Rhino-Rack Vortex Roof Rack with T-Load Hitch Load Support for Naked Roofs - Aluminum - Black
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2009 Saturn Vue
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2009 Saturn Vue
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These aluminum crossbars work with Rhino-Rack legs and T-Load hitch support to create a roof rack. Full-length aluminum crossbars provide plenty of space for channel mount and clamp-on accessories. Installs on your vehicle's naked roof and hitch.
Features:
Specs:
Alternate Instructions
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Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Today, we're gonna be taking a look at a solution for some of those heavier kayaks and the solution to this is the Rhino-Rack T-Load Assist bar. So this is gonna be a hitch mounted accessory for your 2" hitch receiver. The nice thing about it is we fold it back like this. We can go ahead and take this up, get it kind of lined up with it. And typically we have the back end kind of slide out on us, but it does come with a little pad to protect your kayak from scratches, but also allowing it not to slide around. So now, if this is done, we'll take it.
Clean it up. And I'm not really holding a whole lot of the weight. Which is nice. So now we can get it up here. Situate it.
And then tie it down. So this is a lot easier, especially as the weight start to go up. This kayak's not that heavy, but some of those fishing kayaks they get kind of up there. So this is definitely gonna be the easiest way to load that thing up. What comes with the kit is these little load stops.
So the angle right here, this is for your kayaks, but we can take this off, swap it around and then the flat side's gonna be for your lumber or ladders. You can tie down your kayak like you normally do. Cool thing about this is on the end, what I would do is to take this, throw it over the top. And use this as a strap. It's already there.
It's nice and perfect length this, go in there, tie it down. And if we did have these load stops a little bit closer, the nice thing is we have this little piece underneath here to protect the for many scratches. And the way you adjust these load stops is squeeze them up a little bit, slide it on down. Done deal, if you really needed to do that. But then when I unload it, obviously the center of our kayak is a little bit wider, but just know you do have these adjustments here on both sides. Very easy, you don't need a tool or anything. You're good to go. This is basically just your Rhino-Rack, aero bar it's made of aluminum. It's got an aerodynamic shape to it, and it's about 49" long, which is pretty good for most loads. We wanna make sure that our whole entire setup's gonna work with your kayak. If you have a really, really heavy kayak just make sure it's not gonna be exceeding 165 pounds. So depending on what kind of car you have, what kind of rack you're working with, ladder rack or roof rack you can use the included tool to adjust this with the telescoping system. So once we loosen this up a couple turns, where we need it to. Lower it if we want to. Raise it up, if we really want to. tighten it back up. And once we find that perfect little spot for your kayak What you can do is come down to this little hole. We'll go ahead and tighten it up. And then with the hole, we'll just take a little drill bit. Drill this out right there and then do give us a clip to go through it to mark our spot. So we can adjust it real low to put it in our garage. And then whenever we want to use it, drill that hole, put this in and you know, you're all ready to rip. As you can see, it's perfectly level. Didn't take me a whole lot of time to get it level. And I think that's pretty neat. We can also do some more adjustments. We have a hole here, hole here or we can take the bolt out all together and that's gonna change how far it goes back. So in the highest setting, doesn't come back a whole lot. Not much at all. So that's how mark goes back there. And that's it upright. Let's take it off. Go to the second setting. Let's see how far it goes back. This is what we we're using earlier which this will change depending on what kind of roof you have and what kind of vehicle you have. So there's that one. And then let's take it out all together. Let's see. And that's kind of a lot. So it all just depends, just know you have adjustability there. And whenever we have it all loaded up we're gonna have this hole right here which we can take this through and it's gonna be locked into the place. Looking down further on our shank, again, this is where your 2" hitch receivers. We are gonna get an anti-rattle bolt on the end of it with a lock. So a lot of these accessories don't come with locks. This one does, which is awesome. And the anti-rattle bolt, what that does is just make sure it's nice and secure to your hitch. So you're not gonna hear any rattling at all. We're ready to catch some fish, pull the pin unstrap your yak, and