Just bought a 2011 Toyota Venza with a panoramic glass roof.
Now, I keep my boats at my bay house, launch them from my dock most of the time. When I do want to go out onto the gulf, it’ only a mile and a half drive across the island on a 20 MPH street to the beach, and I can just have a yak hang out the back for that ride. So, it would not be a tragedy if I could not put a roof rack on my new ride.
However, if it is possible to do it, it would be nice to have a roof rack.
I found a post from one person who has put a roof rack on a Venza with a panoramic glass roof:
http://www.venzaownerz.com/t47-2/
“Yakima Q Towers, QClips 83, and 58" load bars. That is what you need for the pano roof. I have a 2010 with pano and it works great.”
Anyone else have any experience with this?
If you were here, I would take the
Yakima racks and Q-towers off my Accord, loosen them, and carefully set them over your Venza. Starting with the front rack, I would see whether there was a location where the clips grabbed around the door frame. I would fiddle the tower width and the fore and aft rack location until the clips seemed to drop where they need to go to grip the car. Then I would tighten the towers on the rack bar and actually try the final clamping procedure.
There are two ways this might go wrong. First, the final angle on the clips might be wrong for reaching around the edge of the roof and grasping the body. That might mean a trip to the local Yakima dealer to open clip boxes and check angles. Maybe clips made for a Camry or Matrix or Corolla would have the right angle.
Tne next problem might be that the Honda clips have too much reach. From Venza pictures, it looks like the roof over the doors is shallower than on our Accord. This would also mean sorting through clips. I don’t recall whether Yakima’s tech literature has diagrams of the clips.
Setting up a rack without Yakima instructions means paying attention to where the tower bases need to sit to get a proper pull when tightened. This can probably be done by eyeballing and measuring racks on other cars.
For the rear rack, it may actually be a bit easier, because by sliding the rack forward or back, one can adjust for the reach of the clips. You only have to worry about the angle of the final bend in the clips.
Anyway, you get the idea. It is possible that an existing set of clips will work, and give adequate spacing for at least a short drive to the beach. Yakima seems to have special knowledge about where the best load points are, but I don’t think that will matter for short trips or a single kayak.
If all else fails, you can always just throw some old PFDs on the roof and tie the boat over them.
I don’t, but got curious
Both Thule and Yakima have fit kits.
Yakima says exactly the same thing - Q83 clips. The picture shown at Yakima’s site displays towers placed quite away from the panoramic window area
Of course, I wouldn’t trust pictures anywhere, and would go to a local Yakima dealer/outfitter “to look” for a solution
Anyways, here is a blog entry about rack fitment on a similar vehicle http://rackattacktoronto.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/the-venza-has-spirit-how-about-you/
Looks like a good installation.
Decent spacing. Surprising that '83 clips fit front and back, but not to complain.
Thanks, guys.
Good information from both.