To see if this custom-fit item will work for you please tell us what vehicle you'll use it with.
This aerodynamic, flush-mount roof rack lets you carry gear and cargo on your vehicle while maintaining a clean, factory look. Crossbars work with channel-mount and clamp-on accessories. Installs on your vehicle's naked roof.
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Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
AJ: What's up, everybody It's AJ with etrailer.com. Today, we're going to be checking out this Yakima Roof Rack System on our 2020 Mazda CX-5. It's going to be a great way to help you haul extra cargo outside of the vehicle, but up on the roof. So, you can carry ski carriers, you can put a cargo basket on top, you can even haul your bikes up there instead of using your hitch. All those things save space inside your vehicle. Let's check it out.
So, the combo we're using today are the JetStream bars with the baseline towers, and then we have a naked roof, which means there's no raised rails or anything attached to. So, we've got this clamp. This is what's actually holding it onto the vehicle. It comes in here in the doorjamb, and it is rubberized on the inside of the clamp so it's going to protect that from getting scratched or damaged at all, but it's on there nice and tight. I'll shut the door and show you.You can shake the whole car and it's holding it in place.
I'll go ahead and pop off and show you the inner workings here of the baseline tower. I pulled this plastic door out of the way. You use a tool that it comes with to tighten this part down, and that pulls the clamp up in the door jam and that's what's helped holding it so tight. Now, the baseline attaches to the JetStream via the T-track here on the bottom. You just take this cap off and slide it in there to get it started.
It's got one on the top of it too, with the weatherstripping in there. So, you'll pop off this cap. Let me just go ahead and pop off the cap to show you. Pops off like that. You can put your accessory down in there and slide along the T-track.
Now, you can use a clamp to clamp it around the bars too if you have accessories that do that. Either way, it's up to you.Looking closer at the cover, I just want to point out that you can pop out this plastic insert and replace it with a Yakima core. That way, you can be all keyed alike and lock it up when it's on your vehicle. The JetStream bars are made out of a black powder coat aluminum so they're going to hold up if you leave them on the roof. You don't feel like taking them down every time when you're not using them, you can leave them up there. The elements aren't going to bother it. It's not going to rust or corrode. They'll be just fine. There is a weight capacity on these bars of 165 pounds so keep that in mind when you're loading up gear on top of it. If you have a basket, don't overload the basket.I don't think two kayaks will overload it. You'll be just fine. Just keep it in mind when you are loading things on your roof. Now, I'm going to give you some measurements. The bars themselves are 50 inches. Those are the ones recommended using on your CX-5. And let's see how much room you have from the bottom of the bar to the roof of the vehicle. It looks like 3-1/2" inches from the roof of your vehicle to the bottom of the bar, so just keep that in mind. If you don't use the T-tracks and you've got clamps that are coming around, that's plenty of space. The clamps should not hit the roof of your vehicle. You shouldn't have any problems.But I would not use your sunroof. The roof rack could come in contact with that so it's better just to not use that while you have your roof rack on. One last measurement for your CX-5 would be from the front of the crossbar to front of the car crossbar and want it to be 30 inches. So, that's how far apart they're going to be so that's what your spreads going to be. Now, I do like the bars a lot. They are aerodynamic. They're going to make a little bit of noise when you're driving down the road. Something though, if you've never had a roof rack on your vehicle before you will kind of hear them a little bit, but it's not that bad. It'll be fine. They are actually super easy to install too. I was impressed with that. Let's check out how I did it.So, I got everything laid out on the table that you're going to get and how you're going to get it. It might seem a little intimidating, but it's not that bad. Trust me. I've got this one already assembled. So, we're just going to do that on this one here. First up, take this plastic clip, snap it into place. Make sure you put the groove side down. It'll match the grooves on the inside of the foot. Snaps into place like that. That's going to help hold this in place, which this, once screwed in, it's going to be what attaches it to the T-track on the bottom of the bar. So, it's going to hold it in place. You have this tab here you can pull that opens up access to that screw. So, using the tool, I'm going to give it a couple of turns and get it started. It's going to tighten down this block.You can see how it's kind of going down as you tighten it. So, I'll leave that loose. That way I can still slide it underneath the bar. Push the door closed. That's what it looks like when it's closed. You can't access that bolt. Now, we'll just pop off this end of our bar. Just got to lift up on the plastic tab and then work its way out. We'll slide on our feet. Again, going to match up this silver block and put it down in the track. Slides in pretty easy. I'm going to slide this one all the way down in the side and then put this one on too. Looks like I need to loosen this one up just a little bit. It slides way easier when it's just a little bit more loose.So, now we're going to measure between the two feet. We need 36-3/4 in between them if my tape would cooperate with me. Looks good right there. So, we're in place, and I can come back with the tool and tighten them down. I'm going to use that bolt that you opened the door to do. So, I slid out that plastic. I'm going to go until the tool. It's going to pop twice. That means it's nice and tight. The next thing once it's tightened down that we need to adjust is the pitch. You can see I can manipulate this part here and this will go to one of these three spots.You can see your instructions and which one to set it for. On our rear bars, we're going to set in the middle because that's what it says to do. It all matters on like the shape of your roof and how it tapers in, at what points it does that. This just allows you to adjust that. That way, it's at a slight angle if your roof is at a slight angle. To keep it in place, we got it there in the middle, just tighten down this bolt right next to it. It's going to keep it in place. That way, you can't move it anymore. Now, we're going to attach our foot to here. We've got a little arrow at the bottom on this rubber strip that goes right on there and this portion attaches to the bottom.You want the arrow pointing to the outside so we'll just line up the grooves in here, push down until it snaps into place. Now, I'm going to set our crossbar on the roof. Already got the rubber pads installed as you saw that so you don't have to worry about setting it on the roof. It's not going to damage anything. Try and get it lined up the best we can. Then, we're going to need to measure the space between the two bars and make sure we get that right. I think it should be around here, and I'll go grab a tape measure. Now, we're going to add our clamp, which we're going to slide up here in the slot here, and it's going to catch. It's got a hook on the other side of this. I don't know if you can see it. I'll move my hand in a second. This is going to be facing the other way, and this will catch on the clamp here kind of like this.So, I'll spin it back around and then just slide it up through the slot. Let it catch up there and see I can't pull it back out, and I'll set it down in the door. And just like before, I'm going to turn it and wait for those clicks. Now, you know it's nice and tight. Now, I'm ready to go ahead and shut the door. We can close this plastic door too on the inside and then add our cover. Now, it's got hooks at the bottom. They're going to catch down here. So, you kind of hook it in and then just push it back closed. Snaps into place. That's good.Really isn't that hard to get it installed. You saw what I went through. And now at first, it's a little intimidating to see all of it lay on the table in separate pieces. But if you just follow the instructions or watch what I did, easily goes on there. It's on there nice and tight. You can shake the whole car and I don't have to worry about it rattling or any movement in the bars or the feet or the clamps at all. So, I can be confident it's going to stay on the roof for all my adventures. Thanks for hanging out. I hope this helped.
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