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835 Posts
** New pics from this past Memorial Weekend trip!**
Some friends came up from Charleston SC to celebrate my buddy's 27th birthday. He wanted me to take them on an excursion so we went to Fontana Lake for some kayak camping. Here's a few pics my wife took while I was loading the four boats. (14ft Peception with rudder, 12ft Perception with drop skeg, 11ft Perception tandem, and a 13ft Riot with drop skeg.)
The Yakima load bars don't stick out past the fenders and allow 4 yaks to squeeeeeze on top. Used Yakima stackers for the middle 2 boats and J-cradles for the sides.
..
This side shot shows how the PRG shackles keep the rear from bottoming out with all the weight on top, plus my 195 pounds on the back bumper...just put them on the day before!
The rack is holding up great. The four boats totaled around 210 pounds on the roof along with some floation vest in the loadwarrior. Even at sustained speeds of 65mph and up to 75mph at times the WAV felt very solid with NO movement of the boats up top.
ORIGINAL POST
This is my fifth Nissan and second Xterra and I gotta say... I love this WAV! (Woodland Attack Vehicle)
I like being able to carry a lot of things on the roof: mt. bikes, kayaks, coolers, camping gear, etc. I've had my yakima loadwarrior for several years now, but sometimes it's just not wide enough for what I need to carry.
After buying a set of yakima crossbars I had to "ghetto rig" a way have them on the roof WITH the loadwarrior. (You can see that old setup in my sig picture) That way worked but again was kinda ghetto as it involved clamping the round crossbars with the tabs made for attaching accessories like a wind fairing. I didn't want to spend over $200 on the towers, plus that would jack the whole up too high.
So I bought a 1 1/4" wholesaw to cut through the oem xterra bars to mount the yakima crossbars straight through. I drilled the center of the front holes 3" behind the mounts (this gives enough room for the wet storage handle to still open). The rears drilled 1.5" in front of the mounts. I used a speed saw with a grinding drum to finish the edges of the holes a bit.
To line the holes I used automotive door edge trim. This is fairly heavy duty stuff and has an adhesive strip down the center. It protects the yakima bars and provides friction and well as a nearly waterproof seal. Yakima crossbars are 1 1/8" in diameter so the edge trim takes up the remaining space of the 1 1/4" hole. Black automotive silicone finishes off the waterproofing.
After installing the edge trim I passed the bars through and measured them to equal on both sides. To keep the bars from sliding sideways I installed the clamp on accessory mounts seen here. This front bar will make a great place to mount some offroad lights.
Finished product! I can mount 2 bikes, 2 kayaks with hullraisers, or a bike and a kayak on the sides. This keeps the basket open for coolers, camping and 4wheelin gear. Or I could fit 2 more bikes/kayaks on top of the loadwarrior!
This setup makes it easy to load big things like kayaks on the sides rather than toward the center. I can also take the loadwarrior off and just use the crossbars for carrying things (wide stuff like sheets of lumber).
** Went to Lake Fontana in Western North Carolina with a buddy for an overnight paddle trip. Drove an hour and a half to get there, max speed 75mph...rack has held up great. No signs of wear on trim around holes. **
Some friends came up from Charleston SC to celebrate my buddy's 27th birthday. He wanted me to take them on an excursion so we went to Fontana Lake for some kayak camping. Here's a few pics my wife took while I was loading the four boats. (14ft Peception with rudder, 12ft Perception with drop skeg, 11ft Perception tandem, and a 13ft Riot with drop skeg.)
The Yakima load bars don't stick out past the fenders and allow 4 yaks to squeeeeeze on top. Used Yakima stackers for the middle 2 boats and J-cradles for the sides.
..This side shot shows how the PRG shackles keep the rear from bottoming out with all the weight on top, plus my 195 pounds on the back bumper...just put them on the day before!
The rack is holding up great. The four boats totaled around 210 pounds on the roof along with some floation vest in the loadwarrior. Even at sustained speeds of 65mph and up to 75mph at times the WAV felt very solid with NO movement of the boats up top.
ORIGINAL POST
This is my fifth Nissan and second Xterra and I gotta say... I love this WAV! (Woodland Attack Vehicle)
I like being able to carry a lot of things on the roof: mt. bikes, kayaks, coolers, camping gear, etc. I've had my yakima loadwarrior for several years now, but sometimes it's just not wide enough for what I need to carry.
After buying a set of yakima crossbars I had to "ghetto rig" a way have them on the roof WITH the loadwarrior. (You can see that old setup in my sig picture) That way worked but again was kinda ghetto as it involved clamping the round crossbars with the tabs made for attaching accessories like a wind fairing. I didn't want to spend over $200 on the towers, plus that would jack the whole up too high.
So I bought a 1 1/4" wholesaw to cut through the oem xterra bars to mount the yakima crossbars straight through. I drilled the center of the front holes 3" behind the mounts (this gives enough room for the wet storage handle to still open). The rears drilled 1.5" in front of the mounts. I used a speed saw with a grinding drum to finish the edges of the holes a bit.
To line the holes I used automotive door edge trim. This is fairly heavy duty stuff and has an adhesive strip down the center. It protects the yakima bars and provides friction and well as a nearly waterproof seal. Yakima crossbars are 1 1/8" in diameter so the edge trim takes up the remaining space of the 1 1/4" hole. Black automotive silicone finishes off the waterproofing.
After installing the edge trim I passed the bars through and measured them to equal on both sides. To keep the bars from sliding sideways I installed the clamp on accessory mounts seen here. This front bar will make a great place to mount some offroad lights.
Finished product! I can mount 2 bikes, 2 kayaks with hullraisers, or a bike and a kayak on the sides. This keeps the basket open for coolers, camping and 4wheelin gear. Or I could fit 2 more bikes/kayaks on top of the loadwarrior!
This setup makes it easy to load big things like kayaks on the sides rather than toward the center. I can also take the loadwarrior off and just use the crossbars for carrying things (wide stuff like sheets of lumber).
** Went to Lake Fontana in Western North Carolina with a buddy for an overnight paddle trip. Drove an hour and a half to get there, max speed 75mph...rack has held up great. No signs of wear on trim around holes. **
