Roof Box Question - LR4

Most likely a dumb question: after buying my lr4, I realized that it doesn't have roof rails or cross bars. But, it looks like it has mounting points for a rack, etc. I have a roof box left over from my old SUV, a Yakima Skybox 16 Carbonite. I'd love to be able to mount this thing on top of the LR4, to be able to fit skis and what not up there. What do I need to get to make this happen? Im assuming I need rails and then cross bars(the box clips onto cross bars). What's the best/easiest/cheapest way to accomplish this? Thanks for any help!

Will you ever take your LR4 off roading, light bars, rtt, etc...? Will you have a need for anything more than just your carrier box up top? Will you want something to protect that glass panoramic roof?

If none of that applies, just go for an ebay version of the half roof rails and crossbars. The full rails are useless and doesn't have anything that allows you to mount 8 inches further towards the front. If you plan on doing something as mentioned up above, then do yourself a favor and splurge the extra bit and do it right. I attempted to go the cheaper route and ended up spending a lot more. Just something to think about.

Thanks for the info. Won't put light bars on it, and doubt I will put anything else on the roof except that box. Maybe a slim roof rack? don't know. But good points to consider, with the glass roof.

No problem. Just make sure you get the standard rails for the back half. There are roof racks out there that will accommodate the rear "standard" or "short" rails, if you decide to get a full rack. The extended rails have no purpose with nothing made for them, so don't get it.

Do you happen to have an existing rack in addition to the Skybox? I had a Skybox and Yakima control towers + bars lying around when I got my LR4, so I was able to get away with just buying a couple sets of the Yakima Landing Pad #11 to mount the old rack onto the ***** LR4 roof. If I didn't have this stuff lying around, I'd have gone for short rails and crossbars.

One more thing - as documented elsewhere on this forum, extracting the plastic roof rail caps can be a pain if it's the first time they've been removed. Everyone seems to have their own method - after finding them stuck while trying to pry them up with plastic trim tools, I heated up the tip of a small flathead screwdriver with a torch and melted a slot-head into the caps. Three of them "unscrewed" nicely, and on one the cap broke off and I ended up drilling and prying and swearing until I finally pushed the remaining plastic plug in (wish I had thought of that earlier). As a reward I'll get to re-tap the threads after partially damaging them in the process. YMMV!

My 2016 didn't come with any rails either. I only ended up buying the short rails (actually preferred the look of them over the long rails), cross bars and the Land Rover badged ski rack which happens to be a Thule product. I couldn't (and didn't want to) reuse my old set as they were well past their expiration date.

As said above, removing the clips to prepare the surface for the rails can be a challenge. However, I found by taking my time, and using some plastic pry tools, they came out pretty easily.

I'm all for working on my LR4, but I would leave the installation of the base roof rails to the dealer. Far too many posts over the years of people trying to save money and cracking the glass roof. Make sure you get OEM roof rails and not the made-in-China imitation rails on ebay & Amazon. You want these:

https://www.jlroriginalparts.com/oem-parts/land-rover-roof-rail-kit-black-finish-short-cab500120pvj?c=Zz1jYXJnby1tYW5hZ2VtZW50JnM9cm9vZi1yYWNrJmw9MiZuPVNlYXJjaCBSZXN1bHRzJmE9bGFuZC1yb3ZlciZvPWxyNCZ5PTIwMTYmdD1oc2UmZT0zLTBsLXY2LWdhcw==

Then get OEM cross bars, (As noted above they are made by Thule). They work great with Yakima Skybox clamps:

https://www.jlroriginalparts.com/oe...8pec0TFfuEgVZ644gTddwF-SmPbBWpoUaApvAEALw_wcB

Don't bother with Thule aftermarket cross bars. It's a long story but the short version is that Thule made the fit kit for both the LR3 & Hummer roof rails and the tabs that slide into the LR3/LR4 roof rail tracks only grab at 2 corners, not all 4.

PaulLR3 said:

Don't bother with Thule aftermarket cross bars. It's a long story but the short version is that Thule made the fit kit for both the LR3 & Hummer roof rails and the tabs that slide into the LR3/LR4 roof rail tracks only grab at 2 corners, not all 4.

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I had the Thule aero bars from my previous Suburban and I bought the Tracker foot pack (something like that) as well as the tracker bases. I did have to fabricate wider mounting tabs but I’m happy with the setup and I can remove the bars in less than a minute. I usually leave them off unless I’m in ski/cargo pod mode for a few months in the winter. The bars overhang the feet by ~4 inches or so and it makes it much easier to lash down SUPs and other items...but the OEM setup does sit a bit lower and looks cleaner.

TCM75 said:

I had the Thule aero bars from my previous Suburban and I bought the Tracker foot pack (something like that) as well as the tracker bases. I did have to fabricate wider mounting tabs but I’m happy with the setup and I can remove the bars in less than a minute. I usually leave them off unless I’m in ski/cargo pod mode for a few months in the winter. The bars overhang the feet by ~4 inches or so and it makes it much easier to lash down SUPs and other items...but the OEM setup does sit a bit lower and looks cleaner.

Click to expand...

I needed to carry a large cargo box plus 2 bikes on the roof so I have a set of long Thule square cross bars. I took the mounting tabs and ground them down using a bench grinder so that the tabs fit in the rail with all 4 corners making contact. Worked great but the tabs are steel and got pretty hot during the grinding process and had to be dunked in ice water to cool down.

Thanks all! My previous truck came from the factory with rails and had cross bars already so the skybox just clamped onto those, nothing I had to buy extra. Surprising that there is all this extra cost to get box capability on an lr4, but that's OK. Good to know about the Chinese rails. The cost of the factory rails/bars is staggering however...