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This aerodynamic roof rack lets you carry gear and cargo on your vehicle. Full-length aluminum crossbars provide plenty of space for channel mount and clamp-on accessories. Installs on your vehicle's naked roof.
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Specs:
Alternate Instructions
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Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
How's it going everybody, it's Ethan here at etrailer. Today we're gonna be taking a look at and showing you how to install the Rhino-Rack Vortex Aero Roof Rack System on our 2021 Ford F-150. So with the F-150, obviously we have a good amount of bed space, but if you wanna get something longer or larger up there and maybe couple this with like a ladder rack to give some longer loads like a ladder or a lumber or on the sports and rec side, maybe you have a larger kayak you wanna get where you need it to go, a roof rack system like this one is gonna be a great solution for you. So let's take a closer look. The roof rack is going to have a weight capacity of 165 pounds. It's going to fit on our roof with the fit kit that we'll show you in the installed portion.
But 165 is gonna be a pretty solid or pretty common number that you see with roof racks like this, which is gonna be fine for most of the things you wanna get up there. You just wanna double check and make sure that your roof weight rating is in that same ballpark. Make sure you know what each of those are and go by the lowest ready component just to be safe. The crossbars we have on our system right now are gonna be 59", which is a solid length. We stay pretty much well within the width of our vehicle overall.
They're going to be elliptical so they taper on both ends to cut down on some of that wind noise and drag. But anytime you put something up on the roof, you're gonna deal with that. Luckily, we also do have a vortex strip on the top which is how the bars get their name. So that's going to help again cut down on some of that wind noise, otherwise we just have that open channel up here. Speaking of that channel though, that's gonna be great for your T-track accessories.
If you have those, you can slide those in. But with the strip you are going to have to trim it up if you wanna leave this strip in with those accessories on. So it's not a horrible idea to just grab another strip if you want to, in the event that you do end up doing some trimming. On our end cap here, we do have a plastic lock which we can use to unlock or lock our end cap but you can upgrade those to metal if you'd like. On the underside, you do have the option to use a measurement strip that you are gonna trim up and put wherever your towers are not.
In our case, this is just for demonstration and we'll talk a little bit more about that in the install portion as well, but that'll cut down on that whistling noise underneath as well. And using the provided key, we can take our end cap off and just show you how that works. So it's just a metal lock core there that will expose our fit kit hardware. So as long as our end cap is on and it's also locked up, no one is going to be able to access your fit kit hardware and remove the rack from your roof. From here I'm just gonna get a quick measurement to give you an idea of how much height you're going to be adding to your roof with the system. So from here in the middle, you're going to be looking at adding about 4-1/4" from the highest point. So if you're thinking about storing this in your garage, especially if you have something on there, add about 4-1/4" to whatever that's gonna be to find out whether or not it will fit in your garage or if you'll go anywhere where there might be some clearance issues. The roof rack system is gonna be made out of an anodized aluminum so it's gonna be really lightweight, easy to work with, but also very durable and rustproof at that point. It's got a nice matte black finish so it looks good. I think it fits the aesthetic of our F-150 really well. Overall, the install portion isn't too terribly difficult. It can be a little bit tricky, but you just need to be patient. Use the measurements that the instructions give you and make sure that you know where everything is gonna go. But if you need a little bit of help with that process, we'll walk you through it right now. To get started, the first thing we'd like to do is to slay everything out so that we know where and what it is. So we have our crossbars, we have towers, our fit kit, the clamps, and the hardware. We've got the pads and the bases for our towers. We have the tools and I would recommend picking up some kind of fabric tape measure as well as a regular tape measure. And then we have this measurement strip that comes included that we'll have to trim up according to our needs and definitely keep the instructions close by 'cause we will have to reference those often. But we'll begin by removing the end caps on our crossbars. We are going to use this plastic key to fit into the end cap. Just turn it and pull it out as long as we have it rotated fully, and we need to remove that in order to get our towers on. So