Roof rack project for the Subaru 

"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678) 09/21/2018 at 21:33 • Filed to: None

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Next up on my list of things to do for my STi (after getting my new tires mounted) will be mounting a roof rack on the car. For the ‘07 and prior Impreza sedan, the standard methods for mounting a roof rack on the car are pretty crap. I can either use the clip on type or try to use the factory holes as is in a pretty unsecured way. From what I have read, both of those options can pretty easily be stolen and are likely to either look stupid or require a bit of custom work.

The ideal solution that I have found thanks to some digging on the forums is a custom bracket solution that a forum user created to seamlessly work with the ‘08+ Yakima system that requires no custom drilling and will be significantly more secure. So here is a list of what I need to purchase:

Adapter brackets ($75) !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Yakima landing pad 11 ($86 for four)

Yakima skyline towers ($188 for four)

Yakima Jetstream bars ($159 for two)

Yakima SKS lock cores ($59 for four)

Yakima ski rack of some sort (TBD)

Yakima wind fairing probably (TBD)

And my instruction manual for the hard part with the brackets:

https://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2165823

I’m probably going to just start with ordering the brackets and the landing pads since everything else is just bolt on after that. I will piecemeal the other stuff and perhaps try to find some of it used or just pick out cheaper versions. The first parts will take care of the interior disassembly and represents the lowest cost portion of this project. Thankfully this stuff is all cheapest on Amazon so I can just impulse buy parts when I feel like it and have them right away.

The only pressing concern I have is whether or not this setup would conflict with the roof spoiler on my car:

But I think it should be far enough back to work. I should measure the height to see if a set of skis would have clearance issues with it as well.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 09/21/2018 at 21:41

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The factory holes work well, but the OEM bars leave a lot to be desired. 

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > TheRealBicycleBuck 09/21/2018 at 21:49

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Well yeah definitely not going to try and source OEM bars. The Yakima setup I put together seems to do the trick pretty well and makes up some quality parts. I'm hoping the rails aren't too hard to remove though because I definitely wouldn't want to run them all the time when I don't always need them. 

TheRealBicycleBuck > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 09/21/2018 at 22:14

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The stock ones come off easily enough. A cover on each tower is removed with a torx driver. In the tower is a large wing nut on top of the bolt that holds the tower to the roof.

It looks like the setup you are looking at has a nut on top of a bolt that hides behind a locking plate on the tower.

It also looks like you’ll have to keep a torx driver on hand and a rubber plug to cover the hole.

I shouldn’t be too hard to remove the rack, but it will take longer than the OEM rack.

I wonder if the extra custom adapter bracket is overkill. Seems to me that the right torx-head bolt with the right thread would screw into the OEM holes. From there you could do the same thing as suggested in the forum posts. I think I would start there and only buy the custom bracket if screwing into the OEM holes looks unstable.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > TheRealBicycleBuck 09/21/2018 at 22:20

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From what I understand the custom bracket is to avoid drilling my own holes since there aren’t really factory holes that would line up right.   I haven’t taken it apart yet myself but the other methods definitely seemed more intensive to get things to line up properly. I don't have an oem rack to start with, going from just the naked roof. 

TheRealBicycleBuck > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 09/21/2018 at 22:48

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I went and looked at the forum posts. The original post shows how to drill and tap holes in the factory mounting points to accommodate the Yakima landing pads. This is where I would start. https://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showpost.php?p=29282963&postcount=35

The process outlined in the later post shows replacing the OEM bracket with a custom milled piece to make it harder to pry the rack off the roof and provide a more “robust” mounting point.

Again, I’d start with the original post. If the results didn’t make me happy, I’d order the brackets.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 09/21/2018 at 23:35

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Here is my set up, it’s been very reliable. All Thule products. All very expensive but worth it.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > TheRealBicycleBuck 09/22/2018 at 00:03

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Thank you for this translation haha

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 09/22/2018 at 00:04

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That's the clamp on type right? Any issues with that? 

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 09/22/2018 at 00:16

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Yes clamp on, and no issues since I’ve been using it for the last 6 years. Tested to 90 mph with gear on top. The molded feet fit right in the gutters so it’s very tight.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 09/22/2018 at 00:27

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When I saw your post, I remembered looking at the same stuff back when I first bought my WRX. Mine is newer and the mounting points look a little more robust than the older design, but I was thinking I might have to make the upgrade if the bars I bought weren’t stout enough.

So far, the towers are solid, but the OEM bars flex too much for my liking. I haven’t had a reason yet to upgrade to a Yakima or Thule system, but I look forward to seeing how the system you’re buying works out!