need Roof Rack education & recommendation
 

Hello Yota's.

Approaching ski season, I am looking for a "mean/way" to carry my ski equipments with my 97 4runner SR5 4wd A/T 105k miles WITHOUT Factory roof rack. What is the best options? So far, I have been considering the following choices,

Option 1 : Purchase/Install(DIY) Factory Roof Rack and put Yakima or Thule Ski carrier
=> I think this option would run around $300 for OEM Roof rack and $100 for Ski carrier, which is total around $300.
Then, is there any thing that I need to purchase? Is it easy to install OEM Roof rack as DIY? Do I need to make a hole on the roof? How well does this hold up? No problem on high way speed 80~90mph ?

Option 2 : Purchase/Install Yakima or Thule Roof Rack system and Ski carrier
=> This seems running around $350. It looks more sturdy and solid than OEM roof rack, but OEM roof rack looks better... ^^;
Again, do I need make a hole on roof for this aftermarket roof rack system? No probme on high way spped at around 80~90mph?

Option 3: Any advice from you guys... (or any other economical approach????)

Please I am a novice on this roof rack area, but I would say I am a rather mechanically inclined so I would try to take care of most of things as DIY. So, any advice/suggestion/recommendation on my situation is greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

my advise, just go yakima. the whole way. that sh&^t is bomber, i have put my bike racks and surf racks through hell, they hold no problem. yakima vigorously tests all its applications - like, they TRY to break it. then they design well past the break point.

plus, if you ever get done with your truck, you sell it and keep the racks for the next ride. so its a good investment too. good luck-

How about the Yakima Powderhorn hitch-rack for ski/snowboards? easier diy, less noise & better mpg's.

Hi LV,

The factory roof rack will cost you $155 + shipping from an ebay seller who always sells these there.

I believe both Thule and Yakima sells an adapter for their ski racks but NOT the snowboard racks.

If no to the above, you will have to buy the company's feet adapter as well as the cross bars

As for the factory roof rack and more specifically the rails, the holes are already pre-drilled into the roof. The only advice I would give is to seal the holes with silicone after you've mounted the rack. You'll need a torx bit (iirc a #24 or 22) for the screws

Now if you go the all-Thule or Yak route, the feet will mount inside the driver and the passenger door sills. This is by far more solid than the factory roof rails. I cannot recall the weight/load capacity but i recall it is more. The good thing about this type of set up is that its a lot easier to get stuff on and off your 4runner because you can stand on the inside of your 4runner's door plates. On the other hand, this setup has known to cause bumps on the heads of passengers. That is to say, when the feet/bars are mounted at the front and rear passenger doors, the bars stick out at the same place and thus when passengers get in, often times they will hoist themselves into the bars.

How do i know? Because I've ahd both set ups and after seeing my mom nearly knock herself out, i decided to go back to the stock, OEM rails :)

Bob

try these guys
 

I got my roof rack from performancebike.com they are a catalog and retail bike chain that offer their own brand of racks called transport or something. They are just like the Thule racks in that they use square not round load bars. I bought mine for like $170, then I bought the Thule brand fairing. Mine came with 2 fork mount bike rails but they do offer snow board and ski attachments. Now a freind of mine bought a Mondial brand rack off of Ebay new for under $50, it was just the feet and load bars and is just as good as the next one so that may be an option!

You can drill the holes and use a nutsert tool to lay in the nuts that need to be there. They will most likely be imperial instead of metric though. Haven't found metric nutsert around here although i know they do exist.

I would do the factory rails and then. Yakima towers and cross bars. I leave mine on all the time. Looks cool and with the fairing doesn't make much noise or hurt the MPG to bad. If you do the Yakima over the door thing with the Q clips, make sure you clean the surface of the car b-4 you put the rack on.
The first setup is the one I have. I hope you can see it in the pictures.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...er002Small.jpg

I have a full Yakima setup on my Cherokee and it's great. I have a factory rack on it too, but I bought the Yakima towers, bars, etc.

I have a bike rack up there year-round, and a snowboard rack during the winter. It's a solid setup.

Thanks much! for all of your advice.

As to drilling the roof, that is what I want to avoid. That is actually why I wanted to go with either Thule or Yakima, both of which carry the non-drilling roof rack options.

Now, per all of your sincere advice, I decided to go with either full line of Thule or yakima, which I found is NOT cheap!

Then, do you have any good experience with any vendor/retailer (local or internet)? So far, I found one internet vendor. their price seems better than the others... called prolineracks.com

Does anyone have any experience with therm?

Thank you in advance.

i've been through this decision millions of times, as for the factory rails, do you even have plastic strips running down the sides of your roof? If so you can just buy the factory rails from any stealer at around 60 dollars I believe. Do a search, I think jacksonpt has the part # on his site

Aznsky

Do you mean this one? (picture below).
If it is the one, would you please advise me where I should buy the rack ($60 one)? If there is any picture, that will be great!. As the title of thread implies, I am completely novice in this roof rack field, I need some detail education if possible.

Thank you for your great info. This yotatech saves me a lot!

Happy Thanksgiving!

http://img97.exs.cx/img97/9910/test31.jpg

http://www.trailaddict.com/4Runner/M....html#RoofRack

That is his site, and here is the PO number

Toyota part #00278-96042, about $25ea

Good luck!