I finally decided to ditch my older Yakima Holdup bike rack and its associated Backswing unit to allow it to swing aside. The whole unit was nearly 75b lbs combined! Besides, I mostly go ride alone and then there is the storage of this memorial to the steel industry. So I took the plunge and got one of 1Up's ultra lightweight bike carriers. They are expandable to two to even 4. When on the vehicle, you do not need any swing aside gizmo, they fold down low enough to clear the door. I did need to use my extension, which is an 8", a bit too long but what I had. A seven would be better 6" the best, but apparently does not exist. I may make one from bits an pieces of hitch parts I have lying around. The good side is both the rack and swing unit sold within hours on Craigslist. Making the purchase better than an even swap. Big plus, the rack folds up to a compact unit, which I actually hang from a hook on the wall (23lbs). I'm happy now.

What still has me scratching my head is the ski rack. I took off the expedition rack for the snow season and finally put up the Thule crossbars. I checked the fit with the Thule ski racks I have and damm, 3/4" too high with the vehicle lowered. So I have been looking about for something lower profile. Yakima makes the Fat Cat EVO (have no idea what EVO stands for, perhaps "Expensive Vehicle Option."). Yakima, in the interest of national security, closely hide the installed hight of the two mounting options (clamp and T bolt). Ended up having to go to REI and measure it directly. I really cannot be the only person with a lowish gauge door opening and a tallish vehicle. The Thule crossbar system is unnecessarily tall. If something lower was possible this would not be such a big treasure hunt. Using a ski rack on top means I need to bring a stool to load/unload. That does double as a seat to pull boots on and off. I had given up on the Range Rover using ski racks. Simply tossed them in the rear load space, since we had the super rubber mats. The Defender 90 is a bit more challenging on throwing the skis in the back. They fit, but some damage eventually will happen. Nixed anything that mounts them to spare. Our vehicle get loads of black road debris going up to the mountain on it (we only live 20 minutes from driveway to parking lot). I have a cunning plan, but it is dependent on getting a really cheap Yakima rack, since it will be modified. I'll check back if it works out. BTW, greater minds than mine feel free to offer up suggestions. I am very happy to play engineering Robin Hood, steal from the clever and give to the dull.

 

It turns out the Yakima Fat Cat EVO will work in my lowish garage. However, when the vehicle is in access position, it barely clears in normal position, not enough to be positive it will work every time. I did have to make custom spacer blocks instead of using the Yakima T slot spacers. Why they want to make everything so high escapes me. It seems SUV type vehicles are getting bigger not smaller.




Spacer block

 

I second this and giggled at your "Memorial to the steel industry" comment. Its massive, cumbersome and puts the bike far behind the vehicle. Ive been eyeing making the switch to the 1up. Looks great.

 

Since the weather was abysmal here the last couple of days I played further with the Thule crossbars. Thule makes cool stuff, but in their quest to make their feet more universal, they end up making the entire assembly unnecessarily tall. I made some feet out of aluminum, 1/8" thick, losing 3/4" of height. Between making the custom mounting blocks for the Yakima rack and then making custom feet for the crossbars, lost almost 1.5". That means I can get in and out of my low profile garage at access height with the skis on the Defender. It would work at normal height except for my garage actually is lower by 1" in the center.

 

So do I understand it correctly that you made mounting plates and spacer blocks both by cutting thinner aluminum to the right sizes to replace the thicker Thule/Yakima pieces?

So find the right materials, cut with a whizzer or the like, maybe polish edges on a wheel, drill what the plates at the right spot....

Doesn't seem to bad. But if the Thule are unnecessary tall I'll hold out some hope to avoid that work if the OEM bars are less so ... Fingers crossed 🤞

 

On the Yakima, it is not aluminum, but rather a plastic product called "Starboard." Essentially a high density plastic, 5/16" thick. I use it for a lot of things, seeing I had to get a 4' x 8' sheet of the stuff a while back to make an instrument gizmo for the airplane's remote sensing system. I needed around 2' x 2' leaving a lot of surplus. The product is used in marine systems a lot. the feet for the Thule rack is 1/8" aluminum bar stock from the hardware store/Home Depot. I cut it on my compound mitre saw, it has a multi-use carbide blade, which is very happy to cut virtually anything that is soft, like aluminum or plastic (something like 80 tooth count). I may have some of the plastic cut to size still, I made one kind of one long thin cut and chopped it up to smaller blocks. Then drilled the holes. Drop me a PM and I'll send them to you if they are still out in the garage. I did this when things were warmer here. Now it is cold enough in the garage to store beef safely.

The Land Rover bars are just Thule bars with a capped ends. I suspect they are the same height. You can get the T Bolts off Amazon for a lot less than the Thule or Yakima ones. They are stainless vice oxide coated steel, so I like them better. You will also need 4 M6 x 25-30mm carriage bolts to replace the, must be 45mm ones that come with the Thule feet, hardware store wall of tiny boxes should have some.

 

Yeah I'm passingly familiar with Starboard. Actually I recently cut a kickstand pad extension for one of our Italian motorcycles from a cutting board (and doubled it up) using a jigsaw as a $5 alternative to a sheet of Starboard lol, but maybe I should have just bought a sheet.

Copy that on the OEM bars and hmmm ok I'll contact on back channels if we go this way. And thanks....