Yakima finally worked out the roof rack

I recently got a used Yakima with Q-clips and I dont really care for the fit with Yakima's numbers. I made my own fitment for it and I think it works much better than what they spec. My only issue is that it holds out the back edge of the top of the rear doors by about 1/8" from flush, but I think the clips will hold out the door no matter what. If anyone wants to try it, out my numbers are:

M1 41.5"
M2 18.5" (I measured this from the point at the front of the gutter)
M3 34.125"
M4 33"

I also find that the racks are much more level and fall out closer to the stock mounting points. I just dont know if I want to keep the setup or go for a Inno/Thule/OEM style attachment.
 
twintrbo said:
I recently got a used Yakima with Q-clips and I dont really care for the fit with Yakima's numbers. I made my own fitment for it and I think it works much better than what they spec. My only issue is that it holds out the back edge of the top of the rear doors by about 1/8" from flush, but I think the clips will hold out the door no matter what. If anyone wants to try it, out my numbers are:

M1 41.5"
M2 18.5" (I measured this from the point at the front of the gutter)
M3 34.125"
M4 33"

I also find that the racks are much more level and fall out closer to the stock mounting points. I just dont know if I want to keep the setup or go for a Inno/Thule/OEM style attachment.
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I just responded in another thread about Yakima's recommended roof system for our car. If you are willing to use the Control Tower/Landing Pad system, several of us here are already using it and no one seems to have reported any ill effects. Weird thing is that about 6 months ago, I swear that Yakima revised their website to recommend the Control Tower setup but now, it shows the Q-towers.
 
Yes, Ive read about that, and I really would rather have that setup but it comes down to how often will I use it (so far....not yet) and is it worth the extra money. I can get the Inno system for under $200 shipped and Yakima has a $30 mail in rebate now so I can get the Yakima for about $230. Decisions decisions.....
 
twintrbo said:
Yes, Ive read about that, and I really would rather have that setup but it comes down to how often will I use it (so far....not yet) and is it worth the extra money. I can get the Inno system for under $200 shipped and Yakima has a $30 mail in rebate now so I can get the Yakima for about $230. Decisions decisions.....
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Where? ORSRacks is sold out of the Inno fitkits for our car. I'm scouring the net looking for a reputable place that will sell an inno rack and has them in stock!

I asked ORS about the Thule, apparently those are out too. The only ones they have currently are those $#%@ Yakima pinching Q towers.

I found a local place that wanted close to $300 for the inno rack (!!!), so if you know of some other place with the inno system at under $200 (and in stock before the summer is over), please do tell!
 
autoanything will price match, and they are no issue to deal with so you can give that a shot. FWIW I found a site with a person with an xterra that used fast track for some big items and he was pleased. Up to you of course, good luck!
 
twintrbo said:
autoanything will price match, and they are no issue to deal with so you can give that a shot. FWIW I found a site with a person with an xterra that used fast track for some big items and he was pleased. Up to you of course, good luck!
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Spoke to the guys at autoanything, and they were super helpful so I went with them.

Turns out fasttrack would have shipped sooner (get it by Aug 2, whereas AutoAnything claims that it might not even ship until then), but at least I found a lot of positive reviews for AA, and the price was about the same after a 10% discount advertised on their site (coupon code:ACTNOW).

Total: $195.26 shipped. Hopefully it will come next week, but we'll see!
 
Wow, nice! Glad I could help you get a good and timely deal. Is there any reason, other than price, that you prefer Inno over anyone else?
 
twintrbo said:
Wow, nice! Glad I could help you get a good and timely deal. Is there any reason, other than price, that you prefer Inno over anyone else?
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Availability.
Thule fitkits for our car are back ordered from the manufacturer until Aug 20th. That means NO ONE has them right now.

Yakima still recommends those awful clamp towers instead of the fixpoints.

But the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of inno... usually the "new" underdog company has to work harder to earn their reputation, so they offer more for your money. The reviews have been good, and I really have no preference.

It seems like many of the people who prefer Thule or Yakima are doing it because they already have other accessories that are made to fit the brand. As a newbie to the rack scene, I just want something functional and worth the money.
 
I think I like the Inno over the Yakima for the square bars, I just feel they are stronger than round. The fact that its the cheapest is just a bonus. I got the Clamp tower Yakima not understanding that they were clamps. I knew the car had integral mounting points and never suspected there would be a mount any other way! I think I will try to sell my rack for what I paid and then just buy a new Inno. Its not that its not functional and I dont think it would harm the car, but its like having a Aux input and using an FM modulator.
 
Other Inno benefits:
- The square bars are (apparently) the same dimension as Thule so you've got a larger number of possible accessories to choose from.
- I don't have proof on this but I'm pretty sure the Inno is the lowest profile rack of the three mentioned.
- You can get it in Silver!!! (If it's in stock that is...)
 
Tsuru said:
Other Inno benefits:
- The square bars are (apparently) the same dimension as Thule so you've got a larger number of possible accessories to choose from.
- I don't have proof on this but I'm pretty sure the Inno is the lowest profile rack of the three mentioned.
- You can get it in Silver!!! (If it's in stock that is...)
Click to expand...

LOL- my car is black so I ordered a black one anyway... but the low profile part actually worries me a bit: I have a moonroof. I know the OEM Mazda rack is a bit higher than the Thule counterpart. If the Inno is even shorter, well... I might just be using the sunroof as a window then. :)
 
Experience with Yakima Control Towers on road trip

A couple of weeks ago I went on 1,400 mile trip with the Yakima rack and #11 control towers as discussed on this thread. After reading other users experience with the control towers, I decided to go that route. I already had the Yakima 54" bars, ankle biter bike trays and locks from previous cars so I didn't want to switch to something else if I didn't have to.

