To see if this custom-fit item will work for you please tell us what vehicle you'll use it with.
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.
Today we have a 2016 Honda Odyssey and we're gonna be taking a look at the rhino rack RT style roof rack track aero bar system. There are two different types of roof rack systems you can put on a naked roof. Typically, what you see is with normal vehicles unlike vans is we have these little clamps that go in the door jams, but since we have this it's preventing us from doing that. So that's why the tracks are gonna be in that fit guide, whenever you put that vehicle in. I really like the track system, just because it gives you the ability to slide these around when it comes to the other style clamp naked roof sets that you may be seeing, we're kind of limited to where we need to put them. Half the time in the instructions it tells you to put it in a specific spot and you're kind of limited there.
With this we have 66 inches of track so we can slide these around to accommodate all of our accessories. If you're deciding between the two different types of naked roof kits, this is the best in my opinion because naked roof styles with the clamps take so long to take off. With this you just need a key, I just need to pull these in, push 'em forward and look at that. We can take this off in a matter of seconds which is gonna be really nice if you don't really like to have the bars up there and we can either keep these in here, loosen 'em, slide 'em out, or I'd rather just put that little cap on there so it's ready to rip for next time. And it's just as easy to put it back into place.
In my opinion, after messing with this thing for a while this thing is absolutely amazing 'cause I just wanna get to the bike trail. I just wanna get to the water, blah, blah. Look at that done. As you can see we can both take our whole entire sunroof completely back. We can also tilt it without hitting our bar.
And that's because we have a significant amount of space between our roof and the bottom of our bar. I'd say it's a solid three and a half inches from the roof to the bottom of the bar, which is kind of a lot. We actually still have a decent amount of room right here. So if this thing is completely up, we have about two inches and that's gonna clear most clamp style accessories. With our Honda Odyssey we have a little bit different spread from the front compared to the back and you can kind of see what I'm talking about because on the front we're literally right over top of the sunroof and we only have close to two inches of overhang on both sides but moving to the back, it's a little bit closer.
The tracks are a little closer to each other. So from the end cap it's about two and three quarters of an inch. Aero bars are great because it's a pretty standard size. So all of your clamp around accessories are gonna work with it. But cool thing about this is we have a little slot right here. So for T track accessories a lot of the times with T tracks, well one it's nice 'cause it's not as bulky underneath, it looks a little bit more clean, but it is gonna keep some of that height down with some of your other accessories. So with the aero bars, you are gonna get two different options when it comes to that. So that really leaves all your options open, which I like. But one thing you do wanna do whenever we find a place for your accessory to sit we're gonna cut that little section out and then fill the rest in just to keep the wind noise to a minimum. For your clamp around accessories, if those have locking capabilities definitely get those just because someone could take it off if it didn't have a lock on it. But if you do use the T slots, nice thing about it is look at the shape. That is very unique. If you don't have this key, I've tried to get it unlocked and it's very very hard and you end up just destroying this cap. So definitely keep this special key. So that's gonna help us lock all of our T slot accessories to the roof. I really like that 'cause you don't really need to get a locking accessory if you are using the T slots because you're gonna need this special tool to get to it. It also does come with locking cores, some roof rack systems don't come with locking cores. This one does so you don't have to shop for more stuff. And I really like that. You can, if you do have some other type of rhino rack accessories, this is a 001 locking core but we can match those all up together just so we don't have to have a bunch of different keys. With this specific kit it does come with a larger capacity than some of the other standard clamp on style naked roof racks but always check your vehicle's owner manual 'cause typically the roofs can't really handle near as much weight as the roof rack system. So that's the case for here. We can load this thing up completely and we're not gonna overload the bars but we might overload our roof. So definitely either call your manufacturer or look in that owner's manual to find that number so we're not stressing out our car too much. This isn't your typical install, but once you get it all set up, it is the best option in my opinion, for our '16 Honda Odyssey. So if you're a little nervous about the install just watch Adam and I'll take care of you. And you'll be very, very confident after you watch the install portion of this video. So you can do it at home by yourself. First thing you wanna do is get some tape. And before you put the tape down you wanna clean off the surface so tape sticks and