours will come with a weather strip for that. We have ours removed today though. Since this is in our shop and we do take this on and off a whole lot, that's part of the reason why we have this off full time.
Then we're gonna have the tower that attaches to it. The tower is gonna have this plastic circle core on the end of it, and what that core does is just a placement holder for if you ever wanna get a metal lock core right there. and that metal lock core can be key to any of your other Yakima gear. What I do like about these towers are they have the ability to open up. And once you open them up, they detach from the fit kit. So this makes this a system that's really easy to take on and off. And when you place it back down, it'll click into place, and we can move over to the fit kit itself. The fit kit itself is what attaches your roof rack to your vehicle. We're also gonna have this rubber coating on the outside so it doesn't scratch anything up. Something that sets this option apart from the other type of roof racks you can get is that we're gonna have some overhang, and we're gonna have a decent amount of it too. So what that overhang is gonna be great for, if you have any items that are harder to grab or take on and off of your roof, or some items that can only be fitted on the very ends of your roof rack, anything like a kayak carrier that needs that extra space at the very end or skis too. Because if you're trying to take skis on and off, half them reach all the way over here. It can be kinda difficult. But then on the counter side of that, if you're really not carrying anything that is super large or long that doesn't need to fit on the very edge of your crossbars, then you might find a better option being a flush-mounted system, which just ends at the tower itself. Let me get a few measurements to see how this fits up here. So I know earlier I was talking about, in some cases, you might have some clamp-on accessories that are gonna be kinda large and you might not be able to fit under here. But in our case today, we have a lot of room over here. It's gonna be 4 1/2 inches. The only cases that I would advise you just be more cautious of, if your vehicle has a sunroof on top of here and it does lift up some, and you do have that clamp on accessory on here, you may make contact. It's just something to kinda watch out for. But in most cases you should be fine with any clamp on accessories. And as for the overall height, that's gonna be a little bit higher since this is a pretty tall system. That's gonna be about 5 1/2 inches. So what I'd recommend doing is just taking the total height of your vehicle plus your crossbars. And if you have any gear on top of that, include that, so you know what areas you can make it under. Since I was also talking about this being a fixed mounting system, we're only gonna have one crossbar spread. So if I go from the front of our front crossbar, in the front of our rear crossbar, that's only gonna be 23 1/2 inches, which isn't a whole lot of space to play around with. It's something definitely to think about when you're putting your gear up here. If you're putting on any regular-sized boxes or baskets, it should be fine. I would definitely watch out when you do have a kayak up here because that can affect the way this fits. Overall, if you're looking for a really solid roof rack, it's gonna be a great option for you, especially since this is also really easy to take on and off whether you find yourself going on a lot of trips, and you don't always want this being on top of your roof. You have the ability to take it on and off. And this overhang also gonna allow you to use any items that are gonna stick out on the side, anything like ski carriers. But if you really don't like the look of this overhang or you don't really use a lot of ski carriers, or those longer items that are little bit more difficult to take on and off, you just really carry roof boxes or baskets, then I'd recommend more of a flush-mounted system, and something like the Yakima FX Bars are gonna be a great option for you. Now you're gonna have a little bit less room to play around with. But if you're just carrying around a box or a basket, then it'll serve its purpose. But if you do find yourself carrying more items up here and you need a little bit more real estate up top, then this is also gonna help serve that purpose too. If you're curious about how we got this on, just stay tuned and we'll walk you through the process. Let's start off the installation. We're gonna lay everything out. So up front, we're gonna have our crossbar, and, next to the crossbar, we're gonna have the towers, and then adapters will come with the towers too. In the center, we're gonna have our fit kit. that's gonna consist of the kit itself, and this rubber adapter, and the hardware that fits your fit kit onto your roof. Next to that, we're gonna have some tools. This is gonna be one that comes with your kit and this is gonna be just an Allen key with this torque device in the back of it, and that torque device is gonna let you know when things are tighten all the way down. Next to that we're gonna have some recommended tools. So I recommend either grabbing a trim tool. If you don't have one, you can find one on our website. Or, for most of this, you can use a flat head screwdriver. Lastly, I recommend grabbing a tape measure because measuring things out are gonna help keep things even. We're gonna start off with the fit kit. What we're gonna do is grab your kit and that rubber adapter. You notice there are four prongs on here. We're gonna line up those prongs with the four holes underneath. So it'll just fit on just like this. And this can be a little bit tricky sometimes, getting everything to line up properly. So what can happen a lot of times is that prong on the outside can bend in and won't go in all the way. If you are having that issue. Doesn't really look like I'm having that issue right now. But if you are having that issue, you'll notice it's hollow on the inside. So what you can do is grab some tool that's pretty narrow that you can fit into that hole and apply pressure down. that'll help it seat in all the way. Once you've done that, you repeat that process for the other kits. We'll come over to the top of our roof now so we can place our fit kits up here. And what we're gonna be doing is grabbing this trim tool and taking off these fasteners. You'll find the fasteners on the inside of your flush rails, and we're gonna take that tool, get underneath