Summer Starts Here - Save up to 70%
Durable nylon legs with built-in locks let you mount Vortex Aero crossbars to your vehicle's factory flush side rails. Integrated handles tighten legs to rails for easy installation. 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.
Hi guys, Adam with etrailer.com. Today we're going to be taking a look at the Rhino-Rack Vortex Aero bars on our 2018 Buick Encore. So these bars are going to measure 49 inches in length, which is going to leave you a lot of room for all those accessories. We do carry a bunch of T-track accessories on etrailer.com. So go up there and check it out. You can grab kayak carriers, you can put a cargo basket up there, you can throw all your bikes up there.
Literally endless amounts of possibilities for this roof rack system. So go on etrailer.com and check them out. So these are going to have a better aerodynamic shape to them compared to your square and round bars. You're going to have a lot of wind noise going down the road. With this style, Aero bar from Rhino-Rack, it's going to cut down on that vehicle noise that you get whenever you're going at high speeds down the highway.So, we are going to be able to put any T-track accessory along with your clamp-on accessories.
And what those do is it basically wraps around the whole bar to fasten whatever you may be putting on there. But, in regards to the T-track accessory, what you want to do is you can take this cap off and then you're going to be able to pull this out and slide in your accessories. You will have to trim this up a little bit, just so you can get the T-track in there and keep all that water out as well. So, that is something you can do there.Another thing you can purchase here at etrailer.com is going to be these end caps. You can grab locking cores for them.
This one does lock, but you can get a keyed lock to give you a little bit more added protection. So, these are going to be aluminum with a black powder coated finish to resist against rust and corrosion. If you do want to just grab the silver version of these roof bars, it does match this car a little bit better than the black bars. So that's something you want to do You guys go on etrailer.com and purchase that style as well. So the Rhino-Rack SRB foot pack for these rails is going to think of your car when you're installing them.
So, you will have protection for your rails, just so there's no scratches or abrasions. You can take this off just by lifting this up, twisting it counterclockwise and then that's going to loosen it up. And you're not going to have any marks, so no one's going to know that you had any rails on there prior.So as far as how much height did I add to my vehicle, on the Encore from the top of our existing bars, we are adding about three and a half inches to the top of our new bars. And in regards to how much space we have in between our roof and the bottom of our bars, it's going to come down to about three inches from the roof to the very bottom of our bars. We don't have a sunroof on this car in particular, but even if we did, I don't think we'll have any issues there.So one thing I would add to this system would be the Pioneer SX rack that goes on top of these existing bars. It would be a really cool accessory because you can strap that to these bars. And it does have its own T-track on top of this Pioneer rack. It is very cool. And you can, on top of that, put plenty of different attachments on that as well. It is going to be 60 inches long by 49 inches wide. So it's got to fit pretty well. So now that I've gone over some of those features with you guys, let's just go ahead and get them installed.So I already went ahead and assembled this side of our foot pack for our rails. We're going ahead and do the other side. You're going to get a key with your kit to take off these caps. Once you have that done, we're going to put this on. And what you got to do is, you push this down and then there are two little pieces in there underneath this bumper. And by pushing up on that, it's going to allow it to slide into this track. So once you have all that done, make sure this is facing out and she should just slide right in. And we can put our cap back on and lock it into place.So I do have our front bars already installed. And as you can see, we don't have a whole lot of bar lengths. So what I'm going to do is max out our width and go all the way to the front and all the way to the back. Now that we have all these assembled, we can go ahead and set it down into place. Once we get her to the right spot, what we're going to want to do is make sure that this gap on each side is even, and then we can go ahead and tighten them down. So, to tighten these down, what we've got to do is lift this up like so. Now we can start twisting that, which is going to bring in this bar and clamp down on your rails. Once we get it nice and tight, we can go ahead and put this back down and we will be able to lock these on the top of our Encore to just give you a little bit more peace of mind, just making sure that these bars won't go anywhere.So, one thing I did notice is we don't really have this front bar too far forward because of our factory rails here. So, if you're going to have a rooftop cargo basket on top of this, it might overhang a little bit, which you will have a little bit of contact with your antenna. But, what we found is that you can actually just twist this off and remove it. It will affect your radio quality a little bit, but it's better than damaging this antenna. And that just about does it for a look at the Rhino-Rack roof rack system on our 2018 Buick Encore.
