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I'm on my third acura, and this one (2019 RDX a-spec) has very different roof rails from both previous (2017 RDX, 2010 MDX)
The rails have no way to get under them (between them and the roof) so none of my collecting of yakima towers will work. I didn't want to start over with the OEM flush roof rails and cross bars as I'd need a lot of adapters for all my attachments, and my bike mounts are likely to only work on round.
So, I'm heading down this path. If folks are interested, I'll post more details about how I plan to complete this and how I got to this point. Here is a brief summary:
1) Went to eBay for "locking railroader 1" towers and included landing pads (yakima has discontinued these)
2) Removed the stock "rail tracks" on the RDX, starting from the back
3) fabricated some brackets from stainless steal bar stock (3/16" x 3/4")
4) bolted down the brackets to the factory studs
5) replaced the rail tracks, made holes to allow the bolts from the towers to pass through
6) attached landing pads by threading bolts through the rail tracks and into the fabricated brackets
7) attached the towers to the landing pads normally
I'm looking at about $150 in stuff here (towers, bar stock, longer screws etc... I'm part way there (see pic)
The other approach I was trying was using the yakima "60 in. tracks with bolts" -- and effectively replacing part of the the rail tracks with the yakima tracks. Haven't tried this yet... might not ever.
Anyway, I think I'm getting there. I'll post where I end up. It seems like a clean look, doesn't require expensive roof rails and cross bars, and allows me to use all my old attachments. If folks are really interested in a better how-to, let me know.
I was looking at this earlier as well. It seems Yakima have clips for 2019 RDX. You should be able to purchase the clips and towers to work with your existing round bars.
Ah, right. Fair point. I forgot to mention those. They do have towers that rest on the paint and clips that insert into the door jam. I had mentally ruled those out as I hate what they often do to the paint and how they look. I was limiting my options to things that attach on top (as they did with the old roof rails) Two different base clips are needed I think. one is 154 below (see how it will grab around. I guess my solution puts holes in the rail plastic, but I'm hoping to pick up some spares from someone after they install roof rails. Then I can go back to 100% stock later if I want.
That's a clean looking installation, but keep in mind that the factory roof rails attach to the roof with more mounting points than the 4 studs you are using with your custom brackets. So although the crossbars attach to discrete points along the rails, the forces exerted by the load are distributed along the length of the roof. I'd be a bit concerned about the security of attached loads secured only by the studs, especially loads that extend high above the roof and/or loads that that will present a high aerodynamic load. The weight might not be an issue, but high torsional loads might snap the studs.
The Yakima bolt-on tracks might be a more secure solution because they would recruit more mounting points ( but it would come at a cost cosmetically ).
OTOH if those door opening clips aren't secured just right, things can get pretty squirrely. And I've never had them NOT damage the paint.
If a factory system fails and throws your load at a following Bentley, Acura is on the hook. A home-built system, not so much.
That's a clean looking installation, but keep in mind that the factory roof rails attach to the roof with more mounting points than the 4 studs you are using with your custom brackets. So although the crossbars attach to discrete points along the rails, the forces exerted by the load are distributed along the length of the roof. I'd be a bit concerned about the security of attached loads secured only by the studs, especially loads that extend high above the roof and/or loads that that will present a high aerodynamic load. The weight might not be an issue, but high torsional loads might snap the studs.
The Yakima bolt-on tracks might be a more secure solution because they would recruit more mounting points ( but it would come at a cost cosmetically ).
OTOH if those door opening clips aren't secured just right, things can get pretty squirrely. And I've never had them NOT damage the paint.
If a factory system fails and throws your load at a following Bentley, Acura is on the hook. A home-built system, not so much.
Agreed, that analysis is good to do, and I did spend some time thinking about it before I started.
The ability to distribute the load (pushing down or pulling up) across multiple threaded roof studs depends heavily on the rigidity of the spanning structure. In the case of the yakima tracks I'd argue that is near zero as they are very flexible in the up/down direction. The acura rails are definitely more rigid... I'll give you that. Still, in that case the load will be distributed across 6 studs and my solution is across 5 (two up front and three in back) I'm nearly done and will post those pics soon.
I'm not sure what the dynamic upward pull/load would be, but I think I've put about 100lbs of upward force one tower (bouncing the car) and it's solid.
As far as liability goes... dealing with the event you describe above will suck enough... after that I won't care if it is my insurance company paying for it or Acura's... the disaster of losing a load of the top (and causing all that damage) will dominate my concerns
Just realized I did not post the pics showing how this was done. So, I'll get to that.
Since I did this, yakima did come out with clips that work with the flush rails. That said, you are looking at $450 for the rails, $400 worth of yakima towers/clips/adapters to make it happen. That's a lot.
This method was $20 in steel and bolts + $100 in old towers off ebay.
In terms of the strength, I'll put this up against the rail, yakima clip combo any day. No physics proof included for that claim, but I'll make it anyway
We'll here are the in progress pics:
Front connection point. The steel bracket hides under the black rail trim.
The bar stock was from Amazon 3/16" x 3/4" stainless bar stock.
Cut, drilled, tapped with std shop tools.
One more pic below.
Obviously, this won't be for everyone, but I really like the minimalistic/clean attach. It also goes on/off SUPER easy. the full rack with 4 bike attachments slides on/off in one piece in 2 minutes.
Oh, and now I have a spare set of 2019 RDX roof rails, new in box. Not sure how to offload those. Not a big ebay person. Might make someone here a good deal
Unfortunately I performed a stress test this summer on the upward/backward force tolerance. I did this by strategically loading the rack up with a carbon fiber trek road bike and running into a garage header. I made it 30 years without doing something so stupid (while making fun of friends who had.)
I thought this might be of interest to some folks who considered similar mounting for overland racks etc...
Anyway, the experiment results were pretty much as expected:
1) Bike: top tube buckled/splintered
2) yakima fork mount bike attachment: aluminum tray bent, fork mount broke into three pieces (one release point)
3) yakima rail-to-car tower: bottom cracked where it attached to landing pad (second release point)
4) yakima landing pad: OK
5) custom steel brackets: OK
6) car studs: OK
7) car body: Small dents where back wheel was crushed into the roof
So, this shows that my weak point was the rack components, and the stud mounting method was solid. Funny.... in this situation you would rather have the weakest attach method possible
How do you like the noise from those round bars? Unfortunately you cannot add a fairing, but you can wrap black 1/4" bungee cord material around and around each bar, end to end. That eliminates the WO WO WO sound at highway speeds. ...
01-27-2019, 12:38 AM