it, and pull upwards. That's what it's gonna look like when it's out. You just repeat that for the other one too. And when you do take these out, I recommend storing them somewhere where you have 'em all together so you don't lose 'em. You start putting the fit kit in place. So we need to line it up with these two holes. You'll notice we have three holes to choose from though. And the ones I'm gonna choose are this one on the bottom that's a little bit lower and this larger one that's a little bit longer. I'm gonna start with this singular hole that's smaller, lining up my bolt with that opening and just hand tightening it to begin with. We'll just tighten that down just a bit, making sure it's grabbing on there. Once it's grabbed on, we're gonna grab the second bolt, run it through until it's lined up with that hole behind it, and hand tighten this one too. A tool that I forgot the mention earlier is gonna be the security Allen key. That's also gonna come with your kit, and you're gonna use it to tighten down your fit kit the rest of the way. You just wanna get this till it's pretty tight on there. You feel a good amount of resistance when it's all the way on. With both of your fit kits on top of your roof, we can start going over to our towers. So there's a few things to think about. First, you're gonna have this bolt that's right here in this opening and that's where your adapter is gonna sit, right on top of there. To tighten that down, you actually are gonna have to flip this over, and it's gonna reveal an opening right here. You can see where that bolt is on the other side. There's also a plate right next to that. So if you can't see that bolt, you're gonna have to loosen up that plate. And the way you do that is you're gonna flip this right back over. We're gonna open up this door on the back of it, and that's gonna reveal this other bolt on the inside. If you just loosen that up, it's gonna open that door up on the bottom. With all that in place, what I like to do is put this plastic adapter in there first. You're gonna have to put it in at an angle and then press down so it clicks into place. And getting this bolt lined up can be a little bit tricky at first. So what I do is just hold it right here, flip it up, and with my included tool, try to maneuver that bolt so it lines up with our adapter. You're gonna tighten this up slightly, not enough, or it's gonna be falling off, or too tight. Just enough where just gonna grab on and there's still a gap in between the plastic adapter and the metal block. With both of our towers prepped, we're gonna flip over our crossbar, pull off this end cap. You might have to pull up on this tab some so it comes off a little bit easier. Put that aside and we're gonna grab our towers. You can actually put both of 'em on the same way. If you do that, just make sure they're opposite directions. So I'm gonna put the first one on with that back door towards my right, and push it all the way to the other side. We're gonna grab the second tower, make sure it's in the opposite direction with the door facing the left. And with it in place, just make sure if we grab our end cap, place it back on. We come back to those towers and just tighten this bolt a little bit more. And what I'm looking for here is just enough for it to grab on to your crossbar, but not enough so it won't be able to move. 'cause once it's on top of your roof, you wanna make those adjustments. I'm gonna loosen this up just a tad bit more and that feels a lot easier now. After that, you do that on the other side too, but we also wanna make sure that this access door is open 'cause what that does is retracts those tabs, and we don't want those tabs in the way because we want this to fit on top of our fit kit. You'll notice we already have one up here, and that's gonna be the rear crossbar. Let's do the same process for each one of them. So what we wanna do is make sure this isn't the right orientation. So we wanna make sure that this fatter side, your thicker side is facing forward and the thinner side is facing behind us. Once you've done that, you can grab a friend. You can also do this by yourself and just be a little bit more tricky. You have to just lift up, line up your crossbar with your fit kit, and I'm just gonna slide this into this channel to rest there. And if you notice on the other side, it's a little bit too far out. So what we're gonna have to do is make some adjustments. What I like to do though before I do that is close the door so this stays in place, and this is gonna make this process a lot easier. I'm gonna come on the other side, lift up, push this tower in. That's part of the reason why we didn't tighten this up all the way. Until that lines up and sits into place. I'm gonna close this door like I did on the other side. And now it's a good time to take some measurements of our overhang and make sure both sides are even. I've already measured what the distance on the passenger side is, so I wanna check the driver's side now. And it's a little bit further on this side. So it's a lot easier to push this, rather than pull it. So what I like to do is just grab onto a tower and just apply a little bit of pressure. This doesn't have to go over too far. Afterwards, when you've made your adjustment. I'm just gonna measure this out again and make sure everything's even. When both sides are even, we're gonna open up that access door on both sides, carefully flip this around so it doesn't change our measurement up at all. And then we're gonna tighten those bolts on the bottom that tightening our towers through the crossbar. You know it's right all the way when you hear that click. Just make sure you do that in both sides. We also wanna come to the back of this, open up that door, and that bolt that I pointed at earlier that puts that plate over your other bolt, we should tighten this down. That's just gonna offer you some more security so no one comes by with an Allen key and tries to take off your roof rack. So once that's all the way tighten down, you can repeat that on the other side, and just make sure you close this door back up. The last step is just giving it a good shake test, making sure it feels pretty solid, and it's not really moving. And if it feels pretty good, you can load it up with whatever gear you have and hit the road. But that's just a look at the Yakima Roof Rack on top of our 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Thanks for watching.
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