then grab your yak. Go down like this, pull your yak. Put it down on the pad. Grab your yak and hit the water and catch some fish. I do like how they have the strip here because I wasn't hearing the plastic on the aluminum rubbing. So that's good, it's not gonna scratch your kayak. So it's always nice that you buy something, that's gonna protect your investment. And whenever we're done, you can either leave it down, If you really wanted to. Just prepare for loading it up put the pin in, call it a day. Or if you are planning on putting it into your garage, what you can do is just loosen this up, take it down, undo the bolt and the lock and put it somewhere in your garage, just store it away. Comparing the Rhino-Rack Load Assist to some of the other ones on our website. I think this one's gonna be the one that's more customizable. Meaning some of them just have pre-drilled holes. This one, you put it to where you need it. You drill the hole and it's set for you. It does come with some load stops which have two different configurations for heavy wood and stuff like that, but also your kayaks. And it does have a little strap which kind of acts as a roller bar. The other ones on our website you to grab a roller bar separately. I think the roller will be a little bit nicer to use compared to just a strap, but this one just comes with it and it worked just how it should have. So I definitely think that this one's gonna be for those heavier kayaks and even the other ones as well. You know, you're really gonna need a lot of help getting those really heavy kayaks up on onto your roof. I don't think this is going to speed up the process a whole lot with your normal kayaks. I'd rather just man handle it and put it up on there. Or also just check out our load assist kayak carriers, if you do have a lighter kayak and you just want a little bit of help. And that's pretty much it for a look at the Rhino-Rack Load Assist and I'm Adam at etrailer..
There was total confusion about my order, I asked what I needed before I ordered and they got it wrong so for there mistake I have to shipping charges not happy at all
Installed on a 2016 VW Passat. These Rhino Rack universal roof racks are an absolute nightmare.
The hold-down clamps have almost no rubber padding except on the contact surface and its extremely easy to scratch your car when trying to install them. You REALLY need 2 people to put these on.
The rubber pads fall off the racks all the time. I hang the racks in the garage and always have to spend time looking on the ground to see where the pads fell. Then comes trying to figure out which pad goes where on each rack. Absolute nightmare.
The bars themselves look great and seem strong enough for anything I’ll throw at them. However, I have an issue with eTrailer.com. In the detailed product description on their website, eTrailer indicates that three 15” Vortex rubber strips are included in every individual bar. However, when the bars arrived, each contained only two 15” Vortex rubber strips. This isn’t nearly enough to fill the ~48” of open c-channel and doesn’t match the product description and pictures. The boxes look like they had been opened too. When I called customer support, they said that the bars should only contain two strips each. According to them, the manufacturer only included two strips to leave room for attaching bike racks and other gear. But this directly contradicts the manufacturer’s product description. Also, even with three strips, there would be room for attachments. I suspect that eTrailer may be opening boxes and removing strips to drum up aftermarket sales for extra strips. I recommend the product but buy elsewhere.
Easy to follow instructions. Had it together and on in under an hour.
have not finished putting product toget her
Nice rack, looks great, but makes the loudest whistling siren like noise above 40 mph
Got my bars in today. Was able to install within 30 mins on my Jeep Wrangler 4XE with a SOT top.
Figuring out a way to mount two solar p anels
Again instructions were poor. Needs more detail.
Too much assembly of small items that didn't affect shipping size. ie rubber strips for the top and some of them were left out causing me to have to remove the rack to reinstall. Fit kit was too complex and did not fit my Prius correctly with the front bar.
Easy to assemble. Very sturdy. Works gr eat!
Rails were easy to setup and easy to use. Good instructions.
I was really looking forward to this rack as I'll be running my roof tent on it. Unfortunately it came damaged, since the damage was limited to the end caps I went ahead and mounted it.
The rack itself looks slick, comes with little measuring sticks to make sure you install it straight the first time, comes with all the tools required.
So thats about it for good stuff.
Wind noise , to give you an idea how bad it is I have this on a old f250 with a bad muffler and 33in mud tires and its still almost intolerable! It's like they put it in a wind tunnel and tuned for as much noise as possible.
