Yakima Landing Pads

[treyb]

Anyone try to replace the factory roof side rails and fit in a set of Yakima Landing Pads and Towers? The landing pads are adapters that fit into factory installed tracks and I was curious if by chance one of these styles might fit into the mounting point where the factory side rails mount. If so this would allow you to remove the factory side rails and install a Yakima rack directly to the roof. Anyone try it out yet or have access to all of the different Yakima Landing Pad options?

Very interested in putting a Yakima rack on the top but would love a way to get it closer to the roof and not rely on the factory side rails or hard mount/drill into my roof.

 

[desertred]

Cant help with the height issue, but it does appear that an option to place a crossbar over the front doors using Yakima Q towers and clips for a 3rd gen is an option for extended loads. This is not a recommended setup by Yakima (as I don't believe they even explored this as an option to the factory rack), but the clips for the 3rd gen appear to be an exact math for door contour. At least one other forum member is using this setup, and I'm chasing it now. Beats drilling into the roof. Otherwise, the landing pad route is the way to go. I do know that one online Yakima rack outfitter recommends the Landing Pad #7 at the forward position for a permanent (drilling required) mount option.

See this thread for more information and pictures.