Roof Rack Recommendation for a RoofTop Tent On A 2020 Subaru Forester

Question:

I am buying a 2020 Forester with roof rails, and I will want to carry 2 solo canoes on it. Many of your racks won’t work, either because the bars are too short to take 2 canoes side-by-side, or because they appear to have a 14 foot length limit and my canoes are 15 and 16 feet. It looks like this Malone rack will work for that application, so I’m thinking about getting one. I recently noticed that it is possible to put some lightweight rooftop tents on a Forester, and that while the roof rails of the Forester are limited to 175 lbs, that is dynamic load and that limit applies to driving once the Forester is parked it is okay to put a couple of people who, put together, are going to weigh more than 175 lbs on the roof in a rooftop tent. Most rooftop tents seem to call for crossbars, and I was wondering if the 165lb limit on the Malone rack applies similarly to driving, and thus whether they would potentially work with a rooftop tent. Do you know what the Malone rack’s static weight limit is?

asked by: Cat F

Expert Reply:

If you would like to have a rooftop tent on your 2020 Subaru Forester I would use the Yakima JetStream Crossbars # Y00425 and the TimberLine Towers # Y33TR just because these two products have been used together unlike the Malone rack you were asking about. You can get longer bars if you want. Here is the 60 inch option # Y00426 and the 70 inch option # Y00427.

Then you can go ahead and grab the Yakima SkyRise HD Tent # Y07437. I've seen this exact system installed on a 2020 Subaru Forester and it looks pretty sweet!

I've included some videos for you to check out!