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Aerodynamic, aluminum crossbars let you build an aftermarket roof rack for your vehicle. Full-length bars provide plenty of space for carriers and accessories. Vortex strips in C-channels reduce wind noise. Theft-deterring plastic locks included.
Features:
Rhino-Rack Vortex Aero Crossbars - Black - Qty 2:Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hey, everybody, Cooper here at etrailer. Today we're going to be taking a look at the Rhino-Rack Vortex Aero Roof Rack System on our 2020 Toyota RAV4. Now, why would you need a roof rack system Well, if you wanna carry around some of those bigger items like kayaks, snowboards, maybe even skis, or need some extra storage space in case our car is full of people, something like a rooftop basket or rooftop box would all be excellent accessories to carry around. But before you get any of those accessories, the first thing we're going to need is a roof rack system like we have here today. Our RAV4 today is going to have flush rails which means that we are going to have the kit that includes three pieces. First off, we're gonna have an adapter from our rails to form the base.
Then we're gonna have a leg that's going to secure down to the base. And then finally, we're going to have our crossbar that secures into our leg. Has this nice aero shape to it here, which really just helps cut down on some of that wind noise that you're gonna have when putting something on top of your roof. In conjunction, we do also have a weather strip here on the top which again just helps cut down some of that wind noise. With this type of weather strip though, if you want to mount any T-track accessories, we are going to have to pull it up and cut out the holes for our T-track accessory feet.
In order to access that T-channel, we actually come here to the front of it where there is this lock with our included key. Our roof rack system is weight rated for 165 pounds, but do keep in mind that our rails and our roof will have separate weight ratings and that we wanna make sure we are accommodating for the lowest component of all three. That way, we're not overloading any of the systems and causing damage to anything on our vehicle or our roof rack. Since this is a fixed point roof rack, we are going to have a crossbar spread of about 31 1/2 inches. And since these cannot move around on our roof at all, that is fixed, and that's going to be the number every single time, but that is more than enough of a crossbar spread to accommodate all sorts of accessories.
The system we have on today does use 49 inch crossbars, which I think is the perfect number for our RAV4 here today because there is a little bit of overhang on each crossbar, which will allow us to use some of those clamping accessories, but there's not enough overhang that you start endangering your head getting in and out of your vehicle. Now our install process is pretty straightforward. The only real snag in it is the fact that there is a bolt on your leg that you're going to have to tighten down, that is on the bottom, so just a little harder to access. Thankfully, we're going to show you the install process and what we found to use as a workaround. Now to start our install process, I like to take all our components and lay them out on the table in front of us.
As you can see, we've already installed our rear crossbar. For the front crossbar, steps are very similar, so the steps are gonna be applicable for both. A couple additional tools that I would highly recommend having is something like a shop towel because we're gonna see later, we're doing some very close work on near our roof, a screwdriver, 'cause we're gonna have to pop the plates up on our flush rails, a tape measure for a couple measurements that we're going to need earlier, and then the instruction book actually requires that you get a ratcheting tool to secure one of our parts down later. But coming to our crossbar, we're going to determine the direction using the Rhino-Rack logo here, making that the front of our crossbar. We're gonna go ahead and just roll that over after we install the weather strip. We've already done so because this is not a permanent fixture on the car, so not a step that we have to be too concerned about. Whenever you get the legs for your Rhino-Rack system, they're going to come like this straight out of the box. So the first step we're going to need to do is go ahead and unlock it using our included key so we can expose all the inner workings here that we're going to need later, doing that for both. And then in order to stall the fixed mounting point for our leg, we're going to come down to the bottom where there's a hole here, and then there is a included bolt with some washers that we're going to need to go ahead and feed through the top of that and then take our metal plate right here and screw that down into place. But you don't want to have it too tight because we are going to need to feed it through our crossbar here in a moment. So just doing that for both of our legs here means that they will be ready to install. Your kit is going to come with a measurement strip like this one that we are going to simply go ahead and install into the bottom of our crossbar. And then on your instruction manual, you will receive a certain measurement that will tell you what number that our legs are supposed to sit at and you would go ahead and cut that to leave only that section revealed. Since this is our demo kit, we're not gonna cut that today. We are just going to go ahead and install the feet through onto our crossbar, and I'm going to tighten them down a little bit right now because we'll see later on in our installation that accessing this once we put it onto the roof of our vehicle does get a little tricky, so it's nice