I’ve already settled on a Yakima 60" Tracks with control towers, and the extra fluff that I want for my truck on the camper shell. There is one thing left that I do not understand, how do you determine what crossbar length you should get?
And I guess as an additional question, are any of the other boat loading “helpers” Yakima sells necessary if you have Hully-Rollers? I’m pretty strong as is.
Thanks!
If you have a full size pick up…
…get the longest ones they have.
Sooner or later you will be carrying more boats.
Cheers,
JackL
I have a Pathfinder
and went with Yakima 58" crossbars. If I were putting them on a pickup, I would go longer. Looks like length options are 48, 58,66, and 78 inch bars. (I wonder what kind of vehicle can handle 78" bars?!)
78 inch bars on my Toyota…
Truck shell work great. They are tall enough that the overhang is not a problem. No bumping your head!
Okay…
I guess they sound longer than they really are. Although, I can’t imagine having another 10" sticking out on each side of my Pathfinder! 
Believe it or not
I not only have them on my full size pick up, but I have them on my Ford Escape
Lets me carry all the toys in many different combos.
Cheers,
JackL
You got me
thinking about overhang, I’ve decided for the 58" ones, or I’d get the Japanese umbrella syndrome - the edge in the chest… minus the 5’ Grandma!
It’s a small pickup.
I just bought 66" bars
I had the 58" bars with low riders on the factory rack on my GMC Yukon. I just bought another short fat boat to take on the river and with the two fat rec boats, the 58" bars didn’t have enough overhang on the outside of the towers to put one of the saddles on. The saddles had to go on the inside of the towers (and the factory rack) and the two boats would hit each other. With the bigger bars I can easily fit the two short fat boats on the top of my truck. Plus, it may make it easier to reach the straps when I put the sea kayaks up there as well, as they are closer to the edge of the truck’s roof. If it is a full size truck, I would go with the wider bars, IMO. The 66" bars extend only about 2 or 3 inches from the roof edge of the truck. The body of my truck is wider than the bars, so there is no concern about hitting my head on them (I’m short anyway!).
Well…
at 56" the overhang is flush with the truck and I consider 60" just about my limit, I should never need to carry more than 2 Kayaks. I think my truck is about as small as trucks get for a 1993 Toyota. Does anyone use bow/stern ties on their truck? Or is this inadvisable?
My car must be funny…
I have a good 4" of bar hanging over the sides with 58" bars. The bars end up being flush with my step rails, but I can reach up and grab the end of the bar while driving as a place to hold on.
78" bars on a Pathfinder
I’ve got them on mine and don’t have any problems. Although a couple of tall folks have bumped their head a couple of times when not paying attention. I just pop them off when taking the car to a mechanic, but it sure was funny going to pick up the vehicle and looking at the red lumps on the mechanics heads!