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These crossbars combine the strength of steel with an aerodynamic shape to create a heavy-duty yet quiet roof rack for your vehicle. Full-length bars maximize cargo carrying capacity and work with most clamp-on accessories.
Features:
Yakima 50" CoreBar SM:Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hey everyone, it's Evangeline here at etrailer and today we'll be taking a look at our Yakima SkyLine towers. These are designed for your fixed mounting points, your flush rails, or your track systems. So if the roof of your vehicle looks like this, you probably need these. If you wanna carry around roof mounted accessories like kayaks or ladders or maybe you need to bring a Christmas tree home, you first need a roof rack system. Now this is gonna be the Yakima SkyLine towers for those vehicles that specifically require a custom fit kit for their fixed mounting points. Now if your vehicle does not look like this you might have a naked roof or raised rails.
That's why it's very important before anything to use our fit guide here at etrailer.com. Put your year, make model and then find the right fit for you. And if this is one of them let's take a look at how it works. Etrailer.com also helps you get the full kit for your vehicle because the skyline towers don't work alone you also need the appropriate crossbars as well as the correct fit kit or landing pads for you. But with this, you get a low profile roof rack so it doesn't stick too high up.
You get a heavy duty weight capacity since this is an aluminum roof rack. So usually they have 165 pounds capacity, depends on the vehicle, and you have this very sturdy but also very custom fit kit for your vehicle. That way, no matter what you put on it within reason and wherever you go, you know it's gonna stay there. But my favorite feature about this roof rack is the door design. So you pinch on the door to open it and that's it.
Just like that, you can lift the whole roof rack off of your roof. When you need to install it, you just pop it right back on. So the height of the tower is about 3 1/2" from your fixed mounting point to the top of the tower. The actual height can change depending on what crossbars you have and what rails you have, but compared to a lot of the other flush mounted crossbars and roof racks, it's just very low to the roof. Now with this style of a rack though, you are limited to the fixed mounting points or the flush rails of your vehicle.
So wherever they are, that's how much crossbar spread you get. For example, ours is set to 28" apart. On the other hand, if you have an aggressive tilt to your roof, you can actually adjust this up to six degrees forward or six degrees backward to help even out the playing field. Now I like to leave my roof rack on my vehicle and Yakima is pretty known for its durability. So the SkyLine towers are made of glass reinforced plastic, aluminum, stainless steel and elastomer. So all that is combined to help them stay strong even if you leave them on all day, all year. But if you do need to take off your roof rack you also have a feature to make it more low profile. Start by flipping both doors open and then you can lift the roof rack up and off of your roof. This way you can store it inside of your garage or in your house. You can leave your base on your roof rails. All you need to do is cover them with the included cover and that's it. You're done. The covered bases sit about 2" high up off of your fixed mounting point and makes for a much more low profile look. Your towers will have everything you need to install them which really is just one tool. And your fit kit has the hardware needed to undo the factory mounting points on your vehicle or for your track system if that's what you have. Now, that install process is extremely simple. Let's take a look at it. So these are what your towers look like when they are not on your roof. So they come all assembled in the box. All you need to do is get the appropriate landing pads for your vehicle. These landing pads can look different depending on your car and that's why it's very important to use our fit guide to get the right fit for you. You have four towers as well as the torque tool. And depending on your crossbars, you will also get a separate adapter to be used with those specific bars. With your landing pad kits, you'll get a part that fits your specific vehicle. You will get the hardware needed to install that part and you will have the base as well as the base cover. So if the towers are not on your vehicle you could just cover that base pad and take the cover off to install the tower. Here's an example of how the landing pad can be used depending on your cars. So you have a factory mounting point in this specific flush rail. So the pad goes over that hole and then you're gonna get your base which goes on top of that pad. And then you have a bolt with split washer and flat washer which is used to tighten down those two pieces to your car. The torque tool for your towers comes in handy whenever you're tightening down those bolts because it has a setting for tension. Once you get enough tension, it automatically clicks and prevents you from over tightening. Now to set up your tower for your crossbars there's different adaptor pieces. We're using the one for the JetStream crossbars. So we