I have 5 remaining
UPS goes to Idaho.
See you on the water,
Marshall
The River Connection, Inc.
9 W. Market St.
Hyde Park, NY. 12538
845-229-0595 main
845-242-4731 mobile
Main: [www.the-river-connection.com]
Store: [www.the-river-connection.us]
Facebook: [fb.me/theriverconnection]
Instagram: Instagram.com/marshall.seddon
Call Marshall. I was there the day the truck arrived at his shop with the very precious Hullivators he had ordered.
He did a great job on my keel strip too!
Why am I getting this post dated May 2020 on Jan. 19 2021? If it is still relevant, I bought a 2019 Highlander and priced the cost of a factory roof rack. It was $1,000+ for a dinky rack. I found out that Thule makes a rack for rail-less Highlanders. It is a bit pricey at a bit less than $400 but that is a lot less than Toyota’s price. It is a care to install as the
If you read the above entries you will see that this got revived when someone found out that there is no Thule fit kit for a 2020 Highlander with flush rails. They were looking for a solution.
Check out the Thule or Rack Attack sites, you will see that the roof rack options from Thule stop at 2019. Zero solutions for 2020 redesign.
Yes. I seldom read paddle.com and if I had seen their post would have informed them of this fact. There are very few Toyota Highlanders sold w/o racks. Most people don’t realize the rack is a separate item and just pay. I could scarcely believe this tookie factory rack was $1000. My guess is that there was not enough demand for this particular rack and Thule just discontinued them. For what it’s worth, this rack has been good and saved me $600.
I am guessing you have not cruised car lots since the most recent redesign of the Highlander (or Rav4)
Since the 2020 redesign there are far fewer Highlanders on lots with even factory cross bars. And the move to flush rails in both the 2019 Rav4 redesign and the redesign in the Highlander has left behind a factory cross bar that even if present lacks the width and load bearing capacity to match what we have long been able to assure with a Thule or Yakima system.
I assume you got your Highlander BEFORE the redesign. If you have to replace it now please share your experience - I doubt it will be any different than that reported above. Since there is now a huge shortage of Rav4’s, that is likely to take at least 6 months to recover from, the issue of the HIghlander incompatibility is likely to get worse for people who want to stay in the Toyota line. The HIghlander is way more vehicle than many or most need, but unless/until they get the Corolla Cross into the US it is also the nearest SUV in their line for roof topping boats.
I’m curious as to any updates to this thread.
I’ve been hauling my kayaks and canoes for over 50 years on Saab wagons and then Volvo wagons and then diesel Vw wagons and when in 2017 looked for a new vehicle that could properly haul my 21 foot surf skis, 20 ft tandem kayak and 19 foot single kayaks, most of the suvs ( and the Subaru Outback had gone to crummy roof rack systems tying to their own crummy rack systems so I went to a mid size truck ( Honda Ridgeline) with Leer cap and Yakima tracks to allow the proper cross bar spread to safely haul my long kayaks and canoes.
We are renting a 2022 Toyota Highlander( standard engine) up in New Hampshire for a few weeks and I am impressed with it storage volume and relative handling and the reported gas mileage for a hybrid Highlander. It has factory roof racks with the standard short spread ( looks like about 30”) between cross bars which don’t look suitable for my long kayaks etc. Has anyone gone to a Goodboy or other surf ski type rack system for a late model highlander to safely haul long surf skis or kayaks?
My canoes are much shorter ( 15’ solo canoes or 17’ tandem) so the short stock rail spread might be ok for them