I also ordered a roof bag at the same time , I wasn't expecting much from it . It's a bag with a zipper and straps. Sadly the hardware is junk and I snapped a buckle with some light tensioning.
Customer service
Initial service was as good or better than expected. Things went downhill when the damage was reported. I told the rep I was only at a US address for the next 10days and if the replacement was going to take longer than that would they ship it to Canada?
The answer was no, they won't ship it to Canada (talking about a couple pieces of plastic you could stick in the mail for $2.00). They then proceeded to slowplay the authorisation for the replacement parts and shipped them the day I told them was my last day to receive them.
So to sum it all up I am the happy owner of one of the loudest racks on the planet that looks sketchy due to the shipping damage. A roof pack that will probably end up at the dump after one extended trip.
Not likely to be a repeat customer!
I was really looking forward to this rack as I'll be running my roof tent on it. Unfortunately it came damaged, since the damage was limited to the end caps I went ahead and mounted it.
The rack itself looks slick, comes with little measuring sticks to make sure you install it straight the first time, comes with all the tools required.
So thats about it for good stuff.
Wind noise , to give you an idea how bad it is I have this on a old f250 with a bad muffler and 33in mud tires and its still almost intolerable! It's like they put it in a wind tunnel and tuned for as much noise as possible.
I also ordered a roof bag at the same time , I wasn't expecting much from it . It's a bag with a zipper and straps. Sadly the hardware is junk and I snapped a buckle with some light tensioning.
Customer service
Initial service was as good or better than expected. Things went downhill when the damage was reported. I told the rep I was only at a US address for the next 10days and if the replacement was going to take longer than that would they ship it to Canada?
The answer was no, they won't ship it to Canada (talking about a couple pieces of plastic you could stick in the mail for $2.00). They then proceeded to slowplay the authorisation for the replacement parts and shipped them the day I told them was my last day to receive them.
So to sum it all up I am the happy owner of one of the loudest racks on the planet that looks sketchy due to the shipping damage. A roof pack that will probably end up at the dump after one extended trip.
Not likely to be a repeat customer!
I was really looking forward to this rack as I'll be running my roof tent on it. Unfortunately it came damaged, since the damage was limited to the end caps I went ahead and mounted it.
The rack itself looks slick, comes with little measuring sticks to make sure you install it straight the first time, comes with all the tools required.
So thats about it for good stuff.
Wind noise , to give you an idea how bad it is I have this on a old f250 with a bad muffler and 33in mud tires and its still almost intolerable! It's like they put it in a wind tunnel and tuned for as much noise as possible.
I also ordered a roof bag at the same time , I wasn't expecting much from it . It's a bag with a zipper and straps. Sadly the hardware is junk and I snapped a buckle with some light tensioning.
Customer service
Initial service was as good or better than expected. Things went downhill when the damage was reported. I told the rep I was only at a US address for the next 10days and if the replacement was going to take longer than that would they ship it to Canada?
The answer was no, they won't ship it to Canada (talking about a couple pieces of plastic you could stick in the mail for $2.00). They then proceeded to slowplay the authorisation for the replacement parts and shipped them the day I told them was my last day to receive them.
So to sum it all up I am the happy owner of one of the loudest racks on the planet that looks sketchy due to the shipping damage. A roof pack that will probably end up at the dump after one extended trip.
Not likely to be a repeat customer!
Looks great and it was 3 days early!
Thank you, etrailer!
Easy installation. Perfect fit.
These fit great on my 2023 Honda CRV-LX mdel
As noted in prior review very happy with the whole system. Rock solid and good quality.
does what it's supposed to do. good qua lity
Looks like these are the racks I should have purchased the first time. My first racks actually blew off the car.
Great Product, Very Satifying with follow up, Super excllent Customer Services. thnak's
Love it. Better than I could have ever hoped.
there was some total confusion on what I wanted to order so I have to send back my whole order and pay for shipping not happy about that. I asked the question about what I wanted to order before I purchased and they got it all wrong.
Other than it whistles loudly it's been great for us
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