Yakima FatCat Roof Mounted Ski and Snowboard Carrier Review

Review of the Yakima FatCat Roof Mounted Ski and Snowboard Carrier

Today we are going to show you the Yakima FatCat 4-roof mounted, locking ski and snowboard carrier, part number Y03077. This rack has a capacity of up to four pairs for skies or two snowboards. It is also available in a larger version that will hold up to six pairs of skies or four snowboards. The FatCat 6 is part number Y03078. The Yakima FatCat 4 will fit most crossbars straight out of the box, whether it is the Yakima round style cross bars, square style load bars or the OEM oval shaped cross bar. The FatCat has a lower compact shape thanks to its unique low profile hinge design. The FatCat has an oversized button that makes engaging and disengaging the rack very easy, even when wearing gloves. The soft rubber padding ensures that the FatCat will get a good hold of your ski or snowboard but protects it from damage. The FatCat 4 uses Yakimas SKS lock core system to allow you to lock your gear into the rack. The FatCat 4 also comes with a lifetime warranty. If your skies are under 170 centimeters long, make sure that your cross bar spread is between 12 and 24 inches. If your skies are over 170 centimeters, make sure the cross bar spread is between 12 and 36 inches. 1:16

The first step of installation is to attach the universal mounts to the underside of the ski rack. To do this, first we are going to remove the bolts from the top of the mount. Next we are going to take the universal mount over to the cross bars and make sure that we do not need to use the longer screws. We are going to remove one screw from the bails and test fit it over our cross bar. Again, today we are using Yakima round cross bars, and we are just going to make sure that the shorter screws are long enough. If your cross bars are a little thick and you need more than the preinstalled screw length, you can use these screws to give you more length. Next we are going to take the top slider from our mount and attach it to the underside of the ski rack. The first thing we need to do is open up the rack. Here is where you are going to see that oversized button that Yakima uses. To mount the slider tops to the underside of the ski rack, we are going to the bolt in through here and here. On this back tilting bracket here, we have a little notch that we need to make sure we line up with the notch on the top side. 2:23

With the slide top side and the bolts in position, we can go ahead and take the bails and bolt it in. There is a nut inside the bails that our bolt threads into. But this nut slides on a little track, that way you can have some adjustment depending on the shape of your roof. Before we take the racks over to the cross bars, we are going to the screws through the top half of the bails, that way they are in place when we get the bails over the cross bars, ready for us to tighten down. With the bails attached to the undersides of both halves of the rack, we can go ahead and mount them up on the cross bars. We can go ahead and start tightening the bails down onto the cross bars. Once you have tightened down the one side a little bit, go ahead and move the rack over so that you can come to the other side, so that we can tighten down evenly. Once you have the mounts tightened down to the cross bar, go ahead and get the rack itself level and tighten it down to the mounts. And we are going to repeat the same process for the other part of the ski rack on the rear cross bar. 3:26

If you find that your bindings are too tall and you need a little bit more clearance between the bindings on the skis and the roof, you can adjust the rack a little bit and it will give you some extra clearance. The first thing to do is open the ski racks and undo the bolt that attaches the ski rack to the mount. Once you have removed the screw from the rear, go on to the front and loosen. Do not remove the screw. Back at the rear, you lift up the rack. We are going to bolt the top slider back down to the mount. Since this is the 4 ski model, we will be undoing this bolt on the front side. With the bolt out, we can lift the hinge and the arm down. Thread the bolt through the top of the hole in the mount. As you can see, we have picked up some more space now between the bottom of the ski rack and the roof of the car, so that any skies that we have with taller bindings will have more clearance. We will repeat the same process for the ski rack on the front side of the car. With the FatCat tightened down to the mounts, we can go ahead and start testing it out. And there you have it for the Yakima FatCat 4, part number Y03077.