to have it semi tightened right now. This space loose enough that we could still move it but tight enough that it's not just totally loose would make it a lot easier for us down the road. Now with our crossbar ready, there is going to be some prep work that we have to do on our flush rails. That's where these are going to come in. There are four different ones in total, each with a unique code. For instance, this one is 2030, this one is 2029, and those have corresponding points on the vehicle that you'll see in the instruction manual. Or you can just go ahead and look at the letters under them. This one is FR or front right, means going to be on our front crossbar on the passenger side, right And this one is FL or front left, means going to be on our front crossbar, left side, or our driver's. So we are going to go ahead and take our screwdriver, pop out the plates and get these settled down into place. Now we just need to go ahead and take our screwdriver and very carefully, pop out these plates, setting that down to the side. You can go ahead and take our block and it does just nestle in here with that arrow facing towards the front of our vehicle, and we're going to take the included nut and tool and just go ahead and tighten this down. After you go ahead and repeat that step on your driver's side, that means our roof's all prepped and we're ready to install our crossbar. Now on our crossbar, we do have these neat little tabs here that are going to nestle into those that we just go ahead and set up. So we're just gonna go ahead and come to the front of our vehicle, reach to the other side until those fall into those holes, and then go ahead and set this down in there. And now we're going to take the steps to secure this down into here. Now you're gonna see one of the reasons that we left our legs here a little bit on the looser side 'cause as we push our crossbar over, we need that to kind of expose the point where our leg is going to sit into our face. So we're just going to simply drop our bolt in there and grab our ratcheting tool, putting that in there and securing this down to the base. Then after you get this tightened down completely, you gotta go ahead and repeat this process on the other side. We can make sure that our crossbar is even between our driver and passenger side. In a situation like this, what I find really helpful to do is to actually bring all of your crossbar to one side, take your tape measure, put it up against your crossbar, and we can see that sitting about at 6 1/2 inches. So we're actually going to pat this side down till it reaches about 3.25 inches and then double check the other side to make sure that it's also at that measurement. Now with our crossbar measurements confirmed, we're going to tighten down our crossbar to the leg. And that bolt is actually on the bottom side of our leg now, that's where our shop towel is going to come in just to make sure we don't deal any additional damage to our roof. Now for this, you can use the included Allen key if you want, or if you have the correct head size for that ratcheting tool that we had to use earlier, you can just go ahead and swap that out and this makes it a lot easier. And this is another reason that we kept those legs tightened down earlier just so that we are not starting from a completely loose point when doing this. It makes it a little bit easier to get into that groove and tighten it down. Last thing we need to do is put all our end caps on. The end cap for our crossbars are going to be this plastic lock core here that use this unique blue key to lock them into place, while our leg crossbar is going to be this end cap which comes with a metal lock core that uses a metal key. Now, if you did want to use a same key system for these, Rhino-Rack does offer a option to swap out these plastic cores for a keyed alike system so you could have one metal key instead of carrying around these two different keys for our crossbar system. After that, we're just gonna go ahead and give it a little bit of a shake test to make sure everything's down and in place. And it seems like everything is pretty sturdy, so that means we're all good to go. And overall, I think on our 2020 Toyota RAV4, it has a really nice clean and sleek look. And we saw it here at etrailer.com. Thanks for watching.
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (107 Customer Reviews)
Aerodynamic, aluminum crossbars let you build an aftermarket roof rack for your vehicle. Full-length bars provide plenty of space for carriers and accessories. Vortex strips in C-channels reduce wind noise. Theft-deterring plastic locks included.Indeed they were the wrong parts in the box marked demo on them.
The new parts came and I was able to
Put it on my car with no problem!!
Thank you for listening to me and helping me problem solve. It looks great on my car and I'm ready to load the kayaks now!!
Kalie is a gal that sent me some return labels so I'm going to put that on the box and send it back to you guys!
etrailer.com's videos and additional customer support made the purchase of a Rhino Rack system from them for our 2010 Malibu a no brainer. The rack fit the car perfectly, and with the videos and clear instructions that came with the kit, I got it installed on the car with only one misstep. The instructions came the the measurements in centimeters and inches. I didn't have a metric tape measure, and ended up messing up converting fractions to decimal.
My Daughter is going to college 500 miles away and is moving into an unfurnished apartment and needed to pick up some small furniture that wouldn't fit in her Malibu. She purchased several items from Facebook Marketplace and was able to transport a twin bed and mattress, a medium sized desk and some dining room chairs (in several trips) with no problems.
