SmarT-Slot Mounting Kit for Yakima OffGrid Cargo Basket or DoubleHaul Fly Rod Carrier

Video Transcript for Yakima SmarT-Slot Mounting Kit Review

Hi everyone, it's Evangeline here at etrailer. And today I have the Yakima T-slot adaptor kit. This can be used with your Yakima accessories, to convert your clamps into T-slot clamps. So to use this adaptor kit, there's two things you need. One is a correct Yakima accessory. Check our product pages, where we explain and give the part numbers, for which specific accessories can use this kit.

The second thing you need is a crossbar or roof rack system that has a T-slot or a T-track. So as long as they have that channel up top this can work with them. So, to combine those, you then have a T-track mounted accessory. So usually the T-track kit is not included with your accessory, because it's a slightly different situation where people might be looking for it. So some examples would be with the Yakima HighSpeed or some of your bike racks, you might want them closer to the overhang so it's easier to reach, especially with the roof mounted bike racks.

Now with a roof basket like this, or maybe a fishing rod carrier, that might not be as applicable. But maybe you have super low profile underneath your crossbars and you wanna make sure you don't have anything there scratching up your roof, with a T-slot adapter you keep it super low profile and nothing's there. So you don't need to bring any tools to the table, other than pretty much patience and trying to get this T-bolt onto your accessory. In fact, you get a wrench included with this, designed to do work with those nuts. So, let's take a look at the process.

I'm gonna do it with this basket. So for your T-slot adapter kit, the install process is different depending on if you're using this with a basket, with a bike rack, or with a fishing rod carrier. So I have a Yakima OffGrid basket here. That's what I'll use as an example. So you can start by taking off your old clamps.

We're gonna start by unlocking this and then pushing out our retainer. So in this way we can flip up the clamp lever, take it out of the fence, and then we're gonna take off this entire retainer, by just pulling it until it slides off the tracks. And then I remove the metal clamps by just pulling them apart. And supposedly you can use a screwdriver to lift this up. I just push up with my finger, until it completely comes undone. And from here, with everything taken apart, go ahead and thread your straps through and out of your whole system. Do that for all four clamps. And then afterwards, you can then set up your roof. Get access to your T-track channel. This will look differently for different brands of roof racks. Here I have an Inno roof rack, but most of the racks have the same dimensions. Now, with your T-track channel open and available, go ahead and grab your T-track kit. And see how this has a bolt that goes up Slide this through your crossbar, to where you need it to go. With the T-bolt up on the roof, we're then going to get the basket onto those bolts and line them up. So we have Joe here, who's gonna carry the front. Ethan's gonna carry the back. We're gonna get the basket up and over, and I'll help line things up. So once the basket is onto the crossbar, we are gonna go for the front one and then the back one and let it drop. Now I want it to be centered, so it's gonna be a little bit of a struggle to push those key bolts over to the center of the vehicle. (roof basket hitting crossbars) Another way to do this too, to make it a little bit easier, is just put your OffGrid basket anywhere you want, and then your T-bolts will follow. So here I have it centered on the vehicle. I pop my T-bolt down, and then I just lift the basket up, to line up with the bolt. (bolt turning) To secure it, we're gonna put the lock back on if you haven't already put it back on. And then, we're gonna get one of these nuts. So these fit over the bolt, and you do have this little wrench included to tighten that down. (tightening clamp down) Once all four clamps are tightened down, then get your lever covers. So these fit into the indent of your clamp and then they snap closed. Now to secure it, you just push those retainers in and now you're secure. Do that for all four of them. So definitely a different process compared to when we we're using the clamps. Not as fast, but definitely more low profile. So now we have our basket mounted. This is gonna be the same general idea for your bikes as well as your fishing rod carriers. Just make sure to double check all of those little nuts with your included wrench before you hit the road. So hopefully this video helped explain that, but also showed you how to put it on there. That way you know what to do when you need to convert your accessory to a T-track mounted accessory.