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Durable nylon legs let you mount Vortex Aero crossbars to your vehicle's factory elevated side rails. Custom-fit leg clamps tighten with included tool for easy installation on your rails. Pair with 2 crossbars to create a complete roof rack.
Features:
Specs:
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Today we're going to be taking a look at the Rhino Rack Vortex Aero Crossbar Roof Rack System. These are available in a variety of lengths and are available in black and silver. We're going to be using this with the Rhino Rack Vortex Aero Leg Kit for raised factory side rails. These are also available in a variety of different sizes. To see which ones are going to fit your vehicle please refer to etrailer.com. One of the great things about having a roof rack system is the ability to carry cargo on top of your roof without having to take up any additional space inside of your vehicle. To build a roof rack system you're going to need a set of crossbars and you're going to need the leg kits that are going to be best suited for your vehicle and your application. Let's go over a few features that make this roof rack system a great system for you.
They're going to be very stylish. They're aero dynamic so it's going to allow you to build a crossbar roof rack system that's going to offer you a stylish and quiet ride. Each bar features vortex strips in the bars top C channel. They're going to feature molded ridges. That's going to help disrupt the air flow and it's really going to help reduce the drag and wind noise. A few other great features about having those strips in there is it's going to help keep out dirt and dust out of your crossbars.
It's also going to provide some cushion for your gear and provide slip resistance. These versatile bars are going to work with channel mounted and wrap around carriers and accessories. Here on the end we have an end cap that includes a pull down tab that's going to provide easy access to the crossbar channel. When using clamp on accessories they simply wrap around your crossbar. The Vortex Aero Bars feature channels in the bottom of each bar. That's going to allow for easy installation of your Rhino Rack Roof Rack Leg Kit.
This system also comes with rulers that place in the bottom channels. It's going to help ensure that your crossbars are centered on your roof. It's also going to help reduce drag and wind noise. The Leg Kit is available with the crossbars or they can be sold separately to help build and complete a roof rack system. The Vortex Aero Leg Kit has some really great features about it.
This part here is going to slide into the channel on the underside of your crossbar. The bolt is actually going to be located on the inside of your crossbar so you will need to remove your end cap. That can be a great feature to help hide that out of the way. Then on the underside we have the pads that are going to fit nicely around our raised side rails. You can see how they have ridges as well as this side has a lip to kind or curl around the outer part of the side rail to provide a nice, secure grip. Those ridges are going to keep the foot pack or the leg kit from being able to slide back and forth on your side rail. It also comes with a special tool. This is a tensioning tool that's going to be used to tighten up the leg kit around your side rail. It has a nice arc to the handle. Once you have the leg kit tight enough around your side rail, this is actually going to straighten up, assuring you that everything is tight enough. We went ahead and assembled three of our legs to our crossbars but we do want to show you how to assemble the last one. Really simple, quick installation. All you need to do is remove the end cap, turn your foot upside down, and it's going to slide right into place into that channel on the underside of your cross bar. Replace your end cap. Now we're set to adjust them to fit the width of our side rails and then we can get them secured onto our roof. We're going to take our front cross bar and place it onto the front portion of our roof rack here on our side rails. When installing this you will want to make sure that the leg kits are straight across from each other. This can be done by finding a fixed point on your side rails and simply taking a measurement back to the closest point of your leg kit. Now we'll take our rear bar and place it onto our side rails. With everything in place we'll go ahead and get it set and make our adjustments, take our measurements and get everything tightened down. To ensure that our rear legs are straight across from each other we can simply just take a measurement from the center of our front bar to the center of our rear bar. In the instructions it states that we need to have a measurement somewhere between 27-9/16" to 31-1/2". For our demonstration today we're going to set them at 30". We'll do this on both sides to ensure the legs are straight across and that our bars are parallel with one another. Before we tighten everything down we do want to make sure that the gasket here is facing outward and not tucked under the leg. When pressure is applied the gasket is going to create a nice seal between the leg and the side rail. Also we need to make sure that we have even bar overhang on each side. This can be done simply by taking a measurement. We'll do this measurement on both sides, once again to ensure that we have even bar overhang on each side of our vehicle. We'll do it for both the front and the rear. Now we'll remove the end caps and then we can tighten everything down. We'll place the tool inside the cross bar and then we can simply turn it in a clockwise direction to tighten up the Allen bolt which is going to secure our leg around our side rail. One of the great things about this system and this tensioning tool is the lever is going to straighten out to let us know we have everything tight enough around our side rail. We'll want to repeat the same tightening process for each leg. For each bar we're going to have to take four measurements. This is so we can install our measuring stick. Two measurements per side. Feel out for the opening of the C channel underneath, place our tape measure to the back of the leg. For our application today it looks like we're going to take about 3" of that measuring stick to cut out and place in our back part. We'll do another measurement here toward the outer point. That measurement is going to be right at 3". If you have the bar set up evenly, then that measurement should be identical for the other side of the rear bar. If you want to double check it doesn't hurt to take more measurements on the other wide. We'll take our measuring tape and place it over our strip. The strip does have measuring increments on there that you can use as well, but since we used the measuring tape we're just going to go ahead and get that exact measurement that we need. Then we'll mark it so I know that I need to make a cut at #70. Simply take a pair of scissors and just cut that strip. Now we'll take our other measurement and I'm going to need one at mark #100, or #140. I'll cut there. Now we'll take the strip that we just cut, place it into our channel and we'll just slide it back in place. It's a pretty good fit so we'll fit our other piece on the inside. We're not going to be able to slide this one into place but you can feel around and you can simply just push it through the channel. We have it pushed in there, now we can slide it into place and we're set to go. We'll repeat this process for the other three legs. With everything tight and secure and our measure strips installed we can install our end caps and then we can take this out on the road and show you how it performs. This roof rack system does have a maximum load capacity so you do want to make sure that you refer to your vehicle manufacturer's handbook for maximum roof load capacity. You'll want to always use the lower of the two figures. These bars come in a variety of lengths. They come in 41", 44", 49", 54", 59", 65" and 71" bars. Each bar is going to measure 3-1/8" in width and it's going to measure 1-13/64" tall. The Rhino Rack Vortex Aero Bars all come with limited lifetime warranties. All of the feet for Vortex Aero Bars for factory raised side rails come with limited lifetime warranties as well. You can also equip your cross bars with locking end caps. Those are sold separately with part number RRVA-LEC4. Now we're out on the road and we do not have our crossbar system installed. When we take a look at our decibel meter you will see that with a naked roof it's peaking out at anywhere between 70 and 72. We'll go to compare that with our roof rack system installed and you can see that it only adds about one decibel with the roof rack system installed, peaking out from 71 to 73. That's going to do it for today's look at the Rhino Rack Vortex Aero Roof Rack System for Raised Factory Side Rails. .
