Yakima finally worked out the roof rack

slim1817 · May 13, 2009

bolt length?

Hi Professor,
Setup looks great, I want to try the same thing. Problem is, I got some landing pad #11s, but the short M6 bolts were too long to hold them down tightly (40mm length, I think) I think if I get some 30mm bolts it should work fine. What year is your 5, though? I've got a 2009, just wondering why the regular bolts work for you, but not for me. Thanks!

professorhank · May 15, 2009

slim1817 said:
Hi Professor,
Setup looks great, I want to try the same thing. Problem is, I got some landing pad #11s, but the short M6 bolts were too long to hold them down tightly (40mm length, I think) I think if I get some 30mm bolts it should work fine. What year is your 5, though? I've got a 2009, just wondering why the regular bolts work for you, but not for me. Thanks!

Your Landing Pads came with 3 metal spacers for each side, correct? I used all 3 spacers and BOTH the 8mm convex and 6mm convex spacers per side. It's a matter of using enough spacers so that your short 6mm bolts won't bottom out. With the additional spacers, it'll still allow the Control Tower to attach above it. My Mazda5 is an 07 Grand Touring, don't know if the 09 is different.

I still haven't attempted my fairing experiment yet as I'm waiting for 1 more part via mailorder. Although now that I think about it, it *may* look a little strange moving the fairing forward. This is due mainly to the Mazda5's severely sloping front roofline and the fact that the newer style fairing is "lower profile" and not as tall as the older styles. Therefore, the fairing may have to be positioned much more vertical than expected and thus defeating the purpose of an aerodynamic profile. I'll still try it to see though...

dima_rus · May 16, 2009

I like it, but have no need for it

slim1817 · May 17, 2009

Thanks prof,

I was thinking about using all the washers and spacers, but I ended up getting some 35mm long m6 bolts from the hardware store and they seem to work great.

professorhank said:
Your Landing Pads came with 3 metal spacers for each side, correct? I used all 3 spacers and BOTH the 8mm convex and 6mm convex spacers per side. It's a matter of using enough spacers so that your short 6mm bolts won't bottom out. With the additional spacers, it'll still allow the Control Tower to attach above it. My Mazda5 is an 07 Grand Touring, don't know if the 09 is different.

I still haven't attempted my fairing experiment yet as I'm waiting for 1 more part via mailorder. Although now that I think about it, it *may* look a little strange moving the fairing forward. This is due mainly to the Mazda5's severely sloping front roofline and the fact that the newer style fairing is "lower profile" and not as tall as the older styles. Therefore, the fairing may have to be positioned much more vertical than expected and thus defeating the purpose of an aerodynamic profile. I'll still try it to see though...

glennmazda5 · May 20, 2009

i just mounted the yakima setup on my 07 touring, i just cut the bolts down so they would fit no issues or you could always buy shorter bolts
sunroof clears long trays when mounted just inside the rack mounts. will need to add some spacer to lift a tray mounted in the middle of the rack. will be carrying 3 bikes and a tandem all on yakima mounts

professorhank · May 21, 2009

glenn and slim, post some pics if possible. I'm curious to see what other setups look like especially because my attachments are the older style that's not as low profile as the newer attachments.

red headz · May 21, 2009

I agree with Professor - we need picts!

I'll be getting a similar setup this summer before our road trip, but I'd like to gain those last few millimeters of clearance for the sunroof.

glennmazda5 · May 21, 2009

will be doing the final install over this weekend will try to get some pics up next week. what I've done so far:
cut down crossbars to 52" from 58" which were way to wide.
at 52" width I have about 6" of rail beyond the mount and 48" inside the mounts. spacing for road bikes with 44cm wide bars needs to be about 13" between centerline of the wheel trays, will get 4 bikes up with only one mount/tray being placed outside the tower mount, alternate directions for the bikes.

all mounts are very old Yakima, fork mount full trays and a Yakima tandem mount that holds the bike by the front fork and uses a cradle under the boom tube, both wheel off is best as less weight to lift up onto the rack. will need to lift the center trays slightly will fabricate a hard rubber spacer to lift the trays about a half inch for sunroof clearance. just going to place the spacer between the tray and the mounts and use lightly longer carraige bolts as usual. only need that extra clearance for the rails near the centerline of the roof highest point for the sunroof when open. outer mounts clear roof as they are.

