To see if this custom-fit item will work for you please tell us what vehicle you'll use it with.
The Yakima BaseLine Roof Rack gives you a sturdy setup for hauling all kinds of gear. It comes as a complete system with 2 JetStream crossbars, 4 BaseLine towers, and a custom fit kit. Built from aluminum with a black finish, it’s strong enough for loads up to 165 lbs while keeping everything locked in place on your naked roof. The secure design helps you take on long trips or outdoor adventures with confidence.
Driving with roof gear can mean extra noise, but these aero-style crossbars are shaped to keep things quiet. The rubber strips that run along the top channels help reduce whistling and vibration as you drive. That means smoother airflow and a calmer ride even when the rack’s loaded up.
Some channel-style bars need trimming before you can mount accessories. These don’t. The rubber strips in the top channels push down when you install your gear, then close up again around the hardware. It’s a small touch that saves time and keeps the crossbars sealed against wind and weather.
These crossbars work great with most universal cargo, water, snow, and bike carriers. Whether it’s kayaks in the summer, skis in the winter, or just extra luggage in a cargo box, this rack gives you flexible mounting options through both top channels and clamp-around attachments.
You can equip this rack with Yakima Same Key System (SKS) lock cores (sold separately) to help deter theft. One key secures your whole setup so you can step away knowing your rack is protected at stops or overnight trips.
Alternate Instructions
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
This is Curt with etrailer and today we're gonna take a look at the Yakima BaseLine roof rack with JetStream crossbars and we're gonna see how it fits and how it installs on our 2025 Ford Escape. Now a roof rack is a great way to get those items to and from your destination that maybe you either don't want riding in the car with you or they simply just won't fit. While the Escape does have a decent amount of storage space, if you're heading out on a trip and you've got, you know, three passengers in there with you going on a nice vacation or something like that, it's not gonna leave a lot of room in the vehicle for luggage or any of the extra equipment you might take with you. Roof rack accessories include things like roof box, cargo boxes, platform racks, baskets, bike racks, kayak carriers, ski and snowboard carriers, all kinds of different things that you can get up on the roof of your Escape in order to enjoy that next adventure. The JetStream crossbar that we have on our roof rack today is an aero style crossbar, meaning it's got kind of an ovular shape. These are a lot more aerodynamic than your round or square bars, the more traditional shape bars, and they're gonna be a lot quieter on the road for you.
Now these are 60 inch bars, so that leaves us a lot of bar space to work with. We do have this push down T track up at the top to use our our T track mounted accessories, and we've got a lot of overhang here and for our clamp accessories as well. The overhang is gonna give you all that extra bar space if you have two accessories up here that you want to carry side by side. However, it is important to note that while this roof rack does have a 165 pound weight capacity, you always want to check your owner's manual and see what the vehicle rooftop capacity is. If it's lower than 165 pounds, that'll be your maximum weight capacity.
These 60 inch bars, that's quite a bit of overhang as I mentioned before, and with our fit kits that we get from Yakima, they're very specific about where we can place these bars up on the roof. So during the installation, follow the instructions to a T, this is where the bar placement is. Now with this much overhang, it actually puts it right in the middle of where you're getting in and out. So just be really conscious of that, especially in the second row. In the second row, it's very much right in the middle of where you're going to be getting out.
So again, I think the bar by itself, you'll probably be okay, but if you do have a roof accessory coming out over here, then you definitely want to pay extra attention. Well, the first measurement that we want to take a look back is our crossbar spread, and that's gonna be the distance between the two crossbars. The reason that that's so important is every rooftop accessory has a minimum and a maximum crossbar spread that it can work with. So if we go from the middle of our bar, I'm going by the back end of the weather strip there. All the way across, what we come up with is a 28 inch crossbar spread, and that's a really good place to be.