we're going to line up this metal plate here with the underside, with the channel underneath our crossbars and just slide those on. And now is when you're gonna use that measurement strip. So for our case, ours has already been trimmed up so we can't use it effectively but you're gonna basically line it up with your tower, find the measurement on your instructions. In our case, we're looking for 169, so I'll get that roughly to where it needs to be. In your case, you could actually use the full measurement strip and trim it up if you need to. We repeated that process on the other side. We just slid our tower under this channel here and line it up according to the measurement, removed our end caps and now we just need to replace those real quick. Again, just put 'em on and tighten 'em down with the key. From here, since we're doing our front crossbar, just be sure to reference the instructions but we're going to attach one of our base pads to the rest of the base, and we wanna make sure you can see this arrow on here. We wanna make sure that ends up facing forward, so in our case, we're going to get these on and then we'll line it up with the tower. With the pad connected to the base, you can see where these openings are, and where they'll fit on our towers. So from here, again, we just wanna make sure that that arrow is facing forward, and we can snap this on into place. And then we're gonna repeat this process again on the other side. Once our towers are roughly in place, we're going to get a measurement. In your case, you could use the measurement strip. In our case, we would've to trim that up, and this is just for demonstration, so I'm gonna use our fabric tape measure to find that 169 millimeter mark in our case. And now I'm going to use the Allen key provided to tighten this down. As we tighten down, something important to note is that this tool does have a built-in torque spec, so just the way it's designed. Once we start turning, as soon as we see that line straightened out, that's about as tight as we want to go. Once we have our towers all set up, our measurements where we need 'em to be and both bases in place, now we can place our crossbars roughly on our roof, whereabout we think they're going to go. Just a matter of getting them roughly in place for now. And then we're gonna come back and get the measurement to make sure that they're in the right place. From here, again, since this is the front crossbar, I'm going to be using the measurement A in our case, which is 280 millimeters or 28 centimeters from the center of our door jam to the center of the tower. So in our case, I need to slide forward quite a bit. It's gonna be kind of hard to tell for now until I move the other one forward as well. So I'm gonna go to the other side and get that measurement now. Once we have everything in place and all our measurements are good, if your end caps are on, make sure we get those out of the way. If they're locked, go ahead and just use the provided key to unlock it. But now we're going to fit the bolt through this hole here on our clamp and make sure that it threads into that opening there inside our tower. Once you get the bolt here to start threading, it's probably gonna be easier just to use the tool to get it most of the way in. In our case, I'm gonna go to about 70, 75% here. I'm not gonna tighten it down all the way 'cause it might start pulling the whole system towards me, rather I'm gonna tighten this one down, and then I'm gonna go back to the other side, tighten that one down, come back and finish this one up, and then finish the other side up as well just to make sure everything's even as possible. Now that we've gone back to the other side and tighten that one down, I'm gonna finish tightening this bolt here. Again, just using this tool. Once it gets to the point where it straightens out, that's how you know we're at the desired torque. So I'm right about there now. All that's left to do is to replace our end caps and lock those up. So overall, if you're looking for a really effective way to extend your load space, whether that's getting some larger or longer items up on your roof, the Rhino-Rack Vortex Aero Roof Rack System is gonna be a great option for you. We just took a look at how to install it and how it fits on our 2021 Ford F-150.
So, when I ordered my stuff I noticed that the cost wasn't charged to my bank. I called to see if my order had been canceled but everything was gathered. Just got my stuff today (a day early) and I everything looks great! If it wasn't 9 at night...and raining I would be outside throwing everything on my car! Great customer service too! I'm not sure why bad reviews are coming in.
Didn't even come with half the parts looks like it was a return from someone else and when I asked about it they said please write a review so no help at all DO NOT BUY FROM THIS WEBSITE!!!
This product works well and fits perfectly on the Prius C. Make sure to follow the directions with respect to the directions of the arrows on the pads. Directions are clear and accurate, would suggest you read through them once before starting. Attaches to the vehicle easily and works as advertised.