then I did two layers just to kind of give me an idea of exactly where I want, 'cause you wanna protect the roof from anything. And then once that's done we're gonna take some measurements. These measurements will vary from vehicle to vehicle but what I'm doing on our '16 Honda Odyssey, there is a little trim piece here and there's a little line right in there. So I'm using that line as a reference and goal here is to get the even amount of spacing from this point here to our track. And then we're gonna go on the back and I'm using the little hatch crack right here. You get about 17 inches. So there's 17 right here and then 17 from our front measurement as well. Once we get that done, grab a little Sharpie or a marker and mark these lines at that mark on each side. And then it does help if you have an extra set of hands because as you can see our roof is a little curved and our bar is not. So what I did was I grabbed a friend and I lined up one, pushed this side down and then you take that same exact Sharpie marker and you mark all these holes. So as you can see on our tape we have our line, hole, hole, hole, hole holes line. So we do wanna make sure that it's gonna be nice and even as well. So I'm using the gutter right here as a reference to make sure that the distance between the gutter and the center of the hole is the same throughout the whole entire thing. I like this just because it's going to kind of curve to our gutters and it'll look really good. Now we're gonna need a 5 millimeter bit and we do want to set the stop. So I'm using tape just because I don't have these in my garage. So you probably won't either. But using this tape here, we want about five to seven millimeters of bit sticking out. 'Cause we don't wanna go all the way through the headliner. So typically with drilling this stuff out, you want to be nice and slow and steady, one just to make sure that bit's not gonna get all dull, but especially in this case, we don't want to go through too quick and punch through our liner. So, medium amount of pressure. And we don't wanna be sitting here ripping like that. So you just wanna sit there, do it nice and easy and just take your time, patience is a virtue. And mom always told me that. And we could do the same thing for all of our other holes. Trust me when I say these metal shards don't feel good when they hit your skin. So let's suck 'em on up. Well now we can take our masking tape off, not really doing a great job but so what I'm doing is to just take a little bit of clear and putting it on like a little rag ear, ear little cleaner is gonna be the best for this. We just wanna go and hit the inside of that metal to coat it. And then once we put this on all the holes we'll just give it like 15 minutes to dry. Now it's time for the butyl tape. Just wanna take one side, pull it off and line it up with a hole the best you can. Just like that. And then we can do that for all the holes. And then we will peel this top layer off. If you've got fingernails, great. If you don't, find some fingernails. This is kind of hard to peel this off. There we go. Now that we have our bar up, we just wanna put our end caps on, get our rivets ready and then get some air to our rivet gun. I do not have a rivet gun in my arsenal in my garage. So if you don't, just go to the hardware store and pick one up and you don't really need a really fancy one you just need one that's gonna work. 'Cause it is a necessary part to this install. We do wanna start with the front and work our way back. We have this little spacer that comes with the rivets in the kit and we wanna make sure it's nice and seated in there. If not, just take a little hammer and just tap, tap, tap, tap. Not too much. We just wanna make sure it's in there. And depending on the rivet gun that you're using there might be a little bit of scratches on the rails but they do give you that spacer. Grab this, and here's the spacer, we're gonna use this spacer for other remaining holes. Once you have it done on one side you do the same exact thing on the other side, the kit is gonna come with some towers. We have four total, two down here, but we already installed the ones on the back before the front since we have a little curve in our roof we are also going to get a spacer kit. So we are gonna be installing that. And of course we have another bar. Now we're gonna go ahead and start with the bottom section of our kit. This is what it's gonna look like when we're done. I have found it easier to put these on first. So what you wanna do is we're gonna take the flat washer and place that in, flat washer, follow it with the lock washer. Make sure they're seated down. We're gonna take our two with a bolt and notice how they have a special little tool and a special little indention, that's just gonna prevent people from running off with it. It is a lot easier to put these on right now. We don't need to tighten them down, we just need to thread them on a little bit, kind of like this. And trust me, this is easier to do before we install. Couple twists on both of them. And one thing we can do after this, if you wanted to, I did, it was a little easier, get this little rubber piece you can just fit that right there. And that's all you need to do for these. We don't have to remove this cap or anything, it's slotted so we can just slide 'er on in. I like to kind of keep my finger on the bolt, and the bolts with the little spacers are only gonna go on one way. And the kit does recommend anywhere from 24 to 27 and a half