Excessively long story from vacation:



So the whole family took a vacation to the Outer Banks a few weeks ago. This trip has been in planning mode for about 3 or 4 months, and we were pumped. So in planning and packing my wife and I began to wonder, just how we were going to get our newest hobby down to NC. My wife and I have taken up cycling, and have been hitting it pretty hard. So we didn’t want to lose a week of biking, and we were sure there would be some great places down there to do so. So after trying a rear mount rack on the xB and seeing that was insufficient, we decided to fork out the bucks for the roof rack. So me and my buddy Joe installed an aftermarket luggage rack to the box. And for that we put on a Thule 2 bike rack. Looked sharp and was installed incredible well. The racks were on for about 2 weeks prior to the trip and I did a lot of traveling with the Bikes on the roof to make sure everything was fine. It was and I felt comfortable bring them down to the beach.

So the time comes for us to leave 5:00am on a Saturday morning. We're off to a good start, making good time, stop, fill up the tanks, and keep going. So we're somewhere on 95 in Virginia when my phone rings. My father is in the car in front of me, he calls me and says: “you need to get off the road immediately." So I immediately pull off and find that the front support bar on the roof rack had slipped out of the track and the corner was resting of the roof of the car. So I had to fix this with my back to the left lane traffic on the side of 95. Not fun at all. Finally got it back in and sturdy, checked all the other connections and after letting my heart rate come back down I hopped back in and we got back on the road, Crisis averted.

Or so I thought

So another 20 miles rolls by and we hear a loud crack and a bang on the roof. I pull off to the right side of the road and hop out, traffic from 95 whizzing past me doing 70.I head over to the passenger side of the vehicle and find the rear crossbar support broken off and resting on the roof of my car. A large piece of steel holding the cross member on had sheared in half and was now completely useless. So here I am on 95, 200 miles from home, with a broken roof rack with replacement parts that can only be ordered online. Sounds fun eh? So I decided I was going to need to get this thing off my roof and supported to get off 95 and hopefully find a bike shop. Think George think, what can you use to pro up 45 lbs of bikes and roof rack. I look through the xB packed till bursting and am at a loss. My wife finds a roll of electrical tape. That’s a start. I need something long and sturdy to act as a new cross bar. And that’s when all of my TV watching during the mid 90's paid off. Grabbing the putter from my golf bag, I MacGyvered up a solution with a golf club, electrical tape, cardboard and bungee cable. It was brilliant if I do say so myself. A shining moment for ingenuity.

So we headed back out on the road in search of a Bike shop. After much conversation with a local boat retailer they were able to tell me where to go. We had about a half hour till the shop opened so we waited around and then went in. My hope was to be able to find that this shop sold Thule accessories and I could easily get the parts I needed. No luck, Yakima was all they had. After much toil we found a solution. One problem, neither I nor the bike shop had the Secure Torx tool needed to remove the locking bolts from the rack. So off to an auto parts store, home depot and Lowe’s till we found something that would work. $200 later I had a new set of grabbers a load bars. And hour later they were installed on my car and we were back on the road....4 and half hours from the initial breakage of the rack. Fun times. Fun times. So we arrived in NC about 5 hours late due to now hitting the traffic that we left early to avoid. The new rack however is much better and a lot nicer and sturdier so that’s a plus and we had no troubles with it on for the rest of the trip. Thankfully, no one was hurt in the whole ordeal.

So where do we go from there? Well, I have a large amount of damage to my roof, a two week old roof rack with broken parts, 5 hours of my vacation time lost, and I'm out $200 for the replacement parts I needed. Time to call the manufacturer. I explained the story to Manager over there. It is clear that I didn't over load the rack and that this was a manufacture's issue. He somewhat agreed, but told me I didn't tighten them enough, which was bogus because i tightened them every time we stopped. They offered to replace the broken parts and pay the repairs on my roof. I don't want the crossbars on my box anymore,because i don't trust them and the new Yakima bars are incredibly strong. So I've asked for a refund. Still waiting for a response.
Here are some pics of the broken partsorry for the large size, they are uh, enlarged to show detail)





The unbroken side for comparison

Full view of the rack on the car, not bad looking if I say so myself.


Thanks for taking the time to read this. I need to dig th pic of the putter out of my phone, i'll post it when i get it.

 

what roof rack did u have to start with?... bc i was looking at the Yakima roof rack for myself...did u use the Yakima to replace the crapier ones? did u have another brand on there

 

He installed the aftermarket rails that mount fore and aft. An adjustable cross bar bridges the two rails. Almost every minivan in the world has this type. His solution (the best I might add) was to buy the thule crossbars that attatch to the rails. Just glad no one was hurt. Bikes bouncing on the interstate can be hazardous. Hope the Outer Banks were nice..

 

Sorry, yakima, not thule

 

so if i bought the yakima rack somewhere other then the dealership even though they have it (just bc i know other places where it is cheaper... but then again doesn't everyone?). i should be fine bc the WHOLE rack is yakima... true?

 

You would be fine with Thule, Yakima, or Saris. Just dont' put the cheap crap on .

 

As an update: The company has agreed to refund the purchase cost of the roof rack crossbars because I do not want them on my car again. So it seems like this is all working out well so far.

 

i wish everyplace was accomodating like they r....