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (157 Customer Reviews)
Durable nylon legs with built-in locks let you mount Vortex Aero crossbars to your vehicle's factory flush side rails. Integrated handles tighten legs to rails for easy installation. Pair with 2 crossbars to create a complete roof rack.Product is as good as advertised. It fits perfect, looks very nice. Great communication from the team at etrailer keeping me informed on the shipping timeline.
Thank you
The rack went together easily and locked into place
With strength. Looks sporty on my daughters Encore. She plans on using for her paddle board.
EXCELLENT PRODUCT! Would definitely by again!
Easy to install. Easy to remove.
This is the product that was recommended on etrailer as a fit for my BMW X-5, but when doing a search on the SKU I ordered, there’s a message that the product is not a fit. But actually it seemed to fit fine. I think it looks great. I’m concerned it moves a bit on the rail although I have it as tight as I can get it. Hopefully it will be fine. Furthermore, the directions that come with the product really suck. Not that it’s hard to attach, I used the video on the website to get an overview. I was disappointed that the top rubber insert was inside the bar and that information was not made obvious. I learned that by watching another video on YouTube after I ordered them from Rhino. Nonetheless, I’m happy with the purchase. It looks great on my X5 and was more reasonably priced versus the Thule.
By far the best price/ value in a quality rack for the Hyundai Santa Fe Sport, and etrailer has the best price on the internet. Have a look at the Thule, but I can't imagine that anyone with common sense would choose the Thule over the Rhino rack system. The Thule has far less carrying capacity and costs a lot more.
The Rhino Rack has the highest load carrying capacity among it's competition and is designed to work specifically with the mounting system that is factory stock- i.e., the factory rails on the roof have a 3 position mounting hole system that locates the Rhino rack and also greatly adds to the strength and stability.
I would add that when assembling and mounting them, pay very close attention to two things:
1. As shown in step #1 in the printed instructions, there is a cam that has to be inserted *inside* the cross bar, not under it. It takes some effort and attention to position it properly and ensure that the the cam does go up inside the bar when the foot is slid onto the bar, but you have to, the legs will not clamp to the cross bar if it is not.
2. As shown in step #3, the small pin on the metal plate of the leg has to go firmly and completely into one of the 3 holes on the factory roof rail. When I first did it, it was in a little, but not seated firmly, so the rack was not attached securely to the car, even though it was tightened down all the way. Glad that I looked closely and re-did it correctly. You have to wiggle the plate and pin until you feel it pop into that hole, then hold it there with one hand as you tighten down the lever to secure it with the other. When correctly fastened, the Rhino Rack has no play or looseness- it is attached very firmly.
Also, I have the panoramic sun roof on my Santa Fe, I can confirm that you can open and close the sunroof without any problems with the rack mounted- there is plenty of clearance.
That may change depending on which accessory you attach to the rack. This is a 2015 Santa Fe Sport.
I am doing a renovation on a house I bought recently so I haul a lot of lumber etc from the hardware store. I was concerned when I replaced my Cherokee with the Santa Fe, that I would not be able to carry lumber and sheet goods, but with the Rhino Rack, I can carry everything that I need on top, securely. Seems easy to get on and off, once you installed it the first time and established the position of the legs on the bars. I'll put it on when needed to carry something, then keep it safe and out of the hot sun in the garage when not in use. Probably a good idea to take a label maker and add small tags on each bar in a hidden place to indicate which bar goes front and rear- also left and right for each, so you can re-install with minimal confusion.