inches of spread. And that's just from the center to the center of our back bar. Now that that's in place, we can take our tool and tighten it down. We're gonna have one extra step when we're putting the spacers on, first, we want to take this cap off because it's blocking what we need to get to. Take your key, unlock that, and that's what we we're seeing underneath. And now we have a little bolt, so we can take that same exact tool we just used. We're actually going to completely remove this little top section. And also the bolt. But when we do do take this out we do wanna look at the washer and lock washer, and we're going to transfer that to the bigger one. And that's just going to compensate for the difference in space 'cause of our spacer. Now that that's done, plop that back in there, we can put our block on as you can see it fits nice and snug, you'll know if it's in the right position. And we can put this plate back on there but not all the way. Let's remove our end caps. Slide those to the side for now, flip the bar over and we are gonna take this. I wanna make sure that the red tabs are gonna be facing out. And this is only gonna go in like this in that little slot. Perfect. So what I like to do 'cause we really don't wanna completely set these. We wanna be able to move them a little bit. It's really hard to line it up perfectly, so I'm just tightening it ever so slightly. To where it really doesn't wanna move that much, but I can still move it with a little bit of force. So that's what we're going for. Do the same thing on this side. Since the aero bar from Rhino Rack is perfectly symmetrical we don't have to worry about which side goes forward. So what we wanna do is start on one side, kind of get it into place and you kind of notice how I'm a little far off. So that's why I kind of keep these nice and loose, slide this one out, start to get it lined up. We can adjust this once we kind of get it set into place. Well, one thing quick, little tip. What we can do is you can take these little tabs in, you push 'em in and push 'em towards the inside of the rail like that. So by doing that, I'm gonna do it on the other side, we can actually get it to sit in there perfectly, kind of like that. That's a quick tip for you. I do really like how they designed this and how it just sits in there so nicely. And once it's in there, you can kind of pull these out, might have to force it down a little bit and it'll click into place and we'll do that same thing on the other side. Now for the caps, put it in like this, make sure it's flush, twist it, pull that key, think it's good to go. Same with our cap for our cross bar. There we go. And that pretty much does it for our look at the Rhino Rack RT style roof rack track aero bar system..
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (112 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!
Wow! It's a real well made and engineered product and was delivered fast. I got it so I could remove it due to garage door clearance... It is heavy duty enough to carry our boat and 2 kayaks. The key lock, pivot system and removal system were well thought out and so easy.
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.
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 love it works amazing on my 2017 Hyundai sonata sport 2.0T
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Wish they had a kayak rack to mount to areo bars
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.
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.
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.
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.
Product itself is fantastic, I strongly recommend.
I have had these on for more than a year. Most common use case is carrying a 60lb, 16' long canoe.
I installed with rivets into the roof sheet metal. No issues at all with any rivets coming loose, and zero leakage. I use it with a Yakima crossbars with the quick release mounts. The feet are bolted to the tracks. The crossbars just click into the feet. They take literally less than a minute to attach or remove. I've had a few roof rack systems and this is by far the best.
I used the etrailer videos for the installation and they were more than enough. The riveting was nerve-wracking on the first one, but actually very simple. I suggest really taking your time to assure parallel. This can be tricky depending on your roofline. I marked a centerline down my roof and set the tracks based on that.
The only downside I have run into is not at all a fault in the tracks. Because they rivet into the roof sheet metal, it's susceptible to a bit of flex. I see this under the front of the tracks when I crank down on the bowline of the boat. That's a very large lever pulling down on the rack into the roof sheet metal. No lasting issues, I can just see the metal move.
Another small thing to note is that if your roof is curved where the front or real of the rail lands, the plastic end cap might have a small gap under it. It's not itself held down to the roof, it just slots into the track. I have a small gap on mine and it's not a functional issue at all.
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
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!!
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 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.
Looks a great and we’re super easy to install.
2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee L 4x4 Limited
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