SoCalBenz

I was on my way up to the local mountains this weekend for some skiing when my rack failed and ejected 3 skis and the front rack cross-bar at 70 mph onto the freeway. The rack was a 5 year old Yakima with clamp type anchors to the factory rails. The front right clamp failed (screw snapped) sending the skis up in the air like a sail until the second anchor snapped. Miraculously, it was 6am on Jan 1st and I was on a VERY empty tollway in SoCal. No one was behind me... I was able to pull over and pick-up the yard sale items off the freeway with only one car going by. I have loaded skis onto a car rack over 500 times (x-ski patrol), so this wasn't a user error. Instead, a bad rack.

So, what is the best and safest ski rack out there for the GL? I am tempted to purchase the factory rack, but I haven't seen it in person. Are the mounts any better than Thule or Yakima? I am now very paranoid about both the anchors to the rails and the ski clamps. Most ski clamps on regular racks are held in place by a cheap plastic part. I've now realized that one failure point could be catastrophic at 70 mph. My new $800 skis took their first run on the 241 tollway. A small price to pay, considering no accidents and no one hurt.

I read some of the posts on the cargo boxes, but I think a box might be overkill. If it is truly the safest and most secure I might be swayed.

Suggestions anyone?

slim nicky

Wow, scary. Bummer about your skiis, but all things considered you are very lucky! I have the Yakima Fat Cat 6 (http://www.yakima.com/racks/ski-rack...th-locks).aspx) on Thule crossbars. Went with them because of their capacity, ease of use, ability to work with my prior Thule crossbars, and low profile as compared to my Packasport box (with the FatCats I can now park in most garages with the GL in sport suspension mode; could not do this with the packasport box).

I have not seen any racks with a built in redundancy mechanism, including the OEM ones. Eventhough failure is possible with the Thule mount on the GL (rubber strap), and the Fat Cat mount in the Thule crossbar (bracket) these seem pretty solid (your exprience notwithstanding) and there doesn't appear to be much we could do to fortify. I am more worried about the FatCat mechanism that holds the skis/boards in place, and after reading your post I now wrap a small bungee around the leading FatCat and cross-bar as a back-up on longer trips.

Another thought is to move the cross-bars as far back on the GL as possible. This will minimize the wind resistance (and noise) on the rack and skiis and make them less prone to failure. The GL's roof is so long - I have mine mounted so far back that you can barely see the tips of the skis/boards when you look through the sun roof (make sure to check location so they do not hit trunk when open).

Since I got the FatCats I rarely use the box (only on long trips where I need the extra storage space). Advantages of box are extra storage space (you can fit boots and baby strollers up there along with your skiis), and keeping your skiis dry and clean from road grime. Disadvantages are cost and higher profile which means decreased gas mileage and inability to park in most indoor garages.

Anyway, hope you got your skiis back in shape (hey you should consider using the buyer protection feature of your credit card)! Let us know which way you go.

lkchris

Oh, but there is.

Your description of the USA Thule solution simply again points out how Thule has so seriously compromised its USA line in the name of "universality."

I ordered a square-bar Thule rack for my GL from a UK store and the mounts certainly do NOT fit with a rubber strap but instead clamp to the rails with nice rubber-protected metal clamps.

http://www.thule.co.uk/appguide/your...=&tSP=&tLocks=