start by pushing in this plate into the tower. So you are gonna hear some clicks and that's how you know it's secure. Now we're gonna open up the tower door. So this involves pinching the door and pulling. Be careful because if you slide your fingers forward it doesn't feel as good. But with the door open, you can then loosen this bolt up front. It says to do it eight times. I just go until the bolt underneath is visible so you can see underneath what I mean. Notice how you have this little bolt head hiding around. You're gonna try to get at it with the tool. You can see how I do have access. That means as we flip this tower back over I can put this plate up top and then I can tighten down and thread onto that plate. With adapter and plate, this can now slide into your crossbar. For other adapters, they're designed to slide over or around your crossbar. With this specific style, I do recommend for the initial slide making sure that this is loose, but after that even if you have it fully tightened down you'll still be able to slowly adjust it on the crossbar. So with the towers on you're then ready to put this onto your roof. Now what I do is I just kind of roughly measure how far apart our landing pads are and that's when I can measure on the towers the distance apart they roughly need to be, in my case, 43 1/2. You could be off by 1/2" or so 'cause you can still move them. Also, supposedly this is when you put the rubber pieces inside of your crossbars. I do that after I've already installed them onto the roof. I take them back off and then I push them in so that I know exactly where the towers will be sitting. Make sure your towers are torqued down at their bottom bolt. Do that for both sides before installing. This is a lot easier with a friend on the other side but still doable with one person. So leave those doors open so that you can gently place them onto your roof. The bottom bracket with the door open fits onto your base so see how that just pushes into place. And then to secure it, just push that door close and you've got a sturdy fit. If you're using Yakima same key system lock cores, this is a time to switch them out on your towers. But other than that, just double check that all the towers are strong and secure and everything is sturdy. And that's it for the install of your roof rack. That right there was a look at the Yakima SkyLine towers for your Yakima crossbars for when you have vehicles that have fixed mounting points, flush rails or track systems.
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (183 Customer Reviews)
These crossbars combine the strength of steel with an aerodynamic shape to create a heavy-duty yet quiet roof rack for your vehicle. Full-length bars maximize cargo carrying capacity and work with most clamp-on accessories.Fit our Subaru Forester perfectly. Install was a breeze. For the money I wish they came with the core locks.
Very nice quality towers. Very heavy duty! They have a cool "snap" on / off mechanism for quick removal and installation.
I've just recently installed this setup on my 2015 Toyota Camry.
etrailer - Shopping for this rack was fairly simple, and the shipping from etrailer was quick and reliable. I received the rack in 2 different shipments but they both arrived at the same time. etrailer made sure the all the contents were available. They also have several resourceful videos on their YouTube page, which was helpful while shopping for the rack and during a few trouble shooting items while I was installing.
Yakima Core Bar - Overall a quality product. Everything necessary was supplied, including a handy measuring tape and some very well written instructions. The fit is clean and very sturdy. The only qualm I have is that the hex hole in the large anchor bolts are a bit larger than the supplied hex driver. Toward the end of the installation, the tool was worn and ended up turning inside the bolt itself (not due to over torquing whatsoever). I ended up having to use a hex set I had in my toolbox to complete the installation because the provided tool was starting to strip out the anchor bolt. With that said, the kit is still a great kit that meets my expectations.
Wind noise is quieter than my OEM VW bars on my 2017 Volkswagen GTI. It's noticeable, but nothing extreme - I believe that's just the price you pay when adding crossbars to a vehicle.
Verdict - etrailer has definitely met my expectations, and the Yakima kit provided is a well designed kit that fits well!
From start to finish, the folks at etrailer -- and I spoke to several people there, so it was a consistent corporate vibe -- were fantastic to deal with.
There were delays in getting my product that were on the supplier side and out of etrailer's control, yet etrailer folks kept me up to date and also worked on a customized solution.
My goal was to be able to carry my surfboard on the roof of our 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe to the beach more than 3 hours away. But the particular model we had had no existing racks, no recessed areas, nothing to fix racks to. Not even the dealer had a solution. I was sh*t out of luck.
But etrailer hooked me up. The racks did take me a while to put on, but most of that time was fine tuning to reduce “hum” while driving. I’m very happy with them.
Thanks to etrailer, I have gone surfing and can go surfing whenever I'd like to.
