[MichaelWatkins]

Hi all,


New here as I have just purchased a 2017 Subaru Outback 2.5i Premium.


Absolutely love and have just taken it away for the first camping trip down to Coffin Bay in SA.


Although I do want to be able to strap my friends and I swags to the roof to leave more room for our other gear. However at the moment the stock roof racks are too wide and when strapped in the swags sit on the roof - which is undesirable.


I am looking into those roof racks baskets/roof trays to strap the swags to + other gear into the future.


Anyone have any experience or advice on this?


Has anyone put on custom roof racks (e.g. Thule) which may be more suited to fit a basket/roof tray on to?


Thanks in advance. Apologies if covered previously, as you can tell by my recent purchase I am new here.


Cheers,
Michael

 

[Brad7970]

I'm looking at going for the Yakima Megawarrior - looks wicked and seems pretty robust and has a simple load bar arrangement to let you carry bikes etc if that's your thing.


:grin2:

 

[Lightingguy]

Hi all,

I am looking into those roof racks baskets/roof trays to strap the swags to + other gear into the future.

Anyone have any experience or advice on this?

Has anyone put on custom roof racks (e.g. Thule) which may be more suited to fit a basket/roof tray on to?

Thanks in advance. Apologies if covered previously, as you can tell by my recent purchase I am new here.

Cheers,
Michael

Welcome to the forum Michael.

Option 1, get a basket that will readily adapt to the factory cross bars. That’s the cheapest and easiest. The factory bars are reasonably robust for loads. Only complaint is the curve to the bars isn’t great if using bike trays that hold just the fork and rear wheel, as there’s an outward lean that puts stress on the fork quick release. A basket or watercraft work fine on factory bars though. If using the newer style bike racks that clamp the wheels, there’s still a lean to the bike, but no stress on the mechanism

Option 2 is a set of aftermarket bars. The difficulty is the Subaru factory roof rails (front to rear) suck for using aftermarket cross bars. The Thule models have adapters that clamp to the stored factory bars with a 24” (61cm) front to rear spread. The Yakima system replaces the factory bars with mounts that use the holes and mounting points of the factory bars and have a 30 inch (76cm) spread. This is the Landing Pad 15 with Skyline Tower system. It’s far superior to the Thule system. Once installed the Landing Pads stay on the car with the towers and cross bars easily removable as needed. Then you use any Yakima cross bar you desire, round or aero. The bars are level thus anybody’s bike trays can fit and the bikes don’t lean to the outside. Note that the towers place the bars about 4 inches (10cm) or so above the height of the factory bars, so the load sits higher.

The attached photos show the Landing Pad with no tower and cross bar, just the plastic cover, 2nd photo shows a set of the Yak Core Bars with Thule Circuit bike trays.

Not sure what parts from Yak are available in AU.

 

[MichaelWatkins]

I'm looking at going for the Yakima Megawarrior - looks wicked and seems pretty robust and has a simple load bar arrangement to let you carry bikes etc if that's your thing.


Thanks mate. Are they easy enough to put on and replace the stock roof racks to your Outback? or is this something to be done at a local shop?


cheers
michael

 

[MichaelWatkins]

Welcome to the forum Michael.

Option 1, get a basket that will readily adapt to the factory cross bars. That’s the cheapest and easiest. The factory bars are reasonably robust for loads. Only complaint is the curve to the bars isn’t great if using bike trays that hold just the fork and rear wheel, as there’s an outward lean that puts stress on the fork quick release. A basket or watercraft work fine on factory bars though. If using the newer style bike racks that clamp the wheels, there’s still a lean to the bike, but no stress on the mechanism

Option 2 is a set of aftermarket bars. The difficulty is the Subaru factory roof rails (front to rear) suck for using aftermarket cross bars. The Thule models have adapters that clamp to the stored factory bars with a 24” (61cm) front to rear spread. The Yakima system replaces the factory bars with mounts that use the holes and mounting points of the factory bars and have a 30 inch (76cm) spread. This is the Landing Pad 15 with Skyline Tower system. It’s far superior to the Thule system. Once installed the Landing Pads stay on the car with the towers and cross bars easily removable as needed. Then you use any Yakima cross bar you desire, round or aero. The bars are level thus anybody’s bike trays can fit and the bikes don’t lean to the outside. Note that the towers place the bars about 4 inches (10cm) or so above the height of the factory bars, so the load sits higher.

The attached photos show the Landing Pad with no tower and cross bar, just the plastic cover, 2nd photo shows a set of the Yak Core Bars with Thule Circuit bike trays.

Not sure what parts from Yak are available in AU.

Cheers for your reply.


Any recommendations on baskets that will appropriately fit the stock bars? I suppose being in the US you may not have much knowledge of what is available here in AUS.


Thanks for the other recommendation also, I may just look into custom roof racks (Thule or Yak [pretty sure you can find them in AUS? ill research further]).


Is replacing the stock with custom/third party roof racks a job I could do by myself? or would a shop have to do it for me?


thanks in advance,


cheers
Michael

 

[Lightingguy]

If adding after market bars,

Thule has a clamping system that uses the factory cross bars while in their stored position, thus no modifications needed except to clamp the Thule kit and towers to the factory cross bars, then install the Thule cross bars and any accessories.

The Yakima Landing Pad 15 with Skyline towers has the factory crossbars removed and uses the mounting holes and locations for the Yak parts. This is a really easy do-it-yourself as you use the provided tools to unscrew the Torx screws for the factory rack, then install the Landing Pads with new provided Torx screws, thouch one of the pads uses an expansion system in one location. It's about a 15 minute job, only special tool is a step stool to access the rack

BIG NOTE that one major change to adding an after market cross bars is you gain additional width. Crossbar width of factory is 39 inches/99cm, with an after market you can go to 50"/ 127cm or more, so gain additional space on the roof for other items.

And I've no idea unfortunately as to what baskets are available in Australia, nor what Thule or Yakima gear is available. Should be easy to find this stuff though as it's used extensively on outback trips (no pun intended)

 

[karlbonator]

Yakima load warrior

I just joined and this was the first forum I saw and wanted to post on even though this was from a while ago.

I got a Yakima load warrior off gum tree for a bargain as it came without the wind deflector.
I have put it on my '16 Outback and I love it. These are to ones commonly see on the LPadventure builds from the US.

The load warrior is the smaller size of roof rack from Yakima and I think its the perfect width and style to suit the look of the vehicle. It also has an extension that can be purchased to make it longer and this would also fit the outback.

Prorack is the distributor of the Yakima range in Australia and they also manufacture the same identical product under their own name the prorack voyager and you can purchase additional accessory parts from one of the many prorack retailers.

It takes me less than 5 minutes to install and was already perfectly set to the roof bar widths on the outback.

I can hand tighten the bolts using the special plastic bolt head handle thingys and if you want you can purchase a security locking version of these for anti-theft purposes.

without the wind deflector it howled so I have a temporary board there until I can purchase one or cut my own.

photos of my setup attached.