So I bought myself a set of MaxTraxx with the mounting pins and at first glance they don’t seem to want to play nice together with my “factory” cross
bars. The rails seem
to be made of aluminum and don’t seem to have any holes predrilled. Does anyone have experience with this? I really don’t wanna drill the crossbars……. and who wants to take them off the roof in the middle of winter. LOL. Thanks for the help if anyone wants to chime in.

 

I didn't get them for the compatibility issues.

Too much cost and hardware needed to make them usable. If you're not fully comitted to using the MaxTrax pins there is, I would argue, a better solution.

A simpler, cheaper $25 option from TredOutdoors.com. I cut them to length to increase clearance. I can't open their website for some reason so can't link the product.


Mounting pins from TredOutdoos cut to length.

I've since moved them to the front crossbar to allow the ski rack to sit to the rear. Much less drag and noise from the ski rack this way. No extra noise to speak of at all really.


Untrimmed out of the box they are a bit taller than I need/want. A hacksaw and a hole bur makes it better.


Without boards the pins and hand ***** sit about 2" tall. With boards they are lower than the boards themselves.

They fit MaxTrax perfectly and can be locked with a padlock or pistol lock for an easy, low cost, low profile solution. Attach to rack with Thule T-bolts. (short ones or cut the long ones to length)


Just a thought. A lot of the mounting brackets/boards for MaxTrax are very costly. This solution is not.

 

thanks so much! on a mild day i’ll start drilling…..i think.
LOL

 

Oh don't sweat it. As a friend once told me: You only care until the first ding. I got the Lucky8 Side mounts. Loved them. I usually drive (or should say drove) around with them on but without the MaxxTrax. On weekends/need would just clamp them on. That was until I went to work and forgot to put the Defender in Access mode when driving under the cover. Pro-tip: It makes a loud horrendous scream when they are torn off the rack! I was just happy that the rack is aluminum and it gave before the roof. A little bit of work with a body hammer and the aluminum is (almost) just like new. And, I have a lot less care what I do or drill up there<g>. For those keeping score, the glass sun roof is MUCH stronger than the front windshield. One of the supports (they may weigh 2-3 pounds) dropped heavy on the glass up there and nothing happened. That was my biggest fear! The other one went spinning off down the tarmac. I recovered both and now only put them up there when I plan to go Overlanding....

 

Just to clarify. No drilling/alteration to the rack is needed. I only needed to drill holes in the pins themselves to allow a lock to go in. The come with holes but they were lost when I chopped off the top part.

 

I had the same challenge deciding where to put the pins as drilling holes was not the preferred method. In the end that’s exactly what I did drilling 4 holes and mounting the boards on the rear of the rack. Unfortunately, my garage door height with the pins did not allow for entry even after dropping the suspension. This is only my summer set up for camping and I did remove the pins at the end of the season which takes all but a few minutes. That said, I really liked the Lucky8 side mount which saves on rooftop real estate, but I’m not sure it’s compatible with Maxtraxx boards. The rooftop rails on the Expedition rack can be moved using a Torx T30 and using Thule t-bolts to add accessories. I couldn’t make that option work with all the different rooftop accessories I’m using. Other options worth considering are the wheel mounts by Maxtraxx, Lucky8, GP Factor and New Defender Mods.