[AlexAlejan]

Got my Yakima crossbars and towers this weekend and installed them on sunday.

I went with the Yakima Rail Grab Towers and 48in round bars. Simple installation, maybe around 20mins or so. The towers do come with three different sized claws- I found t that the medium ones fit the Crosstrek factory rails the best. I'm happy with the 48in crossbars also- they leave about two inches on either side sticking out.

I have found that the front bar produces a good amount of wind noise. I'm going to play with positioning a little bit and slide it forward and backwards to see if I can improve this.

Front View:

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Back View:

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Whole Car:

 

[Xtrekr]

Looks good! I like the flat look of those over the rounded of the OEM style.

 

[RubySu]

Beefy! 8)

 

[ifish]

That is exactly what I want!
Can you say what you had to pay for them?
Those look so much beefier than the OEM bars!
Thanks!!

 

[AlexAlejan]

That is exactly what I want!
Can you say what you had to pay for them?
Those look so much beefier than the OEM bars!
Thanks!!

The towers were 140, the crossbars 90, so msrp is around 250 after tax. I had an rei rebate and used a 20% one item coupon they have going on now to get it down to 200.

Without coupons i found backcountry.com to have the lowest prices (around 220 to 230 iirc)

 

[ifish]

Thanks, sounds reasonable!!
Nice photos!

 

[ClubCrosstrek]

Looks great! I was thinking I was just going to go for OEM bars but for only a little bit more it seems I can get these. I am a bit worried about wind noise, though.

 

[richde]

Cover the exposed parts of the crossbar with the plastic fairings (Windjammers) to cut down wind noise, it works better than the the actual big Yakima fairing.

 

[kls1891]

Alex - that's the exact setup I'm planning to do with mine. Anything you would do differently looking back? Any issue with the clearance between the sunroof and the bars? Do you have a pic from directly in front of or behind the car? Would like to see that angle.

What's your experience been with wind noise? Going with anything to address it (windjammer or fairing)?

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[AlexAlejan]

kls1891,

The clearance is fine, the towers keep the crossbars high enough that there would be no interference wherever you placed the front crossbar. I'll take more pics to show you this afternoon.

The wind noise doesn't really bother me at 40-60 (but it is present), but its significant beyond that. I haven't decided what to do about it yet, I'm first going to try and play with the position of the front bar first to see if I can reduce it at all.

I'm hoping to go Kayaking this weekend so that will be my first test of utility.

 

[richde]

Alex - that's the exact setup I'm planning to do with mine. Anything you would do differently looking back? Any issue with the clearance between the sunroof and the bars? Do you have a pic from directly in front of or behind the car? Would like to see that angle.

What's your experience been with wind noise? Going with anything to address it (windjammer or fairing)?

Thanks,
Kevin

The windjammers work better than the fairing. I used to get lots of wind noise in crosswinds until I replaced the fairing with windjammers. (I covered as much of the bar as possible with them)

 

[AlexAlejan]

I'll probably check these out the windjammers in the near future. Today at work I tried moving the back bar back as far as it would go, and the front back even with the back of the front door (about a 5in move overall). The wind noise lessened, but not as much as I would have liked.

This is what I'm experiencing so right now:

0-30 no noise
30-40 barely noticeable
40-50 noticeable
50-60 loud
60+ very loud

 

[kls1891]

Alex - with the 48 inch bars do you think there's enough room on the outside of the towers for a bike mount? I'd likely put a cargo box up top at times and need to move the bikes to the outside.

 

[The Hulls]

We recently installed the same Yakima set up on our XV, with the only difference being the bar length of our choice was 64". Alex's Tangerine displays the bars 100% better than our Dark Grey, so we didn't post any pictures. I have attached two images shot in the garage, with very poor back lighting, when I first put them on the car.

We do not drive around with them on a daily basis and we only install them when needed, so they are currently sitting in our storage room. The 64" Bars are definite head smashers, so getting in and out of the XV will require a little thought and give you a nice friendly shot to the head if you forget to watch yourself.

Now, we did shorten the bars to 61", this gave us the exact extension overhang distance to mount our Original version of the current Yakima Front Loader Bike rack. I want to say that the overhang is around 11.5" in the front and 12 3/4" in the rear, yes the roof rails have a taper to them.

For safety measures we ordered and installed the Yakima Strap Bar End Caps to reduce the likelihood of the rack "sliding" off the end of the bar. They haven't moved before, but I don't want to find out the hard way.

We also use our racks to move, so a cargo box with two bikes on top will push the limits of the rack and also our mental security. I don't see a problem running all four bikes, minus the cargo box, on the roof either. A full cargo box with two bikes mounted on the overhang extensions will add a bit of tension and stress to the drive because you can hear the rack creaking. Frequently stopping to tighten the bars, bathroom breaks are a great excuse, is always recommended with that much weight up top.

Just in case you wondered how the internals work on the Yakima setup I have included two additional images. The First is with the "Door" open. Inside are two Allen Bolts. The Gold looking bolt secures the bars to the Towers. The Black Allen Bolt actually tightens the Medium Yakima J-Hook to the inside of the Subaru Roof Rail.

Dan

 

[AlexAlejan]

Thanks for posting up your pics Hulls! I will only be using my rack to transport a single 2 person kayak so I am not in need of the additional crossbar length. To answer kls1981- I think if you wanted to do a bike mount you should definitely go for longer bars.

An update on the wind noise created by my bars- I think in retrospect that last week was exceptionally windy. Thursday and friday the noise was much less prominent, even at 70mph. I'm going to leave the bars where there are for another week and see what I think.

 

[kls1891]

Thanks Hulls - in the photo you have posted, are those with the bars cut down to 61" or are they at 64"? I'm assuming you when you reference the bike mounts, you mean you're putting them on the outside of the towers, right? The 58" bars wouldn't give you enough room to do that?

 

[Subir_roo]

I have found that the front bar produces a good amount of wind noise. I'm going to play with positioning a little bit and slide it forward and backwards to see if I can improve this.

I moved my front bar all over the place and still had quite a bit of noise. Another very easy solution is to grab some black paracord and wrap it along the bar like a candy cane. The wrapped cord breaks up the wind flow over the bar and quits it up a ton.

 

[Steve_F]

I've used Yakima for over 10 years and I found the best way to reduce the wind noise is to wrap a rope (about 5 mm) around the front bar in a spiral fashion. The spirals about 4 inches apart is OK. This changes the laminar flow of the wind and reduces the noise about 90 percent. Rope come in various colors if you want to be fancy and costs less the $5.00.

 

[The Hulls]

Yes, the overhang extension is from the outside brace of the tower to the end of the inside edge of the bar end cap. The pictures posted are the final cut down version to 61". The length of the overhang needed to fit your bike rack is dependent upon the system that you are using. Measure the bike rack mounting spread distance, the 58" bars may work for you, but for us they wouldn't.

Thanks Hulls - in the photo you have posted, are those with the bars cut down to 61" or are they at 64"? I'm assuming you when you reference the bike mounts, you mean you're putting them on the outside of the towers, right? The 58" bars wouldn't give you enough room to do that?

 

[The Hulls]

One Random Side Note: If you plan to use a Cargo Box, or anything mounted dead center of the roofline, with the Yakima Round Bar setup you will need to remove your 7" antenna or buy a shortie antenna. The antenna is way too tall and the cargo box will hit it. I will take a better picture of this next time the rack is on the XV. This dilemma will probably apply to all roof rack brands that mount to the factory Subaru Roof Rails.