This stylish ski rack lets you carry up to 4 pairs of skis or 2 snowboards on your roof rack. It slides out from your roof for easy access, and it has large grip handles that let you easily open the rack even while wearing heavy winter gloves.
Features:
Specs:
The Kuat Grip lets you carry up to 4 pairs of skis or 2 snowboards on your vehicle's roof rack. Sliding arms make it great for use with your tall SUV, and large grip handles let you open the arms while wearing your heavy snow gloves. It's quick and easy to install and remove, but with the stylish look and low-profile design you may want to leave it on your vehicle all season long. It also includes locks to secure your gear to the Grip and the Grip to your roof rack.
Extends for Easy Loading and Unloading
The Grip carrier has arms that slide out from the side of your vehicle. This makes it easy to load and unload your boards or skis without having to reach up over your car roof or use the inside of your vehicle as a makeshift ladder.
Pull against the tabs on each tray to unlock them and slide them out. When you are done loading or unloading your gear simply slide each arm back into position. An audible click lets you know they're locked.
Large Grip Handles
The carrier has oversized handles that are easy to grip even when wearing heavy winter gloves. Simply pull up on the handle to open the cradle and load your gear.
GripLock Rubber Teeth
The teeth on the Grip are made of sturdy yet flexible rubber. They put a tight grip on your gear so you know it's not going slide off the carrier as you drive up the mountain. They are also soft so your gear won't get scratched or scuffed.
Easy Installation
The carrier installs quickly and easily with the included Flip mounts. They have rubber-coated stainless steel straps that wrap around your crossbars. Simply run a strap beneath the crossbar and hook it into the bracket on the opposite side of the mount. Use the included Allen key to tighten the straps in place.
You can adjust the angle of each Grip to accommodate the contour of your vehicle's roof. This allows the Grips to sit level to reduce wind resistance and noise as you drive. Simply loosen the angle adjustment bolts, level each Grip, then tighten the bolt.
Security for Your Skis
The Grip comes equipped with a complete locking cylinder system. The arms lock to secure your skis to the carrier, and the mounting hardware locks to secure the carrier to your roof rack. All 6 cylinders are keyed alike so you'll only have to keep track of one key for the entire system.
California residents: click here
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hi everyone, it's Evangeline here at E-Trailer and today we have the Kuat Grip Ski and Snowboard Carrier and we are going to take a look at how it fits our 2021 Jeep Wrangler. The Kuat Grip is one of my favorite premium carriers, because it's slides out, it has a really sleek look, and you can get it in different colors. So here's an example of how it can be helpful on the Jeep. This is a taller vehicle, and I am a shorter person, so opening up the carrier, I just hit up on those levers. I access the other lever on the inside, and now I can slide out the carrier's tracks, to make this more accessible for me. So, rather than trying to reach up onto the Jeep and stand on the ledge with my large boots, I can then just slide out the whole system, grab my skis, and now I am ready to go.
The Kuat Grip has grips, they are these rubber pads, that allow you to grip onto the skis and snowboards, but they also provide cushion. They're interspersed throughout the bottom track, as well as the top track of the carrier. As cool as these are, and as helpful as they are for holding onto your skis and snowboards, unfortunately, other carriers can also be used as fishing rod holders. These cannot, so if you wanted a multi or double purpose ski and snowboard carrier, this won't be the one for you. Great for skis and snowboards though.
If you do have your skis and snowboards on here, the way this secures is you just pull down on this lever, and there's one click, there's a second click, and the third click. So you have those different options, because if you have extra thick bindings, you want to accommodate for those. Either way, you'll still be able to lock the carrier into place. So with this locked, you can no longer open up that lever, but this isn't the only lock on this carrier. (snapping) While this is an easy to use lever, it doesn't actually use a key, what does is, on the very end of the carrier, you can see there's a lock core.
This lock core matches the cores on the clamps, so on the whole Kuat Grip System, there's six of these lock cores total, good for keeping everything secure, but a little inconvenient when you're out in the parking lot in the snow. The way the carrier installs is, it has a strap that goes around your crossbar and secures it. That strap has metal on the inside, so it can't just be cut open. Now, the first time you install this, you have to set the tension with a tool, but after that it has sort of a memory system, meaning you can just lift this lever up, remove that strap on both clamps, take off the carrier. And when you're ready to install the carrier, you put the strap back in, and then you turn this lever over, and that secures it.