Average Customer Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (334 Customer Reviews)
Durable nylon legs let you mount Vortex Aero crossbars to your vehicle's factory elevated side rails. Custom-fit leg clamps tighten with included tool for easy installation on your rails. Pair with 2 crossbars to create a complete roof rack.Made really nice. Instructions were easy to follow. At first I read all of the reviews for this model of rack. The only complaint was the whistle you get after the install. I experienced the exact same thing, however I did use the the "cross under bar strip" after my initial test. Took it back out, and there is no wind noise at all. This rack is awesome, and well worth the price.
These are really nice roof racks. On our VW Golf Sportwagen, they look sporty and do not create any wind noise going down the road. We got these to use with the Vortex Aero Crossbars and the mounts are just high enough to work, but not too high to be awkward. The cross bars we got were the perfect width for the car. No issues of passengers hitting their heads on the like with other ill fitting systems. The mounts fit perfectly on the VW factory roof rails that came with the car.
Installed the bars on my 2017 VW Tiguan, happy with the Purchase from etrailer. I had one screw that was stripped out during installation and etrailer was able to get a replacement sent out.
Thanks!
After having this product for a year, I can say we are very happy with it and would most certainly purchase again. We coupled this with the Rhino Rack J hooks to transport our kayak, and have used multiple times without issue. This system fit perfectly on my 2018 Atlas, which unfortunately was totaled, and I was able to transfer to my 2021 Atlas without issue. With the J hooks installed, you cannot open the sunroof on the Atlas, as there is not enough clearance, but once the J hooks are removed and only the crossbars installed, you can use without issue. Of note, you can still use the tilt function with the J hooks installed, just not fully open. I remove the J hooks when I am not transporting my kayak, so this is a non issue for me. Also worth adding, the customer service from etrailer is top notch; they reached out after my purchase to make sure everything was received as needed, and they are also the best priced, by far.
Installed without any raised voices, sturdy, works perfectly.
These are fantastic! The VW accessory crossbars for the Taos are awful, poorly designed leg end caps, anyway , these are a simple install after a little back and forth with measuring. They fit beautifully are low profile and wait for it …. Quiet ! Could not be happier
+ Came quickly with no extra shipping charges
+ Easy to install:
Full disclosure -- It arrived in the evening and I had to put one cross bar on to see if it would be easy. It was. But I got distracted, so I have not put the other one on yet.
Will update once I check for sound and actually try to carry something on it.
Only thing that was not clear was what to do with the overhang of rubber stripping after I installed the bar and covered the gap that runs the length of the bar. I hate to cut something to size only to find it might be needed in a less obvious way later on. Adding a picture to the direction showing the overhang being trimmed would be reassuring. Although, it seemed like the obvious thing to do.
Other than that little thing, the rack seems to live up to its billing.
John S.
6/12/2020
Yes. One of the things that people orry about over time is the noise level. I have been happy with the low level of noise. The rack is not silent but not annoying. It has worked great all year.
For the most part I like this rack system. One of the mounts was non operational upon receipt. They replaced it fairly quickly. Rhino was fairly responsive until I got to the hard questions, then they became unresponsive. In my book, they fell down at the finish line and that is why they get a 3 and not a higher grade.
PS I never did get an answer to my question from Rhino :(
Tim B.
7/21/2017
Rhino rack never responded to my questions despite etrailers engagement. So much for customer service.
Best pricing around! Quality product that fit my vehicle perfectly.
Went right on, everything was as advertised. Great looking rack as well.
Quick delivery, easy install- not sure about the 'torque driver' that deflects when you're tight enough. I think someone with small and not strong hands would have difficulty with it. Actually takes quite a bit of force to really tighten them down. But, aside from that it seems very robust- I'll see how it transports my paddleboards and occasional lumber.
Installed in less than 1 hour. Quality crossbar system.
Great product! Works as advertised, no issues after one year of use.
Terrific service, product and price as usual. Very happy with the purchase. Thanks
Easy to install and look great on Suv.
Great quality
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Ian K.
4/15/2021
These have still been working great. The only issue we have had is that we lost an end cap going through an automatic car wash. Not sure if I didnt secure it properly, but it was a bit of a bummer to have to buy a new set to replace the single missing cap.