Most rooftop accessories are gonna be able to accept that crossbar spread without a problem. The next thing I wanna take a look at is our bar height. How much height does this add to the vehicle And it's gonna give us an extra three and a half inches up on top. Now that's not gonna do a whole lot to add to vehicle height. It is something to be aware of though when it comes to roof clearance. The important thing to take note of though is that that shark fin antenna back there isn't quite at that height. So anything that you put up here on top of these bars should be able to clear that antenna without any issue at all. The other thing that I'm gonna check on here is going to be how much distance do we have under the crossbar And with that we've got about two and a quarter inches, more than enough room to get those clamp mounted accessories around it. Now let's take a look and see exactly how we got these installed. To begin our installation, there's a couple of things that we wanna keep in mind first and foremost. When you get your parts, you're gonna get two different sets of the base clips, BC 152 and BC 137. The back bar, which is what we're gonna be putting on now, you're gonna be using BC 152, that's the pads and the clips. On our front bar, which we've already got installed, what we used was BC 137. So whichever bar you're using, make sure you got the right kit on your towers first. We've got our bar here, we've already got one of our towers attached. What we're gonna do is flip it on its backside and we're gonna find this long T channel. And it might be hard to see on camera, but there is a scale here. And what the scale is going to determine is the distance from the center mark on this bar over. So when you're looking at your instructions, you're gonna have several M measurements. One of those M measurements is the distance apart of our bars. And for our back bar it's the M3 measurement. And for that measurement it says 38 and a half. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take this metal block at the top. I'm gonna slide this into the T channel here, and what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna find 38 and a half on the scale. It's gonna be right down here. And at that point what I'm gonna do is I am going to through, not this bolt here, but through this bolt here. There is a little gray tab here on the outside. If it's closed, it covers it up. So you wanna pull that out and make sure that it's exposed And holding it in place at that 38 and a half mark, I'm gonna take the tool that Yakima provided and I'm gonna get that tightened all the way down. Now this tool from Yakima is a torquing tool. So when you get it tightened up properly, you're gonna get a loud pop, just like that and that's gonna let you know that it's in place, it's not going anywhere. Once your tower's in place, go ahead and replace your end cap, just like so. Next you're gonna take your footpad. Now the footpad is gonna have an arrow at the bottom that needs to be facing outward and it's going to attach onto this bar here. Now out of the box, your tower might have a plastic bottom to it already. Go ahead and remove that and replace it with the one here with the rubber bottoms. So we're just gonna pop that right into place just like so. And with that being done, here, we've got this door here. I'm gonna open this up. I'm gonna take my clip and I'm gonna insert it right through here. And then I'm gonna close that door back and I got my clip attached. Now it's time to get it up on the roof. The wider portion of the bar facing the front of the vehicle, the narrower portion facing the rear. We're gonna go ahead and slip this over our roof. Try to get that clamp kinda on the outside over there and get it kinda settled into place up here. Because of the angle of these clamps, you're probably gonna wanna loosen these up a little bit in order to get your foot pads laying flush. So this door here, we're gonna go ahead and swing that open. We're gonna take our Yakima tool and through this bolt right here, we're just gonna turn that counter-clockwise and try to kinda loosen this up a little bit just to give us a bit of a better angle on this clamp and get our foot pad laying flat. Okay, once you got these loosened up to where we can lay our pads flat, what we're gonna do is take a look in our instructions at the M4 measurement. The M4 measurement is gonna be the distance between our two bars. So what I'm gonna do is measure the front of this bar to the front of my rear bar at 28 inches, which is our M4 measurement in the instructions. I'm gonna double check this measurement on both the driver and the passenger side. I need to make sure that that's equal on both sides. That'll guarantee that my bars are gonna be parallel to each other. Take our Yakima tool, we're gonna do it right through this bolt right here again. And what I strongly urge is that you kind of tighten the driver and the passenger side down kind of incrementally. And by that I mean, right now all I'm doing is getting this to where the clamp gets flush, but not too tight. I'm gonna do the same thing on the other side. With everything getting tightened down back and forth, again, this is a torquing tool, so when you get each side to the point where it's tight enough, we're gonna hear that loud pop. There it goes right there. And then we're gonna re-close that gray lid. So with everything in place, I'm just giving it a good solid shake there. Towers aren't going anywhere, bar's not going anywhere. The last step to our installation is our tower cover. And before I put that on, I just wanna let you know when you get it out of the box, you're gonna have locks on 'em, but it's gonna be these plastic locks that you can open and close with a screwdriver. If you want metal locks with keys to match, you can get those from Yakima using Yakima's SKS system or same key system. What that allows you to do is get metal lock cores and keys and you can get them keyed like to your other Yakima accessories. So if you have a Yakima cargo box or bike rack or anything like that that also has locks, you have the opportunity to get your roof rack keyed alike to those other accessories and just reduce the size of that key ring and reduce some confusion. But in order to put our tower back on, we've got these little hinge clips at the bottom. We're just gonna put those in place and then pop it straight on just like that. Now our roof rack is loaded up and ready to hit the road, but if after watching this video you've got any questions about this Yakima JetStream roof rack, go ahead and leave those in the comments below. We would love to answer those for you. It just helps you and other neighbors just like you to make the best decision for yourself. Once again, this is Curt with etrailer. Thanks for stopping by.
Ratings & Reviews
Fast delivery. Yakima roof system for my 2017 Tahoe was perfect.
So far so good. Purchased these towers to use on a 2022 GMC Canyon with HD bars that I already had, primarily to carry my canoe. Yakima's fitting instructions worked perfectly and the whole system seems really solid.
Very sturdy hold with a matte look and fine textured feel. Very light making for easy install.
Nice solid crossbars and perfect fit for a Thule Hullivator kayak rack.
Excellent solution for my 2023 Chevy Silverado. In the past, I have had rails installed on the roof of my pickup trucks, but I find the BaseLine towers to be a better solution, since they don't permanently change the truck. Plus, they are much more solid than SkyLine system on the rails.