Great Racks, easy to install and were very stable. Wind noise was reduced by wrapping the bars with parachute cord. I would buy them again
This roof rack was perfect for my GMC Sierra Truck. Extremely easy to install and remove when not needed. Thanks for assisting me in getting the proper size/fit for my vehicle.
These were easy to install and easy to remove. I use one or two in combination with my receiver hitch rack and can carry almost anything.
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.
Great product! Ensured fit was right for my Toyota and has been hauling kayaks for a year! No need to pay Yakima or Thule pricing for good equipment.
The roof racks that I purchased have been great. They fit on my vehicle perfectly and work well for carrying my canoe.
The roof racks that I purchased have been great. They fit on my vehicle perfectly and work well for carrying my canoe.
I have not taken them off since the day I installed them. They are still pretty steady, the color has not faded. Good purchase.
Bought these for my 2017 CR-V and they were perfect. I've installed and removed them at least half a dozen times, and it's a piece of cake--about five minutes of work.
I would definitely recommend this product. I researched a lot of options and these rhino racks are just as comparable to Yakima and Thule, with a much better price. Drove from California to Canada and back with 2 surfboards, no problem.
Overall I like the rack. The rubber piece underneath the metal piece that latches to your door frame shifts over time. Also two of the end pieces on the bars that go from side to side fell off. Since I put mine on an Altima they are eye level when placing a child into a car seat in the back seat. Our face has took a hit a time or two and due from the missing gab it’s always left a scratch.
Great product has held up through 2 kayak seasons!
The distance between feet specified in the instructions, both front and back, was short by about 1 1/8 inches. Otherwise, the product is top quality and was received complete and on time within the time frame promised. I will purchase from etrailer again.
Great product! I bought it for one trip and have been loving the convince of extra space all year and its easy to find the Kia in the parking lot too.
eh---these are ok. i'm not sure how best to improve them. it's for towers, and towers are suboptimal. they work
I am very pleased with my Rhino Racks my only complaint was the installation. It should be noted that you will be needing a torque wrench in order to complete the installation. On top of that..You need to use a torque wrench with a custom wrench provided by Rhino Rack but there is no way of attaching this to the torque wrench. The socket you tighten with this wrench is plastic and can easily be tightened to much and broken if not to careful. You then also need a 10mm wrench adapter for your torque wrench in order to tighten the nut up against the brackets. Maybe there are easier ways to do this..I do consider myself pretty handy, but this was a bit much.
Cross bars are great! Easy install. Except for the little plastic strips that go under and between mounts. They can be a bear to measure and install properly,but definitely need to go on to avoid any whistle noise.
Just gotta say what a great experience it is dealing with etrailer. Rep, Kelly was very helpful in part selection and order processing. I will most assuredly use etrailer again for my next Jeep accessories purchase.
I loved this product. Until it fell off my car while I was driving. I followed the exact directions while putting it on my car like I always do.
Good solid product. Completely satisfied. Possibly a little more than some wish to spend but sometimes quality reallly does mean you get what you pay for.
Fit perfect , with no drip rail this had to be a well thought out precision fit to hold and not move . These are the items needed to make for a complete system . 100% satisfied .
This did everything that was promised. The rack held tight over 600 miles of road, at least half of which was in wind and rains. The instructions were very clear, and the only difficulty in getting the racks on the roof is that we were having 2 days of heavy rain and winds. Otherwise, it was a snap. The only issue I had was the rubber caps that go over the screw which hold the leg onto the bar itself. There is insufficient space for the rubber cap to slide through the bar. I can't see why the cap is necessary anyway, as the screw is not exposed to the elements at all
Racks are good - I have a ton of Thule related equipment but unfortunately my model vehicle doesn't have a Thule supported product. Rhino seems to be very good compared to my Thule and I was able to use a faring from Thule which works great. The fit kit (ordered separately to custom for your vehicle) instructions are in metric sizing and it took me a bit to understand the spacing requirements for the feet. Also, there is no interior side cover casing, which in bad weather might create wear to the unit if I leave it on the roof. Otherwise, I'm pleased thus far.
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