Rhino Vortex bars mounted into roof threads?

[winaje]

Hi all. I've gotten a hold of 3 Rhino vortex through bars for my D3. I've seen the thread by Eddomak that shows a mounting setup that crews directly into the roof thread. I'm trying to find the lowest height mount for these bars.

Does anyone know IF it's possible to mount a through bar with a foot directly to the thread, and if so what part numbers would be used?

[mikeford]

Repco is where I got my brackets

[RobA]

We have these on a D4 and you need to purchase channels which are fixed to the roof and into which the feet slot in. Simple as that

Rob

[l00kin4]

If you put the bolts through the feet into the nutserts in the roof you'd need to cut a hole (~14mm?) in the gutter channel cover to put a spacer in to account for the depth between the top of the gutter channel cover and the top of the nutsert - about 4-5mm.

I agree with Rob - you need at least the short rails, as per Eddomak's setup. Without the rails, you'll have the feet sitting on top of the gutter channel cover which is not particularly robust - the lateral support for the feet (along length of vehicle) would be marginal I think.

I wouldn't trust it to be secure sitting on just the spacer on top of the nutsert with the gutter channel cover providing most of the supporting surface.

David

[winaje]

Thanks all. I was hoping to save 15mm or so. But as that's not possible I'll just stick with the aftermarket full length roof rails I have, and use the shortest foot possible to keep overall height low.

[RHS58]

Off topic, slightly, but Rhino related.

I have the Rhino front and rear rails, Vortex bars x 3.
Bit of wind noise with the front bar on, also from the kayak, mostly because everything else is so quiet in the D4.
About to go back to Rhino installer, again, because the front rails have discoloured to a lovely dark rusty orange colour. Apparently there was a batch of rail material that missed out on uv stabiliser in the coating.
Rear rails are fine. So far.

The front bar sits quite high as a result of being on the lower front section of the roof. Looks kinda **** IMO, but it's only ever on when I'm transporting the kayak. Serves its purpose.

Ron

[Redback]

Off topic, slightly, but Rhino related.

I have the Rhino front and rear rails, Vortex bars x 3.
Bit of wind noise with the front bar on, also from the kayak, mostly because everything else is so quiet in the D4.
About to go back to Rhino installer, again, because the front rails have discoloured to a lovely dark rusty orange colour. Apparently there was a batch of rail material that missed out on uv stabiliser in the coating.
Rear rails are fine. So far.

The front bar sits quite high as a result of being on the lower front section of the roof. Looks kinda **** IMO, but it's only ever on when I'm transporting the kayak. Serves its purpose.

Ron

That's only because of the shape of the roof, can't do anything about that with roof bars, the only alternatives are, only have 2 cross bars or buy a roof rack that conforms to the shape of the roof, trouble with that is, most of the racks that do that are $2000 +.

Personally I didn't notice any real change in noise going from a Rhino roof platform to crossbars, so I went back to the platform.

Baz.

[cjc_td5]

Thanks all. I was hoping to save 15mm or so. But as that's not possible I'll just stick with the aftermarket full length roof rails I have, and use the shortest foot possible to keep overall height low.

To get the roof bars as low as possible I drew up some legs and had them 3D printed.



Still at testing stage at present but they work well. These ones are Nylon for greatest tensile strength but they bend when tightened down hard. I need to test some in a different more rigid plastic.

Cheers,
Chris