Yakima Roof Rack Initial Thoughts

"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678) 11/19/2018 at 14:14 • Filed to: None

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The Impreza sedan does not come from the factory with roof rails and the ‘06 STi does not have a passthrough or 60/40 split rear seat (‘07 added a passthrough). So without doing anything custom, you are pretty stuck when it comes to transporting skiis. After much consideration about how to transport skiis with my Subaru, I finally setlled on a Yakima roof rack system.  

First bit of install was the most difficult part due to the aforementioned lack of factory roof rails on the Sedan (part of why I wanted an unobtainium wagon). I followed some guides I found online of drilling and tapping my own holes into the roof. There are little brackets in the rain rail (underneath the black strips on the roof) but the already drilled holes do not line up with each other nor are they tapped for any particular screw. Once I removed the rain rail covers, it was pretty simple to just measure things and drill new holes. However, I learned some lessons in using a tap and that it required some effort to align things properly. After cross threading 2 bolts and having to re-drill and re-tap in larger sizes, I have learned those lessons the hard way! The semi-permanent landing pads were then an easy bolt in (with various sized bolts and bolt heads, none of which hardware came with the ‘08 impreza landing pads I had to use ) . In order to remove the pads I would have to find a way to plug the rain rail covers or replace the covers entirely. But either way, that part was done!

The next part was pretty easy as it was just a shopping spree followed by a bunch of simple assembly and mounting to the car. I had bought the Skyline Towers, 50" JetStream bars, and the Freshtrack4 ski rack. After unboxing, I just put everything together in my living room before fitting it to the car.

All I had to do for the install onto the car was pop off the covers on the landing pads, align the skyline towers to get the lengths right, and then install the SKS locks to secure it all in place. And when I get home from a ski trip, its a simple unlock and remove for the whole system, leaving just the landing pads in place.

For security, t he SKS locks holding the towers/bars to the pads seem pretty secure to me. The only way to wrangle those off would be to somehow rip the bolts out from the car (maybe with a really big pry bar and a lot of force ?) or power tools to drill out the locks. This could be solved with more secure mounts but that would be a much more custom install. The ski racks also have SKS locks but the whole rack itself is mounted to the bars with a screw clamp only secured by a security allen screw. Any bozo can go to home depot and buy a security allen key set. So idk how secure I feel that is. It is definitely enough deter the casual thief which is good enough for now. Something to look into though if I ever get nice skiis that would be a real detriment to lose.

Overall, I like how easy everything was to install and the rack is perfect for 2-3 sets of skiis or 2 skis and a snowboard. Sure it is rated to fit 4 sets of skiis or 2 snowboards but damn would that be difficult and a tight fit for anything bigger than racing skiis. I also like that I have room to mount something else on the roof, like a bike or a small enclosed case, so I have some room for improvement. Either way, it sure beats removing the back seat and clogging up the whole interior with my skiis.

random001 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 11/19/2018 at 14:21

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What did you do to my car!?

Tripper > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 11/19/2018 at 14:36

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Looks great, but Subarus almost always look great with a rack.

tromoly > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 11/19/2018 at 15:18

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Why did you bolt them on? BaseLine towers with 173 clips front and rear would have given you an easy, no-drill/tap installation with easy measurements from their fitment site.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 11/19/2018 at 15:18

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Wow, what? The lack of a passthru or folding rear seat is stupid...I had an ‘02 Impreza (albeit a wagon) and it had split folding rear seats and your car is basically the same underneath as mine was with a slightly different interior and fascia....how hard would it have been for them to do some folding rear seats for it? 0_o

Gerry197 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 11/19/2018 at 15:20

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Sedans with racks can do almost anything. My E46 has a rack system, which doesn’t touch the body in any way.

Of course road noise was high until I installed an aero fairing, then it was just a little bit audible.  Of course fuel economy dropped, but still worth it overall.  

functionoverfashion > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 11/19/2018 at 15:32

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Are you leaving the skis on the car at home? I wouldn’t think ski theft from a locked rack system would be a real issue at a ski area. There are thousands of skis just lying around at the base lodge if you really want to steal some. Unless you’re street parking regularly with the skis on your car, I wouldn’t worry that much about security.

My rack system is held to my factory rails with... nylock hex nuts. Literally anyone with a 7/16 open end, ratchet, adjustable, or freaking pliers really... could undo my rack and have the whole setup. I have to believe most people will leave roof racks alone.

