I’m looking for a new vehicle and one of the 3 finalists is the Chevy Equinox. Love the combination of gas mileage and cargo storage, but one concern is the (very) short factory side rails. I have a 14.5 ft canoe and a 14.5 foot kayak, both of which mount well on my existing vehicle side rails (with Yakima crossbars). But my current vehicle’s roof rails are 16 inches longer than those on the Equinox!
Does anyone know of longer side rails that can be custom mounted on the Equinox (or it’s twin, the GMC Terrain)?
You can probably get extender kits.
I’ve seen a nice kit that I’m pretty sure is made by Yakima that “stretches” the distance between the cross bars, allowing a large amount of cross-bar spread (one car I see which has this setup has a spread of 8 to 10 feet between the bars, so that the distance between the cross bars is much greater than the length of the car’s roof).
Otherwise, if you are handy, you can mount one set of cross bars on your existing side rails, setting them as far apart as you can. Then add a pair of lengthwise bars, one on each side, mounted to the cross bars. Finally, attach an additional pair of cross bars onto those new lengthwise bars. You can then put your “working” cross bars (as opposed to the standard ones which now are just part of the mounting system) as far apart as you wish. However, the farther apart you want to put your “working” cross bars, the stiffer your lengthwise bars should be. I’ve extended the cross-bar spread on my car by a small amount, and “black pipe” having an outside diameter of one inch is stiff enough. I’d use even stiffer material if I needed to increase the spread by a lot more, since flex occurs between the supporting bars too, not just beyond them.
why would you buy an Equinox?
sorry. It’s involuntary.
Like the Terrain
If the Equinox rails are ident al to the Terrain the. Yes it would be nice if the open space under the rail ran longer rather than have such long enclosed end sections. The factory crossbars slide on the tracks which face across the cars center on the inboard side of the rail. I guess you could use some Thule square nuts, 6mm bolts and attach some Thule Artificial Rain Gutters to accept the 300 Foot pack so this would allow you to use the entire length of the factory rack and use bar lengths of your choosing. Yakima, I’m sure, has similar components.
See you on the water,
Marshall
The River Connection, Inc.
Hyde Park, NY
www.the-river-connection.com
hudsonriverpaddler.org