next issue is how to fabricate mounts for a fairing with all those pipes up there in the air it will be noisy. thinking of a third partial rail ahead of the front rail, aluminum tube same diameter to clip the fairing to.

just a quick word about why Yakima is your best bet. once professor did the homework on the mount from the CX7 working (thanks for that research) it is real simple all the Yakima mounts interchange and because of the round bars adjust easily to the roof line. mount is very secure and has the advantage of easily removing the mounts and bars and just leaving the landing pads in place. The mounts I have are 23 years old and came off a team car at the World Cycling Championships in CO in 1986, have used on 4 differnt cars during that time. Hard to beat that investment, paid about $100 for mounts, rails and three bike mounts.

professorhank · May 22, 2009

Absolutely agreed that Yakima is the best option for racks. Had my setup for 12 years and 5 different cars. Going non-Yakima really wasn't an option.

As for my fairing/sunroof experiment, maybe glenn can try this as my 52" tray is taking forever via mailorder and I probably won't get to it till after the long Holiday weekend. What I was planning to do is replace the 43" trays with 52" trays and use an extra set of round bar mounts to attach a 3rd bar to the underside/front of the longer trays for the fairing. Most of the older fork mount attachments have 43" trays but can be replaced with the 52" trays from the Lockjaw/Raptor. The 3rd bar would be cut to an appropriate length and the fairing would then rest in front of the sunroof and allow for full sunroof functionality.

For people with enough Yakima spare parts, you can get by with this solution pretty cheap. With the popularity of carbon frames, there are plenty of old Lockjaw/Raptors floating around the used market.

QUESTION: Maybe this was discussed in previous posts, how exactly is the weight capacity of the OEM roof rack calculated? The OEM rack is rated at 100 lbs or 165 lbs depending on which website you go to. Is this weight capacity pertaining to the rack (in which case we really can't compare because we're discussing Yakima Control Towers, not the OEM) or pertaining to the 4 fixpoints embedded in the roof. If it's the fixpoints then a 100 lb capacity is cause for some concern. 4 bikes and their attachments get you pretty close to 100 lbs.

red headz · May 22, 2009

professorhank said:
The OEM rack is rated at 100 lbs or 165 lbs depending on which website you go to. Is this weight capacity pertaining to the rack or pertaining to the 4 fixpoints.

I think the load ratings are for the fixpoints. Yak Racks can take quite a load. The same setup on a different car has different load ratings - meaning the rack is strong enough - it's the connection to the car that can be weak.

That said, I'm not worried about the load rating, rather the shear or lift off force needed to yank out those bolts from the roof. With bikes, skis and a Rocketbox - it's quite a bit of wind resistance for me.

mazdaspeedster3 · May 22, 2009

Thule FTW. I am in the same boat as many, have had Thule for so long and with all the spare parts doesnt pay to change brands. The only thing I have noticed with Yakima is they sit lower on the car. That can help with wind resistence but not with opening the sun roof with any kind of bike holder with wheel tray.

I dont worry about the racks rain gutter mount with one or two bikes on and certainly not with a box. When I get more than 2 bikes I start to worry about highway speeds and turning but everything seems to be fine so far.

slim1817 · May 23, 2009

I'll post pics as soon as I get the control towers (coming in the mail). No sunroof on mine, so the clearance won't be an issue.

glennmazda5 · May 25, 2009

photo of Yakima mounted with Landing pads on 2007 Mazda 5

used a small rubber spacer, cut from a hockey puck, to lift the back end only of the two full length trays that are centered over the sun roof. Spacers are about 3/4 inch but compress somewhat when you tighten down the bolt that holds the clip to the crossbar.

plenty of clearance with this setup between the back trailing edge of the sunroof, in the open position and the underside of the tray. as mentioned earlier the trays that are mounted to the ouside edge are not an issue for clearance.

as for mounting a fairing, still working on that but as you can see from the picture you can run the old style fairing mounts off the ends of the trays. will just use short bolts slid into the underside slot of the tray to secure them. have two trays positioned with rear of bike facing front of the rack so can easily use those 2 points then will attach 3rd fairing mount to the front end of the tandem mount. fairing needs to measure about 9 inches high to fill gap between the roofline, which drop off towards the windshield and the underside of the mounts. should eliminate just about all the wind noise. will use small rubber balls sliced part way thru and glued to the bottom edge of the fairing to protect the paint. the ends of the fairing line up with the black roof molding so less of an issue there.

