Yakima RailGrabs, Thule 450s, rack stability, covers etc

Hey, got OEM rails on my 09 Touring, not cross bars. They were on the car when I got it. I have to say they are the least secure rails I have ever seen on an SUV. There is a lot of play. Compared to my wife's saab for example (which also has no cross bars), it is significantly less stable. Hopefully the play will virtually disappear when I put on some good yak or thule cross bars. I carry a couple of kayaks at a time .. so that's 105 lbs on its own.

Anyway I have a lot of Yakima gear and so ideally I would like to get a yak railgrab installed. I would consider the Landing Pad 11 and control towers ( my old control towers are obsolete sadly), (thus throwing out the OEM rails)but the dealership threw away the roof hole covers when they installed the rails and I am sure that I need the middle or end covers in order to cover up whatever the yakima landing pads don't. I don't see anywhere to buy the covers.... Any ideas?

I also have a set of Thule 450s so I might try those on the OEM rails. I see alot of people say that those work great. Most of my yak gear will adjust to thule bars.

Everyone loves the montblanc gear I see. I took a look and I cannot see that yak gear will attach to that easily. Are there affordable adapters for that stuff?

Another option is that I might take off the OEM rails and reinstall just to make sure that they are on tight, but they clearly have only one screw front and back which is part of the problem. Idon't think that is it. I pulled on another cx-9's rack and it felt the same.

Funny that yakima's site configurator does not even support the railgrab on the cx-9. I will call them to find out why. Hopefully not because the oem rails are suspect. I have not seen anyone else mention it either. I will post what I find.

Cheers

Yakima only supports the Control Towers with the landing pads on the CX-9. I know for a fact the Low Riders don't work on the factory rails. I tried mine on there and no love. I have a lot of Yakima crap and I'm pissed that none of it works on my vehicle. I have to go drop $230 to buy the Control towers. So I'll have the Low Riders, Control Towers and Q Towers.... I spoke with someone at Yakima and they said they don't support anything with the factory rack because it's a dealer installed option or some crap.

I put my own rails on and didn't notice that much play, and I'm pretty picky about stuff like that. BTW, there are 3 bolts per rail, not 2.

Exactly what accessories do you have to mount? The Mont Blancs are pretty versatile since they take aero clamp on and T channel mounts.

Thanks. I did see that there are 3 bolts per rail, what I meant to say was that there is one bolt per position... iow one at the front, one at the back (plus the one near the back). If there were 2 at the front and back, I think the play would be a lot less.

Based on your comment I am definitley going to take the rack off and check all the bolts. The other cx-9 I checked the rack on was instaled by the same dealership, but to be honest, how badly can a dealership mess up the installation of a simple rack like this.

For yak stuff I have, bars, locking cores, a basket, J cradles, Mako saddles, 4 bike trays, wheel holders, a fairing and a ski rack..... plus my obsolete towers.
Not a trivial amount of gear. Most of that will take a yak round or a thule square bar (except the bike trays and the fairing).

Will the Mont Blanc take adapt to either Thule (possible) or Yakima (seems unlikley) accessories?

I am never surprised at the incompetence of dealers, so I'd take the rails off and remount them. Just be VERY careful taking the front covers off. There is a small alignment pin that will break off if you're not careful. clamp your hand over the rear end of the cover, pull the front part up and out, and then pull the entire cover FORWARD to avoid breaking that pin.

My Mont Blancs did tighten up the little bit of play that did exist.

The Mont Blanc crossbars are very similar to the Thule Aero bars (but at a fraction of the price). Thule makes the XAdapt line of kits to adapt most of their carriers to their Aero bars. They work the same with the Mont Blancs. I used the XApapt9 for my Peloton Bike trays. Perfect.
Yakima has the Mighty Mount kits that adapt their carriers to factory bars. They should work on the Aero bars as well. The Universal Mighty Mounts work with your Mako saddles, Cobra, King Cobra, Raptor, Lockjaw, HighRoller and GT bike mounts, and LiftTicket 4, LiftTicket 6, Big Powderhound SE, PowderHound SE ski mounts.(older ski mounts, too). They don't work with the fork mount bike carriers like the Viper and Steelhead, nor the Anklebiters. (Another reason I chose the Thule Peloton. Best bike carrier out there)

I have a 2009 Grand Touring that I am also setting up to haul kayaks. I ordered all this stuff after reading through other threads -a set of Mazda factory rails, a set of Mont Blanc Aero bars, Yakima Hully Rollers, Universal Mighty Mounts and Mako Aero Saddles. I can let you know how it all works out. (The factory rails showed up today but UPS did a number on them and now I have to wait for a replacement set) If you haven't already check out the thread "CX-9 roof rack (OEM)" under "CX-9 Accessories" I found a lot of good info there. I had the same experience with Yakima; they give no support for the Mazda rack or the Mont Blanc bars.