These parts are exactly what we needed as part of our roofrack kit purchased from etrailer. The website made it easy to search and find exactly the right product for our particular needs - mounting a rooftop tent onto a 2018 Chevy Cruze "naked" roof. We called for assistance and received excellent information to get our camping season started.
I had a need for the Yakima Crossbars and Towers for my Expedition. With a short delivery time frame, I contacted etrailer knowing they are the best. Justin B. worked with me to get the correct parts then made sure that the products arrived in time, it did. The Towers, Bars and overall excellent customer service from etrailer made for a great experience. Thanks again for exceeding expectations etrailer!
Ordering was a breeze. Fast shipping. Excellent communication. Product arrived well-packaged. Product easy to install; completely as described. Yakima products are superior-performers. etrailer is an excellent source for truck & trailer products.
Love my Yakima roof rack!! It exceeds my expectations.great product. Also thank etrailer for the tec support! great staff always there to help thanks again!!
All aspects of the purchase and installation were great. Based on the information provided on the etrailer.com website, I had a high level of confidence that I was purchasing the correct product(s) for my vehicle. The installation was relatively simple and straightforward and the rack is rock solid on my roof. It appears that I did a great job of following the directions :)
High quality bars that were easy to install to the Skyline towers and work great with our Yakima JayLow kayak carriers.
Well engineered. Not simple to install, Requires review of instructions and careful installation, but the result is a secure, well attached rack that the user can use with confidence.
The bars are sturdy, aerodynamic and super strong. I bought this to fit a Yakima Skybox 16 and these worked great. The measurement ticks on the bottom assist with getting the box centered and have a great gasket system that you fit yourself. These mounted pretty quick even in 20 degree weather.
etrailer sold this as a set based on my car and every piece was great and a perfect fit. Communication and tracking info was great and they delivered it a day before promised.
These Yakima crossbars are a part of the Yakima towers I bought to install on my Jeep Cherokee to hold a pair of Kayaks. They fit great as advertised. In fact I got these discounted as an open box. I would have never known, they look brand new. Thank you etrailer for your great advice, customer service and quick shipping process.
Excellent product. These bars are very quiet and look great on our truck. Assembly and installation was straightforward. We've used these bars to secure our large Yakima car top carrier and have traveled on several trips to the mountains and cabin with no issues. I suggest ordering an extra set of end caps as we've lost one in the car wash. However, have had no problems with the bars when going through the car wash.
As always, I GREATLY appreciate the superior product support that etrailer.com provides. They have the best product content on the web, hands down.
Great UX for finding the options matching my car, and the baseline towers work great. Simple straightforward site, will plan to use them again when needed.
For those also buying crossbars for cars without roof rails, recommend taking a silver sharpie and marking the placement of the crossbars on the weather seal at the top of the door openings. Makes putting them back on way less of a hassle if you don’t want them on 24/7.
1 year later and still love my Yakima JetStream system. I've mostly used them to transport my kayak however I've also been able to transport some big box store items as well. They are very versatile. There is a t-track option as well as wrap around attachments. I've use ladder attachments, eyebolts, and Thule Hullavator in t-track. I've used Malone MegaWing and Yakima Skybox as wrap around attachment. What I really like about the t-track system is that you do not need to cut out the rubber track insert. You simply slide over the rubber, which allows you to adjust your system, on the fly, to load what you need to carry.
Really easy to install & work as specified. So happy with the customer support/service at etrailer.
Hyundai Sonata - glass pano roof. These items have been on for about 1-year. So happy with the set up. I’ve take a road bike and a mountain bike on 500+ mile trips. The mounts do an excellent job.
The product itself was excellent. However, it came with no installation instructions showing how to remove and replace the shorter cross-bars. Fortunately, my son-in-law who is an engineer and very knowledgeable figured it out and did the installation.
Product exactly as expected. Quality bars. Using on a 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee L. Looks great installed. Little to no wind noise. And, as usual, top notch service by the etrailer crew! Have purchased several items from etrailer over the past 10 years and have always been impressed by how timely they are and how responsive and helpful they have been regarding product questions. They are absolutely the first merchant I go to when shopping on line!
The Yakima rack system for my 2015 Ford Fusion is an awesome product! I hadn't needed to buy aftermarket racks in many years. These are a super solid, beefy, and very well made product. I am very impressed with the quality and fit. Yakima has obviously put lots of design time into them. And etrailer does an outstanding job of making sure you get the right product for your specific need.
I chose this rack specifically because of the spread between the bars - 32" - and for the higher weight limit, as I'm carrying a fishing kayak.
Great product haven’t had any issues with it. Would highly recommend that anyone that’s looking for a roof rack system and a great seller at etrailer
Not a bad setup. I dont believe you need the 60" bars i received as they hang over the edge of your Hyundai. You need to watch your head getting in and out of your vehicle. The Jetstream crossbars are very loud at speeds over 65 mph. Im probably used to it by now, but it is definitely noticeable. Much louder than an older Rhino Rack of similar dimensions i had. Install was simple and took about 30 minutes, just take your time and measure correctly like all roof racks.
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