still have a bit of room on the crossbars to mount some front wheel holder forks. problem being they are hard to manuever the bikes around when you are loading up. still have some of the old plastic wing nuts to tighten forks in place so can lower and raise them as needed.

lots of bikes up but overall weight of 3 bikes and a tandem is only about 100 pounds.
just watch for length of hardware on clips attached to front crossbar as sunroof moves up before it slides back also placement of pedals on the bikes as low pedal will contact the roof while driving. i use small bungees to keep everything in the right location.

hope that helps explain how i pieced this all together

Glenn

professorhank · May 26, 2009

Nice setup, glenn.

As for my fairing experiment, see attached pics. The most important thing is this setup still gives me full sunroof operation without using any additional custom-made spacers. I swapped 43" trays for 52" and attached a cut 3rd bar to the underside/front of the trays. The fairing is nearly vertical which is just as I suspected and the wind noise is still present. I think my fairing is designed for the newer "low profile" setups and unfortunately the top of my older style trays are about 4" above the top of the fairing. I'll continue to use the pictured setup for awhile before I add a 3rd attachment which'll probably be a Boa facing backwards and down the middle. And there's plenty of room outside the towers for front wheel mounts.

timur · Jul 13, 2009

Hi everyone. I know this thread is old, but I've been doing research on roof racks for my Mazda 5, and I'm still confused. People here talk about Yakima racks that connect to the four holes in the roof, but when I go to the Yakima web site and use their "fit my car" feature, the only option are Q Towers that connect to the door frame, and presumably compress the rubber seal. I definitely don't want something like that.

I like the Yakima because I want to mount a gear box and a ski rack. Is it possible to use a Yakima gear box and ski rack with the Mazda OEM rack?

mazdaspeedster3 · Jul 13, 2009

I use Thule racks only and have a great set up on both my 3 and my 5 mounted to the OEM mounting holes in the roof of the 5.

glennmazda5 · Jul 29, 2009

timur

read thru the posts and you'll see that a few of us are using a not recommended Yakima mount kit from a CX-7 model. they attach directly to the mounting ports already built into the roof of your 5.
research was done by professor and I took his lead

the mounts work fine have been running them all summer with bikes and even a tandem up on the roof.

Glennmazda5

Fidrats5 · Sep 7, 2009

professorhank said:
Absolutely agreed that Yakima is the best option for racks. Had my setup for 12 years and 5 different cars. Going non-Yakima really wasn't an option.

Yay! I have had Yakima for 20+ years on 4 cars and one truck with a shell! I am trying to stay with Yak, so this thread has been most helpful!
Cheers,

Mike

mazdaspeedster3 · Sep 7, 2009

professorhank said:
Nice setup, glenn.

As for my fairing experiment, see attached pics. The most important thing is this setup still gives me full sunroof operation without using any additional custom-made spacers. I swapped 43" trays for 52" and attached a cut 3rd bar to the underside/front of the trays. The fairing is nearly vertical which is just as I suspected and the wind noise is still present. I think my fairing is designed for the newer "low profile" setups and unfortunately the top of my older style trays are about 4" above the top of the fairing. I'll continue to use the pictured setup for awhile before I add a 3rd attachment which'll probably be a Boa facing backwards and down the middle. And there's plenty of room outside the towers for front wheel mounts.

looks awesome but that wind fairing looks awfully steep like that. Get any chatter out of it in traffic?

professorhank · Sep 22, 2009

mazdaspeedster3 said:
looks awesome but that wind fairing looks awfully steep like that. Get any chatter out of it in traffic?

My rack's been off for over 2 months and I've been transporting my bikes inside. I recollect that yes, the sides of the fairing seems to flutter and chatter above about 45mph and the wind noise in general wasn't cut that much. I haven't noticed any paint rub marks where the fairing rests so that's a positive. I never used to use a fairing on my previous cars but I do think the fairing adds a sportier look to the rack. In addition, it's a great place to put stickers without marking up your back bumper or window.

Yakima finally worked out the roof rack

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