Everything worked out great. I could open my sun roof like normal; however, I did have increase wind noise with it open at speed, even with opening it just a small amount (right sunroof button) so I left it closed at highway speeds. There wasn't any increase in noise then. I don't have a fairing but I do have one Yakima windjammer on the front bar in the center. I didn't test the for wind noise without it, though, so I don't know if it would have been nosier without it.

Also, as discussed I got the 35mm bolts for the control towers. The 30mm and 40mm that come with the towers are too short and long, respectively. I could not find them at Home Depot nor Lowe's so I went to a specialty fasteners store, Tacoma Screw.

I did have some trouble with the plastic covers for the roof holes. Broke off the little plastic tabs. I am going to get some more but it seems that Mazda should have made them more durable. I put them back on and they seem to be find, just don't fit as tight.

Thanks for all the discussion on this; it really helped.
 
Peloton said:

"I did have some trouble with the plastic covers for the roof holes. Broke off the little plastic tabs. I am going to get some more but it seems that Mazda should have made them more durable. I put them back on and they seem to be find, just don't fit as tight."

I've decided to just leave my control towers on for the duration.

As for needing 35mm bolts, a hacksaw works great for making the 30mm ones into 35mm ones...no, wait...the hacksaw makes the 40's into 35...jeeze, no wonder they didn't fit (braindead
 
Just out of curiosity, has anybody asked Yakima why they don't recommend Control Towers for the 5? I'm going to email their customer service people, but I was just wondering if anyone had taken the direct route.

Edit: here's the email I sent. We'll see if I get back anything other than "we don't recommend that, so you shouldn't do that."

Good morning,

I am looking to move my existing Yakima bike carriers over to my new 2010 Mazda5. I see you have a fit for the Q-towers, but I'm wondering if Yakima ever tried fitting Control Towers on this vehicle.

A number of users on a Mazda forum I frequent have used the control towers with the #11 landing pads quite successfully, despite Yakima not recommending that fit.

Is there a reason Mazda doesn't recommend this fit, or was it just never tried?

Thanks,
Click to expand...
 
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Response! Yakima got back to me:

It is counter intuitive to our business model for us not to fit vehicles. We actually did try to fit this vehicle. It worked.. Until some people on our fit team realized that when they tightened the landing pad 11 down to the mounting points, It pulled the sheet metal on the roof up to meet the LP. This is not good. Not only from a damage to the vehicle standpoint, but also from a safety standpoint.

It will fit as you have seen. But it is not recommended and is definitely not under warranty. Thule and a few other companies have fit this because their "Landing Pads" are smaller than ours.

Sorry for the inconvenience.
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Anyone seen any "pulling up" of the sheet metal? Was this maybe a result of the bolts being too long? As in, it actually hit the metal behind the fix points and pushed up? I'll ask them, too, see if I get anything back.

My message back to them:

Thanks so much for the quick and surprisingly informative response! The Mazda5 owners that have made this work found that they needed to use a 35mm bolt, rather than the 30 or 40mm ones that come with the landing pads. Was the "pulling up" of the sheet metal your team found possibly caused by overlong bolts pushing up on the roof's fix points after hitting the roof below?
I know you all at Yakima do this for a living, and I imagine you've covered all the possibilities, but it seems to be working for users "in the field" so I'm a bit confused at the disparity between your findings and theirs.

Again, thanks for taking the time to answer my annoying questions!
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...and their response. I don't guess I'll be getting any more replies on this one, but you never know:

I forwarded your comments to the fit team...I'm actually just as curious as you. We are pretty black and white when it comes to fitting vehicles. Thanks for you input. You never know, check back in a month. The fit may have changed.
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"Foolish":

Did you read all the posts in this thread (or at least just post #75)?

Seems there have been members using the #11 landing pads for several years with no problems, and surely less problems than a few who did try the Q-Towers early on.

Way back in either this thread or another one (there's at least one other roof rack thread on the M5 forum), somebody got the idea to use the #11 landing pads since they are recommended for the Mazda3, which other users discovered use the same mounting system.

The bolts did have to be somewhat shorter than 40mm, some users recommended using all the flat washers as spacers, or cutting the bolts down, or just buying shorter ones.

The only problem I discovered is, if you overtighten the bolts (with out bottomng them out), that the landing pad will distort just enough to make getting the control tower into them a tight fit. So you have to get them tight enough to be quiet secure, but not so tight as to make fitting the landing pad into it impossible.

Look back at a number of previous posts...there's pictures of bikes and 'rocket boxes' on the roof racks using the landing pads and control towers, and I don't remember a post where anybody said they had any problems with that system.
 
I'm not really sure of the mechanics of it all but it seems a simple spacer would fix the problem. If the bolt pulls the sheet metal up to meet the landing pad, the right size spacer should stop that from happening. I think the main problem is there should be a torque spec on it. This isn't a FWD axle nut, it shouldn't go to 150 ft/lbs, I bet 20 ft/lbs would do it and thats not that much. Most people tend to make it as tight as possible, not as tight as it needs to be. 1/8 turn more once it bottoms out is plenty.

edit: The INNO paperwork specs out 3 ft/lbs so people just need to be aware of how little that is.
 
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