I have a wagon and am getting ready to pick up some cross-bars. Anybody have any input on OEM vs. other name brands? Thanks

 

the big drawback for the "factory" aero cross bars is that together they are only rated for 100 lbs of load.

The Thule and Yakima ones aren't a whole lot stronger, although you might get 140 or 160 for some of them with their own mounting towers.

 

Get the Yakima Cross bars.

They're much stronger and they are much more versatile in regards to what kind of attachments you can put on them.

 

awesome... exactly what I needed to hear. Thanks fellas!

 

here is another vote for yakima

 

the cross bars only upside over other systems are ease of use, and looks.

Besides that I highly recommend going with yakima. If you go yakima you can actually buy some of the stuff at your local dealership...the subaru stuff is retagged yakima stuff.

More flexible. Way stronger and way safer. If you look at the factory rack...if you had two guys with drills with the right heads on them you could park next to your car....unscrew the racks and have your rack system and everything on it in the back of their truck..literally in 30 seconds. That was one of the reasons I went Yakima...and I'm very happy with it.

Oh...and it hold very very well...you can look at my picture gallery. Got my snowboards on the top spinning donuts. I've had two bikes....a 35 pound hard tail and a full suspension up there at over 115 mph around corners on the highway. I don't think I'd feel safe doing that with the factory rack.

 

cool. i looked you up in the gallery but couldnt find you. i am trying to find some pics of the lowrider set-up with bike attachments.

 

I have the low riders and I'll have my bike racks on as early as next week.

Just waiting to hear from the dr. that my snowboarding season is over..that's tuesday.

I have the lowriders and two viper racks...looks clean..works perfect.

A suggestion since you haven't bought yet....talk to wrexr.
His rack set up on the wagon he just sold is pimp.....

He has two low riders. And 2 of the Qtowers. Run the q towers on the front doors and the low riders can slide up some. You get a lower profile rack system that blends in with the contours perfect and...AND you don't have to pull your bikes off the car to be able to open up your rear hatch door.

As it is now if you run a normal rack system and have the wing on that comes standard with wrx wagons....you can not open your hatch up with bikes or snowboards on the top...I have 3 scratches on my wing to prove it.

I may be going with wrexr's system next because I already have a full set of qtowers.


OH.....edit...and the photos of my car are in the thread below called....photo host help or something like that.

I'll have more up soon in the dry weather..haa.

 

If you going to get Yakima (Which I have lowrider + crossbar) you can get a better deal from www.rackwarehouse.com then your local place that sell them. They sell the low-rider + cross bar for 137.

I don't work for them, but just want fellow i-club to get a good deal.

 

whoa that is cheap. i will definitely hit that up. thanks pyro

 

Yakima is definitly good stuff. Another vote here.

 

damn! viper bike attachments are $100 per bike!! crap

 

BTW

I have an AnkleBiter Bike Mount sitting around that I'm trying to get rid of if anyone wants to buy it.

$50/obo

 

yeah they were $130 when I got mine...

but if you have disc brakes on your bike they are what you have to run. They are solid as hell ....very safe and secur.

I also have 2 copper heads for shuttle trips and what not.

 

yeah, the copper heads look like they would fit my needs (lugging around two hoopty cruisers)

anybody her anything about RockyMounts? They look decent and are less $$