Mounting Yakima bars to factory rack

willo · **Joined:** Wed Feb 22, 2006 4:27 pm **Posts:** 5

I've been thinking about how to mount a set of yakima bars (round, plastic covered) to my factory sport rack.
I'd like to make it as clean looking as I can, and not buy a set of $100+ mounts just to bolt two bars together.

The simplest thing I can think of is to take a piece of steel flat, bend it around the factory bar and bolt both ends to the yakima bar with a pair of stainless bolts and lock nuts. I could mangle the ends of the bolts to prevent theft.

The addition of a set screw/bolt to the bottom side of the strap (drill and tap the metal) would let me adjust the bars as neccesary.

Any thoughts? Better ideas?

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Thu Feb 23, 2006 12:38 pm

willo wrote:

I've been thinking about how to mount a set of yakima bars (round, plastic covered) to my factory sport rack.
I'd like to make it as clean looking as I can, and not buy a set of $100+ mounts just to bolt two bars together.

The simplest thing I can think of is to take a piece of steel flat, bend it around the factory bar and bolt both ends to the yakima bar with a pair of stainless bolts and lock nuts. I could mangle the ends of the bolts to prevent theft.

The addition of a set screw/bolt to the bottom side of the strap (drill and tap the metal) would let me adjust the bars as neccesary.

Any thoughts? Better ideas?

I believe there are holes in the factory rails, why not just drill a hole in the bars and bolt to that? Would be hard to drill in those bars though.

willo · **Joined:** Wed Feb 22, 2006 4:27 pm **Posts:** 5

I took a look at the factory rack at lunch. Looks like the bars wouldn't even clear anyway. I'll probably just bolt through both.
I may construct some molded forms to smooth out the connection areas, to reduce wind noise and smooth out the lines.

Mounting Yakima bars to factory rack

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