With this in the closed position, you can see how we have this nice low profile, sleek look. That way, if you wanted to leave this onto your roof for an extended period of time, all year even, it's okay to do so. It will still have some wind drag, and some wind noise, because it's a carrier on your roof, it'll be less compared to some other entry level brands. Now for measurements, the height this adds to the top of your roof, we'll measure, will be about, a little over eight inches. This will depend on the roof rack you have, though. I have the Rhino Rack roof rack, which sits almost three inches above the roof. You can also get this in different colors. So, the one we have here is the black, you can also get this in gray, as well as pearl. This is available in those different sizes and those different colors. The one I have here is a Kuat Grip Four, which can carry up to four pairs of skis, or two snowboards. You can also expand this one and get the Kuat Grip Six, which can carry up to six pairs of skis, or four snowboards. But right here, right now this was a Kuat Grip Four on our 2021 Jeep Wrangler.
Ratings & Reviews
Came quickly, looks awesome.
These are really terrific!
Good ski rack
E-trailer is best in class. Items always come shipped securely. I don't purchase anywhere else.
Amazing quality and functionality. Less than one hour from opening the box to skis on the roof.
Timely shipping, great product.
By far the most well designed and built ski racket on the market!
Great ski rack system. Rack is very robust, a high quality product.
Best purchase ever. I have wanted to get a name-brand ski rack ever since I was in Highschool 30 years ago. I had the option of buying a cheaper one but just didn't trust the quality. I am so glad I made the decision for this one. It is incredible. Best construction, strength, and ease of use I have ever seen.
The instructions missed a key part when installing...loosen the universal strap first. Took me forever to figure out why I couldn't get it to snap in once on my crossbars. Otherwise so far I'm happy with it.
The rack showed up at my door and was on the roof in less than 20 minutes. It is a very solid piece of gear. The handles and locking mechanisms are sturdy and robust. The slide out trays are smooth and don’t bind. I have an older Thule ski rack that slides out on another car…it’s been good. The Kuat is much better.
Rack works great. Slide out makes loading and unloading much easier. So far we only put five pairs of fat skis on. Might have room for one more pair if I closed the gap between pairs but we didn’t need six pairs for that trip. Only problem was the rack froze up after driving through fresh rain. We had no problems with freezing while driving through salted slush. So far we’ve used it on two longer ski trips to CO from AZ. It’s quiet and strong.
We once had a cheaper rack release our top model, expensive, skis onto the highway at 65 mph. That’s why I bought a Kuat.
These were installed on a 2020 RAV4 Hybrid.
Pros:
Sharp looking
Clear instructions
Relatively quick and straightforward assembly and installation
Slide-out is handy on taller vehicles
Smooth, sturdy action on all hinges, latches, and slide-out
Quick removal after initial assembly and install
They take about 30 minutes to assemble out of the box (for a first-time roof rack purchaser). All tools (two hexes and lock keys) are included. I assembled mine at our dinner table, so there isn’t any grease that will get messy.
The instructions don’t show that you have to use the keys to unlock the different latches, so heads-up on that.
Installation on a new and taller vehicle took a little time so as to get them centered and not scratch the roof. I needed a boost (in height) to be able to tighten down the hex bolts that tightens the straps around the cross-bars. I was using the Toyota cross-bars on my vehicle, and they’re quite a bit smaller in diameter than the preset strap lengths on the Kuats, so it took me about another 30ish minutes to situate the racks and then tighten (with included hex key) the car and lock them down (with the included keys).
Following the ski trip, I unlocked the strap latch locks, lifted the racks off, and put them on a shelf. Removal time was about 3 minutes, and the straps are pre-sized for our next trip.
I prefer to spend a little more for nicer stuff up front that works well and is sturdy and thoughtfully engineered. These racks do all the things you want them to without any real gotchas. While these are a bit more expensive than other alternatives, these are a worthwhile long-term investment for me.
This is a fantastic rack. Had it all last winter. Not only did it keep our skis secure, it looked great doing it - I got a lot of people asking about it when they saw me using it in the parking lot. The slide out feature is very handy once you get the hang of it.
We did encounter issues with the slide out trays getting stuck with ice several times (I'm in the cold and wet NE) but I was able to work them free. We also had locks freeze up to the point where you couldn't get the key into the bolt to lock/unlock, which was annoying. Kuat support was great in sending new lock bolts when this happened though. I think the locks might need some weatherproofing to account for rain/snow getting in and freezing up the components, then allowing corrosion to set in and seize everything up.
But no regrets! I have this and the Base rack for our bikes in the warmer months, so there's kuat on my vehicle all year round now.
Do you have a question about this Ski and Snowboard Rack?
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