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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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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.
Fit my 03 Jetta GLS perfectly.
instructions basically nonexistent but there's enough videos on the internet to figure it out.
Everything works perfect box was in great condition plus everything is cheaper then Amazon. Trust etrailer far more as well
etrailer got this to be quickly- just in time for our ski trip!
Replacement Feet worked as expected, courteous customer service and updates when package was being shipped.
Look nicer than the heavier duty squAre Tube bar.
Work well - as I have the Thule version for another vehicle and these are easy to use. The instructions are in metric sizing.
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.
I would have given a 5 but the instructions/video skipped some worthwhile info. Overall I’m pleased.
quick and easy installation
quick and easy installation
Rack feels very sturdy and was easy to assemble and install. Since I've just installed this rack, time and usage will determine my overall satisfaction.
Thank you for the additional information for the installation speedy shipping all items arrived in excellent shape. I hope to do buy more things again. Thank you.
The rack was easy to install and does what I wanted. However even with the aero design they are still quite noisy at highway speeds.
Thick rubber barriers allow installation without worry of vehicle damage.
Bars are nice
Please check to ensure they include all the rubber wind strips. One of my two included only 2 very small pieces
We got this rack for our 2018 Audi q5. The website mentioned that it’s compatible with our car model. However when we installed it and went for a drive it started making noise when we increase the car speed above 50 km per hour. I am not at all satisfied with the product
The fit for these on my Porsche Cayenne was spot on, so why only three stars (2.5 would be more accurate in my opinion) Only the front and back of the mount is coated, the edges are exposed and while setting them up I scratched the heck out of my roof. I plan to dip them to prevent this in the future but really this should be addressed by the manufacture.
Just finished it and it awesome. What was better than the rack was Olivia who made sure I got the right parts, videos and even a follow up email to check how the install went and to make sure I got my order. Awesomely done etrailer.com and Olivia
Very sturdy and not difficult to install
This is a great product. The pieces were easy to assemble and fit great on my 2008 Honda Accord Coupe. A very sturdy and stable rack. The customer service, order process, and delivery was great, quick and efficient.
My Rino Rack has been great! No problems at all with it.
Great build quality and fairly easy to install. One snag was the measurement on the insert for the bottom of the rail shouldn't be used to determine required spacing.
Perfect fit for my 2015 Chevy Traverse. One of the only options I found for an aftermarket roof rack on this vehicle. They see very secure so far.
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