Ski Rack

[jkukura]

I am looking to add a ski rack to my 2012 LR4.

If I am correct I have to 1st get the Factory Rails. (like $575)

Then I need to get Roof Rack Crossbar Kit to keep it factory. ($350)

Then I would need the ski carrier to keep it factory ($250)

Looking at $1,200 bucks wow.

Do people use the Yakiama attachment with the Factory Roof rails?

 

[danrhiggins]

I use Yakima crossbars and a Yakima Load Warrior rack. Though not a picture of the rack specifically you can see it on top of my truck from a drive I did today.

You may notice in the picture that I started with a set of Thule crossbars as Yakima did not have a fit kit for the LR4 at the time. But I found the Thule bars to be too complex to install/remove. I found the Yakima's much simpler so I switched to them (and still have a lightly used set of Thule's taking up space in my garage!) I also started with a regular size Yakima Load Warrior. I added the 18" extension last summer when I needed to put my spare tire on top to accommodate an aftermarket trailer hitch receiver (another story).

I am very pleased with the Yakima setup. I tend to leave the bars on all the time now. But I usually pull the rack/basked off during the winter. I prefer the bars that can extend beyond the "towers" as this gives me more load carrying options. If you are only interested in skis then this may not be of interest.

I don't know if the Yakima bars (I have the aero bars) are more or less expensive than the OEM LR bars.

 

[PaulLR3]

As Dan noted above, go with the Yakima bars. Get wider bars in case you want to carry multiple items such as a roof box and bikes.

But first get the factory roof rails installed. You may want to have the dealer install these as some people have cracked their glass roof doing it themselves.

I have the factory roof rails with Thule bars. There is an issue with the Thule metal tabs that slide into the factory roof rails. (You can probably search here to find the long explanation) The tabs are rectangular and are slightly too big one way, but the other way only 2 corners of the tabs make contact with the rails. I ended up grinding mine down so that they fit perfectly in the rails with all 4 corners making contact with the roof rails.