It’s funny, with surfboards, there’s just kind of an unspoken code that you don’t steal surfboards off a roof, because there’s generally no way to lock them. 

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > functionoverfashion 11/19/2018 at 16:21

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Well yeah I agree, that is why I am not super concerned. I still wouldnt leave my skiis out at home, just because my building has had break-ins in the garage. But yeah overnight at the mountain is the only time I am actually concerned. Even then, its fairly unlikely depending on the mountain. As long as I lock it, I feel pretty good about it though. I care more about the rack itself than the skiis anyways. That costs more lol. 

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 11/19/2018 at 16:24

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The dumber part is I think the regular impreza and wrx actually had the 60/40 split as well. Maybe because of the special blue seats they decided to not design them the same? In ‘07 they added the passthru so I guess my year just was the red headed step child!

It is probably the same on the ‘04, ‘05, and ‘06 STi but I havent looked into it.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > tromoly 11/19/2018 at 16:26

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Because the clips look like garbage and are not secure at all. Plus with the frameless windows, it would just fit weird or worry me about breaking/scratching the glass and adding more wind noise. I wanted a clean bolt on install like the newer cars get. I think this actually looks decent and not like a tacky add on. 

Nick Has an Exocet > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 11/19/2018 at 16:26

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Did you consider swapping the rear seats? Not sure how hard that would be though. I imagine there is some reinforcement back there that made a split silly, but I would have thought that you could get a ski through it.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Gerry197 11/19/2018 at 16:30

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I was concerned about my fuel economy since I had observed about 20-21 mpg on the way up to the mountain (didnt get a full tank since I paid cash so I couldnt calculate it exactly). But on the way back I just calculated it out to 23.5 which is close to my standard highway mileage . So I don’t think its making a huge impact on that.

Road noise is definitely there if I am riding without any music playing, but it’s not bad otherwise. I’d still like to get a fairing just because I am sure it would cut down on the little bit of noise I get now. 

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Nick Has an Exocet 11/19/2018 at 16:33

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Yup, I was actually looking at buying a regular impreza back seat and putting it in. That would have solved the issue and even with the reinforcements in the way, skiis would fit without too much issue. It would have still be inconvenient just because it ties up the trunk space. Most of the time that wouldnt be a problem but for my 3 week trip coming up I definitely want the space for stuff. I still might do that as well just to have more funcionality out of the car anyways.

Gerry197 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 11/19/2018 at 17:20

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The fairing is what will cause the biggest drop in mpg. Everyone thinks it will help clean up aero and should improve mpg, but the fairings only really only for noise reduction, it will actually cause a drag .

Once you install a fairing, you will see an mpg drop, I would say about 1.5 or so. But the noise suppression is worth it.

tromoly > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 11/19/2018 at 17:25

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Clips go between the roof and weatherstripping, they don’t get near the glass . Aesthetics is a non-issue, you can remove the rack entirely in under five minutes.

The BaseLine system is plenty secure, I’ve hauled loads much heavier than your skis with zero issues as that’s what the system is designed for. One such load was when I hauled my kart home several months ago on the roof, found out on that trip that the kart’s bumper and fairing almost eliminated wind noise as well.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > tromoly 11/19/2018 at 17:57

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It is about the same cost and I think I am happier with the end result. I was concerned about the paint being rubbed by the clips as well in that area. From what you are describing, it sounds like it is definitely secure enough though. If the drilling and tapping were any more difficult, I would have wished I went that route. But it really wasn’t that bad. 

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Gerry197 11/19/2018 at 18:00

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Hmm good point, I kind of was wondering about that from a drag perspective. It is definitely not enough of a noise issue to warrant any loss in MPG. It is an STi, not a Lexus so there is already plenty enough road noise to begin with. The little bit of roof rack wind noise is very mild. I am glad I went with the jetstream bars, as I am sure the more rounded ones would have been a bigger issue. There was a rubber track cover I had to remove for installation and I have yet to cut it to size so that could help reduce noise too. 

Gerry197 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 11/19/2018 at 18:08

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That could have an effect. On my brother’s Audi Q5, it came with stock roof rack, but it would make a loud noise on the freeway.

They discovered that if you change the rubber track at the top of each rack with a redesigned one, it would remove that noise.  The rubber strips had a few lines embossed on them that would react to the air going over them, it worked amazingly well.