My new Yakima crossbars did not come with end caps. Is there a reason not to install them? Less likely to rust?
I have some in my glove…
compartmenty. Some in my paddling tool box. Some floating around in behind the back seat, and some on my work bench.
They are a pain in the neck when I change to the bike rack, the ski rack, and when I am alternating between the J cradles, the saddles and the canoe gunnel brackets.
I normally leave them off.
Jack L
Caps not supplied with crossbars
They are supplied with q towers and other roof mountings. Obviously, those marketing guys know what you need.
Makes noise without caps!!
I have left the caps off on several ocassions and noticed a howling noise coming from the ends of the bars. Have you ever twirled a garden hose above your head? Thats the noise you get without the caps. Another trick to cut down on noise from the bars is to wrap some black shock cord in a spiral around the bars . It creates enough turbulence to stop the bars from humming. I got the idea from noticing that the metal vertical car antennas have a spiral aound them. The shock cord also allows you to still install and remove gunwale brackets, bike mounts,etc., you can pull the cord away enough to install them. I did this on my Jeep Grand Cherokee on both bars,because I could not use my fairing with the sunroof.
don’t know about a reason not to install
… (don’t know about some of those accessories jackl mentioned) but know a few why to install ,
keeps water out , keeps wind noise down , softer hit should you have a run in with the end of the bar .
alternate bar ends
– Last Updated: Sep-06-10 12:54 PM EST –
Yep, they are boxed with the towers. Makes perfect sense... :~P
I have found 1 1/8" (I am pretty sure thats the size, measure your bar ends) rubber chair tips at Ace hardware that fit nicely and look good, and perform better as they are softer if you smack your head on them (I have just slightly wider than recomended bars on my Volvo so I can carry two tandem canoes). They are also easy to remove for changing rack accessories.
I would recomend coating them with 303 or McNets UV protectant for a longer service life. Their a lot cheaper than buying replacements from Yakima too.
I think my Yakima bars are 1-1/8" O.D.
… I’ve never measured them but “absolutely” remember that’s what the person at Yakima told me when I was researching before purchase .
never had a problem with noise
on uncapped cross bars. Really depends on the airflow over your vehicle. Im lucky in that.
Not so lucky when it came time to change short bars witout end caps for longer ones. Without endcaps the water got in and the rust expanded the ends of the bars. Not possible to work them out of the towers!
Either get the end caps or work some duct tape magic.
like the strap caps
because they are easily removable if you ever switch around bars and towers between vehicles… The original cheap end caps are tough to remove.
I will try some of those, thanks.
So far I have been using 2 caps salvaged from the old crossbars and 2 of the plastic shipping holders from the box that I have pared down to size, but these do not appear to be watertight.
They have some caps which grab ropes
better, but after buying them I seldom used them. It is possible that bars without endcaps would moan at certain frequencies, but I never noticed it.
You could just stuff some minicell down the ends.
You don’t wanna shell out the $?
Yakima sells them for $2 apiece, definitely a rip-off.
I don’t want all the dirt that would get in my bars without caps, especially on the trailer.
You can plug with other materials besides the factory caps: cork, rubber, hard foam. Or wrap and cover with electrical tape so that the tape covers the openings.