You guys provide great products and excellent customer service.
Thanks
As described! Quick delivery!
These crossbars were easy to install and adjust. Be sure to get all the pieces you need. There is no mention of the Landing Pads necessary to use these.
Great product great service
Very good product. The Yakama towers and cross bars feel very solid and appears to be high quality. Very easy install. Others have complained about the instructions, but guess I'm a visual person because the pictures all seemed very clear to me and the install was very easy. They do sit higher than I expected. After adding a Rhino Rack cargo basket, we only have about 4-5" clearance below the garage door.
Yakima SkyLine Towers are well-designed and well-executed. They easily fit into the Yakima Landing Pads and form a tight fit when closed. And they also fit nicely into the Yakima JetStream Crossbars when following the Yakima instruction manual and various YouTube videos. I did run into a snag at first where I found the rubber seal on one SkyLine Tower getting caught on the JetStream Crossbar track, but after that I was careful not to let that happen with the other towers.
I find the appearance of the Yakima SkyLine Towers to match their level of quality in materials and design.
These crossbars feel like they are well made and sturdy. It took less than 30 minutes to install with the Ridgeline Towers. I love the look of the bars! Can't wait to load the Kayaks up and get out on the water.
The landing Pad 18 was very easy to install on my 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee and fit up nicely with my Yakima SkyLine towers.
Should include extra end caps just in case they fall off.
Roof rack fits and works as advertised. Over the phone customer support for sales and install directions were very helpful and thorough. Geoff is an excellent brand ambassador who goes above and beyond to fulfill customer expectations. I will definitely be shopping at etrailer for my future vehicle needs. Well done!
Great company. Fast delivery.
Timely delivery of my order, as usual! Easy to install on my 2015 4Runner. After I had the mounts ready and put on both bars, I installed the front one and fine-tuned it, the second took even less time then. I now have the ability to carry up to 3 kayaks, perfect! etrailer is a great company!
Very sturdy, well made. The assembly instructions are not too good but if you call Yakima they will provide additional instructions.
I am thrilled this got delivered sooner than anticipated! It was quite easy to install once you started actually putting it together and measuring everything out. I like that this can easily be removed and installed onto the vehicle.
Very happy with the Yakima roof top rack kit for my 2017 Ford Edge with glass roof. The instructions were a little confusing at first, but after reading through them a couple of times while working with the product they became much clearer. The Yakima fit site was helpful as well. After the initial cross bar mounting measurements and set up, attaching and detaching the racks from the roof is a very simple process.
Great product and Sales Support from etrailer.
I bought this for my Son as a Grad/BDay gift for a Honda HR-V which has slightly odd roof/door shape
He installed it himself said the install was straightforward but the instructions could use a little improvement.
etrailer Sales Support was great, I was a little concerned about getting the right parts and the return policy. Olivia was great to work with, she offered recommendations and matched the parts to the type and vehicle it was to be installed on along with a kayak mount.
All the parts arrived in mint condition with no missing pieces.
I'll for sure return to etrailer on future purchases.
I bought a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee. To use my Yakima Skyline Towers, I had to install these landing pads in the rack rail attached to the roof. The installation was easy, and the pads serve their purpose. But they don't seem to be engineered as secure as I would like. They have more flexibility than I think they should. The bolt head is over an inch from where it screws into the roof. I think Yakima could have engineered something more secure. In fairness to Yakima, the Jeep rack rail is different than any other rack system I've seen and is incompatible with any other system. But I am assuming that these landing pads will work OK with a full load and that the Yakima engineers have done an adequate job. This summer they will be put to the test for 3,000 miles. Note: the Yakima windshield fairing falls on the glass in the moon roof rendering the moon roof unopenable so long as the fairing is used.
Great product! Relatively easy install, had the racks on for a few days now with no issues.
I have a 2004 Toyota Camry, my purpose is to purchase this Yakima Baseline System for Rooftop tent. My 23Zero rooftop tent weighs 130 lb, so far it's super solid. I did some minor adjustments based on the shape and level of the roof when mounting it.
These really look so much better then the factory racks! Easy to install. Easy to order! Great product!
Feel solid, not too tricky to install
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