Video Transcript for An In-Depth Look at the Rhino-Rack Heavy-Duty Roof Rack Crossbar

Hi, I'm Matt with etrailer, and today we're talking about our Rhino-Rack HD crossbars. These are gonna be some of our more bulky, heavy-duty crossbars, design to carry ladders, lumber, or even kayaks. So let's check 'em out. Today we're really only gonna be talking about the crossbars themselves, and these are gonna be available in a lot of different kits for different needs. So right now, we have just the kit of two, and these are gonna be able to work with a lot of different towers. Like the neighbor we have, they have this track installed on their camper so they can put it on top of their camper.

Now there's gonna be other kits that'll allow 'em to put it on their truck, and you can even get this as a kit of one all the way up to a kit of four to fit other needs you have, whether you want more support throughout the top of your roof or you don't need as much support. But today, we're mainly gonna be talking about the crossbars and what they're capable of doing. And with these crossbars like I was talking about earlier, these are gonna be great if you have any ladders, lumber, or even kayaks. And that's gonna be due to a few reasons because this is gonna be really compatible with some accessories designed to hold those items on. One of those being our load stops that can help keep your load from shifting around.

And we're gonna have the option to mount a cargo roller because loading up those longer items can be pretty difficult too. And we even have this lock or cable and lock that's specifically designed to work with these types of crossbars. And that's not to say that this isn't gonna work in other types of applications as what we have it right now for is more for our work application. If you wanted to use it for more recreational uses, this is gonna be fantastic for that too 'cause like I said, you can strap a kayak to the top of this and you could even put an awning on here too. So if you got done being on the river or the creek, you could go over here by your camper and put out that awning to relax out in the shade.

But I do think this is gonna lend itself more to those work applications, 'cause one, like I was talking about, there are gonna be plenty of Rhino-Rack accessories that can help you with those loads. And the second reason is gonna be 'cause the shape of the bar. This bar is pretty large, both in width and height, and that height is really gonna affect a lot of clamp-on accessories from getting around here. The other fitment issue I see is gonna be this channel we have. And this sure is really only gonna work with a lot of Rhino-Rack accessories.

Any other brands really aren't gonna have anything designed to fit a channel that large. Like if you are planning to use this for more recreational uses and you wanna put maybe a rooftop tent up here or some bike racks that Rhino-Rack doesn't offer, then more than likely, they're probably not gonna fit on here. So what you can do in that instance is instead of getting the HD bars, you can get Rhino-Rack Vortex bars. And really, since they are made by Rhino-Rack, they should use the same towers and just drop in. Or if you wanted to go down the other route, you could get a platform to put on top of here. And a platform rack is gonna give you a whole lot more options because, not only is it gonna give you more mounting options, but more accessories are also gonna be more compatible with it. We can check out some of the specs. So first up, we don't have a weather strip at the very top of the time being 'cause we took it off to showcase what access accessories you can put on here. If you wanna mount any accessories to the top, you're actually gonna have to cut this down to size and really arrange it in a new way so you can fit your gear up here. Now, what this strip does is prevent any water from getting in your channel or any debris. It's also gonna help reduce wind noise when you're driving down the road. What I also like about it is it also gives us additional padding. So when we do have those ladders, that lumber sitting on top of here, it's not damaging anything. It's important to note, we do have an additional channel on the bottom and that's primarily gonna be used to put your tower or connect your tower to, but you can also use it to mount additional accessories, like this locking cable we have. So if you're only using accessories like these, then you shouldn't actually have to cut down your weather strip on top at all and you can leave it as is. As for the construction of the bar itself, it's going made of aluminum. So that's gonna give you a few things. It's gonna make this lightweight, really easy to move, especially with putting this on top of your roof. And it's also gonna make this weather-resistant. So when you have this for a long time out in the elements, it's gonna be less likely to rust over time. Now even though it is pretty lightweight and made out of that lightweight material, it is still gonna be very sturdy and strong. And that does come with a caveat though, because if you do plan on putting some really heavy items on here, it's really gonna depend on what kind of mounting system you have, whether that's a fixed mounting system, if it's on raised or flush rails, that's all gonna be factors on what the max weight capacity is. If you really wanna push that weight capacity with really heavy loads, I'd actually recommend any type of ladder rack. But if you're in a situation like we are in today where you have a camper shell on the back, that really isn't going to be an option. At the end of the day, these are gonna be really good crossbars for certain situations. And that's really gonna come down to what you're hauling and what accessories you want to mount on top of here. And if you do find that maybe this isn't the best option for you and that some of the accessories that you want to put up here won't fit, we have plenty of other options on our website. But if you do find that you are in those working conditions and you can mount those accessories on top of here, then I think this is a great option for you. But that's just a look at the Rhino-Rack HD crossbars. Thanks for watching.