I drive an older Audi A6 wagon. This Rhino-Rack product was very easy to install and nice and snug and perfect from day one. It's been a year now and the rack still looks great, no rust anywhere, no looseness anywhere - just a good, solid roof rack. The cross bars have an aero shape and therefore wind noise on the highway is not bad at all. And I like the rubbery strips running along the top of each bar, it's just enough cushion to offer some protection to whatever you're carrying and also those same rubber strips are just grippy enough to keep whatever you're hauling from sliding around as you tie it down. I recommend this rack, I'd buy the same one again. I even put the Rhino-Rack decal in the window. ;)
Attaching the bars to these feet was simple, but I did need to read the instructions carefully. Once the bars were attached, mounting everything to the car was quick and easy. I love the built-in, locking handles that tighten the feet down. My previous rack required a separate tool to tighten the feet to the roof rails; this system is much easier to use. I’ve been using the roof rack for about a year now and it has held up very well.
Pretty easy to install, looks great(at least I think it does). A lot of videos available to watch, probably the best suggestion is to watch them until you’re comfortable with the install process.
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.
Fits perfectly. Installation requires focus. Getting that Aero crossbar mounted just right was a little bit tricky because of the metal cam engaging the slot. Once I wrapped my brain around how that was supposed to work, they went on super solid. If you don't get the metal cam in place - it will make it nearly impossible to get this mounted correctly to the flush mounted rail. Read the Q&A - its covered extremely well in there. I do like the lock and key but they are not the best quality. I think if someone wants to take it they could do so with little effort. So far, I'm quite happy overall.
I just installed these onto my 2016 XC90 Inscription. Haven't yet gone for a road trip yet, but they seem solid.
I was concerned that the low profile design wouldn't allow clearance for the sunroof to open, but there is plenty of clearance even with my Thule cargo box mounted with the claw grips.
Installation was pretty straightforward, and adjusting was very simple. They might even be simple enough to install and remove that I keep them in the garage and only install when needed.
I'll definitely update if anything bad happens, but based on what I've seen I don't expect any issues.
Very satisfied with the product and it looks good as does the hitch from entailed (for bike rack) on my Kia niro
A little tough to get on at first but these are great. The installation video was definitely helpful, thank you!
Just bought these for my 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport And they look great! I don’t know why someone would pay double the price for the Thules when these look exactly the same. Great product!
Great product! It fits my Ford Edge perfect. I took a 2000 mike trip without any issues. The cross bars look very nice and the price is very competitive. I would recommend these items to anyone looking to save some money with great quality products.
This rack was recommended as an alternative to a more expensive brand. I have used this twice with a luggage pod for 500+ mile destinations. I am very happy to report that I am more than happy with the quality/durability of the product, and the ease of installation/use. Also, it is very quiet. Highly recommend this product. I purchased the locking endcaps as well.
Great product and service. It took me a minute to figure out how to properly connect the legs to the bar, but once I did it was easy to install. Seems sturdy, but haven't put them to use yet.
They have held up to a 51lb eMTB and a fully loaded cargo carrier at speeds I shouldn't be driving at.
So far it was easy to install. The rubber tracks on top of the rack did not cover the entire length of the rack. There were two short pieces. One rack the lengths were inconsistent so not sure what that was all about. Otherwise pretty easy to put together and assemble.
These things are great! I have them on my Land Rover Discovery Sport. They hang on and don't slip around, and they're quiet! I've had roof racks, furniture, lumber, and ladders all piled up there with no worries of slipping. I'd buy another Rhino Rack product in a heartbeat. I'm using these with the black Vortex Aero crossbars. They look good and are super functional. I'm looking forward to years of [ab]use!
Just got the roof racks in the mail yesterday. Super easy to install and it looks great on our Santa Fe! Can't wait to get the kayaks on top.
Also, this is the first time I've bought from etrailer and I will be recommending them to everyone. Customer service was amazing. Thank you!
Do you have a question about this Roof Rack?
Info for this part was:
At etrailer.com we provide the best information available about the products we sell. We take the quality of our information seriously so that you can get the right part the first time. Let us know if anything is missing or if you have any questions.
Thank you! Your comment has been submitted successfully. You should be able to view your question/comment here within a few days.
Error submitting comment. Please try again momentarily.