The only thing I can think of to improve the installation would be to have the Inches measurements in decimal or to include an inexpensive metric tape.
Rhino-Rack installed on my 2022 Jeep Cherokee. There was wind noise (whistling) when all the rubber spacers were not installed, now it’s very quiet. I also installed the Yakima fishing rod//Ski holder. I wound up deviating from the directions and using the third lot, so the clamps would close on the bar. So far so good, without the fishing rod holder it’s low profile enough to get into garages, etc. Fast delivery on the products.
I love it works amazing on my 2017 Hyundai sonata sport 2.0T
Great sturdy rack. I put it together myself and have already started using it. I was concerned that it would cause leaks in the door the way it has to mount..but its Florida and its rainfall in the past few days and no leak! The weak link would be the end caps..two do not lock on and im concerned the will fly off at some point.
I bought the complete set (mounting points, mounts and aero cross bars) looking for a less expensive approach for a rack to carry my sea kayak. The equipment shipped quickly from or via etrailer. The instructions that came with the whole kit leave a little bit to be desired and a little bit of mechanical interpretation is needed to figure out what parts you need and which you don't. The whole set went together relatively easily in an hour or so. I remove the bars, mounts and mounting points when not in use which is a bit time consuming and fiddly. I had to replace the mazda 3's roof moulding which was continuous with one that had the necessary pop out pieces to accept the rack but this was not costly nor a big job. Overall, I am pleased with the rhino rack and it looks just fine. The one area it could be improved is wind noise - at some speeds there can be quite a heavy drone either off the bars or mounts. The bars do have rubber inserts to smooth out the surface across the width of the car. I suspect it might be the mounts which have the inboard side of them completely open so the air flowing along the car goes over this open space like you would have happen when you blow across the top of a bottle. I am going to try to cover the sides with gorilla tape to see if this makes a difference. Apart from that, I am quite happy with the etrailer ordering, delivery and the Rhino rack in general.
You have to order the cross bars and connector hardware separately. I also ordered the end cap locks.
I consider myself a pretty good DYI person and it took longer than I expected according to other reviews on here to get everything installed and overlapping the same on both sides.
Once installed the crossbars are very solid. I do get noticeable wind noise at say 70+MPH.
I installed these on a 2020 Jeep GC Overland and they look and function great! Was a bit concerned about the sun roof retraction with the bars, but there is plenty of clearance. No issue.
I for sure recommend the Rhino Rail crossbars. Etrailer is a great site to get the bars. Given the COVID issues and supply chain breakdowns retailers are facing, they still had everything I ordered to me in a very reasonable time frame.
I bought this rack for my son who is a rower so he could take his single shell and oars to regattas using his new Chevy Cruz. First trip from Wyandotte, Michigan to Boston, Massachusetts and back was great. A learning curve to get in the right spot on roof but very sturdy & strong. He is looking forward to many regattas with this car and roof rack. Very Satisfied with etrailer and the rack itself and thank you for the quick shipping.
Used the cross bars once with a kayak. Black paint easily scratched showing the metal underneath. Was told this was normal wear and tear. The product was bought less than a week ago. Would not buy again.
These crossbars were easy to install, are sturdy when installed and look great on my factory side rails when installed with the SX Series legs. The standard end caps are an all-plastic affair and use a little key to engage a cam lock. That plus the distance from the end of the crossbar to the nut that tightens the foot onto the rail keeps things relatively secure. Most people probably want to opt for proper locking end caps, though.
The rubber vortex strips look nice and give items something grippy to rest on. I haven't tried a load test yet but did drive around in moderate wind on the highway in multiple directions. Other than a slight whistle at 70 mph, you'd never know they were there. Overall, real happy with the product and looking forward to hauling some stuff around with them.
My inital thought of these crossbars were that they were going to be too small. Two of the other big makers call for 53" min and 60" recommended. However after installing, 49" is a perfect fit for the Cayenne I feel. The rack is extremely quiet (make sure you use the channel rubber on top and bottom) The Cayenne is fairly quiet car inside and it was one of my big concerns but I only hear what sounds like a slight rush of air, no buzzing or whistling at all.
The downside to this rack is I think the black paint is too thin. Just laying it on the pavement while setting up caused scratches to appear. Silver would be the way to go if your getting these, or spray them plastic.
Easy to install. The pins on the legs clamp perfectly into the fixed points on the car's flush rails. This is a nice low profile set up. The top of the crossbar is about 4" above the roof glass and does not interfere with opening the sunroof. This is a very sturdy setup for our Thule Motion XT XL. etrailer shipped extremely fast. Very pleased with my purchase.
