I don’t understand this question
The two cars you are comparing aren’t the same body. Why would you assume the rack spread would be the same?
There is no magic number to rack spread other than avoiding the minimum. As far as the front being lower, I wouldn’t sweat that one bit.
nm
Sounds like you need to call Yakima and ask to speak with their engineers directly. At least two installers have now told you to abide strictly by their guidelines and you keep digging for reasons that we can’t provide.
I can’t even get a good answer from
Yakima about why they designed the sticky rubber feet for their towers to drop off easily when the rack is removed. And they’ve never explained why they don’t link the front and rear assemblies with struts, which massively increases the stability and security of the rack. So you’ll forgive me if I don’t try any private conversations with people who should have put their reasons out there in public for the first place. MIT-1965
Yakima Racks
Well, well, I guess I’m not alone. Spent a few hours on two different days trying to get a Yakima rack to fit the cab of my F-150. Called Oak Orchard and they told me that Yakima didn’t have the correct measurements. Alas, I just couldn’t get good fit with or without Yakima’s measurements and sent mine back today.
Been a Thule user for years, but I like the Yakima Outdoorsman and thought I’d get a Yakima front rack to match up with it on the cab. Not impressed by the fact that the directions are explicit about carefully measuring everything to within 1/8" and then find out that those measurements were INCORRECT! WW
.
I love Yakima, I’ve never seen a set where the user followed the directions then the rack didn;t work and look perfectly.
Nothing to worry about with different Height bars. How many canoes have perfectly flat gunwales? Push it forward or backward a few inches to have it nose down.
Try Using Yakima’s Measurements…
…and set it up on a 2011 F-150. If it fits correctly, well, it won’t. WW
Geometry
– Last Updated: Apr-18-11 11:16 PM EST –
I've seldom seen a "typical" canoe where the sidewall height within the central two-thirds of the boat varied by an amount that was obvious, so that shifting the position of the boat by a few inches forward or backward on the bars would get it level again on non-level cross bars. I routinely shift my canoes and rowboats backward from being centered on the racks to reduce the degree that the front end gets grabbed by crosswinds or the turbulence behind big rigs. I usually carry them back-of-center by about 1.5 feet, which provides a very noticeable smoothing of how the boat rides on windy days - much less tugging at the rack and much less shifting about against the restraints. Sliding the boat rearward by that much is a lot, making it much more off-center than most people would consider doing, but it makes absolutely no difference in the ride angle, front to back. It WOULD make a difference if there was were any significant change in sidewall height along the portion of the boat that sits on the racks, but that's just not the way they are built. I know you won't believe any of this simply because I'm the one who wrote it, but if you care to set up a couple of sawhorses spaced anywhere between 2.5 and 4.5 feet apart (to simulate the spacing of typical cross bars), and take some photos showing how a canoe that's roughly centered on those sawhorses will change its angle of rest by a visible amount if you shift the boat a few inches one way or the other, I'll eat crow. Sure, you could demonstrate this with many specialized whitewater canoes, but not with most general-purpose canoes.
I like Yakima stuff too, but the fact remains it's pretty generic and fits some cars well and others not very well at all. The equipment is simply not specifically tailored to fit every vehicle out there, and that's understandable considering what it would cost them to do so. For example, look at the crossbar support clamps that they design for attaching to a factory rack. The shaped of the grabbing portion of the clamp is totally generic, and except by occasional coincidence it doesn't even come close to matching the shape of the rails they are "designed" to clamp on to. They work okay, but clearly no effort was made to make them fit specific factory roof racks. Same goes for towers. Nearly all modern crossover SUVs have roofs that slope steeply to the rear. If Yakima had any desire to make their racks level, they'd take that into account by providing towers of differential height to cancel that slope, but as g2d has already pointed out, they don't do that. That's a case where no amount of "following Yakima's instructions" will have a successful outcome.
My Problem Was Different
– Last Updated: Apr-19-11 11:07 PM EST –
There's only one crossbar setup for the cab of the truck. The specs provided by Yakima, their website, and the dealer for rack spread (between towers and from windshield)is incorrect per the dealer, and my attempts. Using yakima's specs, the feet ended up half in a recessed area, half out. VERY POOR CONTACT WITH THE ROOF THIS WAY. The feet had to be adjusted to where they were not half in/half out of a channel. I could move the rack. I could lift my car with my old Thule rack if I was strong enough. The Yakima scratched the door facings and damaged weather stripping after several attempts using the factory recommended settings. With different settings (provided by the dealer) I could get moderately good contact, but not as tight as I had with my Thule racks. I refused to keep a rack that had to be set up differently than the manufacturers specs. Especially when it still wasn't a good fit. So, they may work great on some vehicles, but I was disappointed with my experience. And when a dealer who installs these racks tells me he has to use specs that are different than Yakima's that validates that it wasn't MY error. WW
mjflores, it is not possible to level
any of my several canoes on my 2008 Accord by pushing the boat forward or back. The gunwales do not curve that much around the center area of the boats. I’ve been dealing with Yakima racks on four different cars, and if there were an easy solution on my newest Accord, I would have found it.
I know you just don’t see the problem. I have the problem.
Return them
and let Canunut and this old baldpaddler just drill a few holes. Alittle silocone sealer and you will have a 6 foot spread on your racks. You always drive your cars to obsolescence so who cares what it does to blue book?
nm
MIT-1965 and you can’t figure it out for yourself?
I think we need an engineering study
and some aerodynamic modeling.
On second thought: use tie-downs and don’t worry about the front of the boat being lower.
Not without tearing open the roof of my
car. That’s what it takes to know where towers can be moved while receiving proper support. Inside knowledge of the structure of the roof. Yakima doesn’t even state whether THEY make use of such knowledge, but I like to credit them with some sense.
It’s making decisions with no blueprints. And you’re no help, either.
Subaru
Maybe you should have bought a Subaru, cuz if you had a Subaru your Subaru would have the ideal rack spread all Subarus have. The newer Subarus are almost the same as the old Subaru but the newer Subarus are 1/2" closer than the older Subarus.
So next time buy a Subaru so we can see that new rack on your Subaru and wave at you because you’re cool with that new rack on your Subaru!
Yeah, I had an Outback for 11 years and
170k miles, and the racks were the best thing about it. Certainly much better than a clutch that wouldn’t stay right, AC that the dealer couldn’t fix, and a burned valve repair. It was easy on tires… and the racks were great.