Yakima JetStream Crossbar - Aluminum - Silver - 70" Long - Qty 1

Video Transcript for Yakima Roof Rack Installation - 2016 Nissan NV 3500

Hey everybody, Ryan here at etrailer. Today on our 2016 Nissan NV3500, we're gonna be checking out and showing you how to install the Yakima JetStream roof rack system. So when it comes to these NV 3500 vehicles, people use them to do a ton of different things. I mean, you see these being used as work vehicles, shuttle bus type vehicles, cargo, and even what's becoming really popular is kinda converting these into almost a mini RV, if you will. And so a roof rack on something like this definitely makes a lot of sense. It's really going to open up what you can use your NV3500 for.

So for example, by having these crossbars up here, you can use all different types of accessories, whether it might be a bike rack or a kayak carrier, load up a canoe, maybe put up a roof basket, or even maybe a cargo container where you can put a bunch of things in. Having crossbars up here is gonna really help to allow you to use all this different types of accessories and carry around a lot of different things. Without it, it's taking up all the space inside of your vehicle. I mentioned earlier too, a lot of people using these for work vehicles. It make sense, big capable, you can carry around a lot of stuff.

You can also put your ladders up here and make them easier to get to and function with, with everything else in the inside. It doesn't end there, though. If you have maybe some material, maybe some tubing, piping, whatever the case may be, whatever job you're trying to get done, this is really good to open up your opportunities. There is going to be two different versions of these crossbars. And the one that we're showing off here today is the black version.

There's also gonna be some that are available in silver as well. So a couple of different choices you have to pick from there and whatever kinda floats your boat there, as far as what color crossbars you want. These are going to help reduce wind noise. I mean, whenever you put something on top of your vehicle, it's gonna make a little more noise. Chances are pretty good , driving this type of vehicle anyway, probably not something you're really concerned with, but I mean, that could get annoying and these are really gonna help kinda cut down or minimize that compared to a lot of other type of roof rack systems.

They're gonna have a teardrop type designs that will help kinda cut through that wind a little bit better. And they're also gonna be made from aluminum. So really lightweight. And you're not gonna have to worry about the weather tearing them up or anything like that 'cause we're not gonna have to worry about them getting rusted out or anything along those lines. So the crossbars, they are going to allow you to use those T-track type accessories that'll go into the track there and that's how it will be secured as well as those clamp-on style ones. Just make sure that they're the correct style, that way everything will bolt up properly. So you have quite a few choices there. And if you look down here where our towers are, there's gonna be an open hole there and you can fill that hole using some lock cores. And if you use a lock cores, what it's gonna do is essentially secure your roof rack system to your vehicle. That way, you're not gonna have to worry about anyone tampering with it or trying to run off with it. So if that's something you're concerned about, always an option for you. So at the end of the day, using a roof rack system like this, it just makes sense for this type of vehicle, especially if you plan on carrying around a lot of things. It's gonna really help you out and get the job done. Now as far as the installation goes, not gonna lie, it really wasn't too bad. To be honest with you, I don't do a ton of roof racks. And so I don't have a ton of experience installing them. We do our research and know a lot about them and the things that people use them for. But this is my first roof rack system on a vehicle like this, a van like this, and I was pleasantly surprised on how straightforward it was. It really didn't take me a whole lot of time at all. But speaking of the installation, why don't we go ahead, pull into the garage, and put it on together now. To actually get the roof rack installed, on top of our roof here, we're gonna have several mounting points and you need to figure out which ones you're going to use and that's gonna depend on what type of roof mounted accessory you're going to be using. So be sure to check those instructions to figure out the spread and everything else. With that said, we can go ahead and get started. We have these factory mounting points and we're gonna take this piece here. And this is actually gonna bolt through that factory mounting point. All right, and way that's gonna happen is you're gonna take one of these bolts, you're gonna put on a metal flat washer and then followed by this plastic type washer. And those are gonna go in both of those openings. We're gonna have some squared off nuts here, and these are gonna fit under there and to that slot, the bolts are gonna come through and bolt through them. The issue that I've ran into is when you slide these in here, they're so far down, it's really hard for that bolt to catch and kinda just makes things tricky to do. So I've been using some spacers. And these are just some random plastic washers that I had laying around. And I mean, you can use whatever you guys got laying around the house, regular washers, you can cut out, maybe a piece of cardboard, something just to kinda fill this void here. So I slide them under with our spacer block. It fits nice and close. And I like to take just like a paper clip, just kinda help center everything. And I get these started one at a time, so I do the everything and lined up. And what I'm trying to do is just get it to catch a thread or two, so they're caught. But you don't wanna really tighten it 'cause you still need to move this around and everything else. So once you have it caught, you take your paper clip, kinda sneak our spacers back out of there and we'll do that same exact thing for this one here. As soon as that second one catches and get these spacers out of the way, we'll take our island wrench and tighten these down. So once you have this piece completely on, you're simply going to repeat that exact same process over on the other side of our vehicle. So now we can do is assemble our towers, that way we can get them on the actual crossbar. So with these, you can squeeze it on the side on the cover there and open that up. And we're gonna have a hex nut in there. We'll take the tool and just back that off a few turns and what we're gonna do, we're gonna have these pieces and these are going to fit inside of here. So what we're gonna do is get these aligned up. These are kinda just snapping into place. And then you can take the metal portion there, kinda hold that down and then underneath we'll have a hex head. So we'll turn that until it touches, but we still want it to be somewhat loose, have some adjustability there, like so. And then if we grab our crossbar here on the bottom side of it, which will be this side, we're gonna peel this stripping out of the way. And when I hold this down, that piece there, you can see how it's kinda hanging down, it's gonna slide into the channel there on our crossbar. Now these are adjustable, so you can slide these where you need them to be. I've already done some test fitting here. And what I came up with, if we look these numbers here about 51-1/2 in our case is where we wanna go. So if you have the same exact vehicle, chances are really good. This is gonna get you going really close. And with it set up like that, we're gonna have the same amount of overhang of crossbar each side of our vehicle. So it will be centered. That said, though, we'll go ahead and hold that in place. Start to tighten that down and just make sure everything is straight and level. You're gonna tighten that until you hear and feel a click in your tool and that's gonna automatically torque it for you once it clicks. So you know it's gonna be the proper setting as far as how tight you get it goes. The same thing with that other hex head screw inside there. And we're simply just going to push our weatherstripping. I'm sorry, the stripping here back. We'll probably come back and cut it later. Not really a crazy deal right now, but with that said, you're simply just gonna do the same exact thing for the other end of our crossbar. So now we can take our assembly here, that we put together and actually get it up on the roof. The way this is gonna work, you want these caps to be open and we're just gonna line it up to the pieces that we actually bolted to the roof. Make sure both sides drop in and then all we're gonna have to do to lock them to the pieces in the roof there is just close up the cap. So now what I went ahead and done was just used a razor heads to trim our stripping here. And then I took the piece that we had removed and we're just going to transfer it over to the side. That way, the whole bottom side of our crossbar will have this. And then we can take the end cap, and get this lined up. These are kinda tight. So just keep that in mind. We'll get it lined up and snapped in place. So I will say I already had one of the crossbars installed and the one that we just did together literally went on the exact same way. So if he figured one of them out, you're good to go to get the next one in. Everything is identical. So with that said, now you're ready to load up your favorite accessory and hit the road. And that'll finish up our look at and our installation of the Yakima JetStream Roof Rack System on our 2016 Nissan NV3500..