Love these aero bars. Perfect for on my 2018 Grand Cherokee Trailhawk. Run fairly quiet and perform as expected. As always the customer service from etrailer was top notch.
The product info on your website led me to believe that the vortex strips were included with the bars. They were not. I have always bought Yakima in the past and will in the future.
My Rhino-Rack Aero 2500 roof racks fit solidly on my 2007 Honda Civic EX. I was really impressed with the construction and strength of the rack system. Also the versatility of the 'legs' with a swivel pad allow them to fit any roof pitch perfectly. The clamps are so solid, nothing could knock these racks off. I added a paddleboard attachment and went surfing today. The black racks also look great with the black trim on my silver Honda. Great product at a much better price than Yakima or Thule.
Received the roof rack on the date promised, it was well packaged and all parts required were included. Everything fit together very well and the instructions were easy to follow. The rack looks good on the car. Once the rack is installed and the included decals in place it only takes a few minutes to remove it and reinstall. This is important for me because we will only use the racks to transport our kayaks the rest of the time they will be removed and stored.
There are two small items that can be improved. First the legs are different lengths yet nowhere in the instructions does it tell you where each size goes. Second I own 10 tape measure and not one of them is in meters and I do not care how good your eyesight is you are not going to be able to measure to 53/64". If the measurements are critical you should ensure customers in the US have measurements they can use or include a MM tape measure.
Overall this is a very good product that I would purchase again and recommend to friends.
Easy to read instructions, easy to install. Watched the install video a few times just to be sure! They do whistle a bit at highway speeds, but certainly not unbearable. In fact, I was surprised as to how quiet they are. It's to be expected, especially when paired with kayak j-racks. So happy with this purchase and I would definitely recommend them!
These are cross bars ONLY and are useless without other hardware. This could be presented in a more clear way. I will be returning and buying a complete cross bar set elsewhere
The quality is very good. Ordering was easy and installation using the video made the process so simple. Glad I order them from here instead of somewhere else.
I spent a week reading reviews and forums to find the right one for my 2019 Jeep Cherokee that I just bought a few weeks ago. I just have to overthink everything but it paid off. I just received them this morning and installed them myself! First time for everything! It was really easy. The only part that was frustrating was the very first part... sliding the rubber pieces into the crossbars. They would not slide very well so I ended up using a bit of oil to make them slide better. Other than that, installation was easy and quick. I LOVE the looks of them. Very gorgeous!!! Thank you so much!! Very happy with the end result!!
Looks a great and we’re super easy to install.
2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee L 4x4 Limited
I haven't extensively used this rack yet, but so far, it is excellent.
Avoid my mistake and buy this rack first... Last summer, I purchased a much cheaper off-brand roof rack that was supposed to fit my car. I figured the off-brand rack couldn't be that different from the more common brands, such as Rhino Rack. Long story short, I was wildly wrong. It was nearly impossible to install, and once installed, I didn't trust it with my wind surfboard on it. This rack, however, was easy to assemble and install and is rock solid. I have zero fear of my board or the rack leaving the party before we get there.
The bars look and feel great. They have such a tough presence while still being aerodynamic. I love the look of the rubber grip strip on top and I like how the rubber strip on the bottom ends have graduations so you can easily match the overhang with the other side. They feel incredible strong, no bend in the them at all. If the platforms were a bit more robust this thing would outshine all the competition. However, it competes with every other system at a much lower price point so that gets 5 stars in my book.
These were very nice, and the fitting of the product to the car was excellent. We had never done it before, but with your videos etc. it worked out great!
The bars themselves look great and seem strong enough for anything I’ll throw at them. However, I have an issue with eTrailer.com. In the detailed product description on their website, eTrailer indicates that three 15” Vortex rubber strips are included in every individual bar. However, when the bars arrived, each contained only two 15” Vortex rubber strips. This isn’t nearly enough to fill the ~48” of open c-channel and doesn’t match the product description and pictures. The boxes look like they had been opened too. When I called customer support, they said that the bars should only contain two strips each. According to them, the manufacturer only included two strips to leave room for attaching bike racks and other gear. But this directly contradicts the manufacturer’s product description. Also, even with three strips, there would be room for attachments. I suspect that eTrailer may be opening boxes and removing strips to drum up aftermarket sales for extra strips. I recommend the product but buy elsewhere.
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