So, I'm going to drill some holes in my roof...

[colpumpkinnuts]

That's a nice looking boat! Did you notice any stability problems when you had it loaded on your car? Any issues with cross winds? I think I'm just going to put some foam blocks across the cross bars and add straps. Seems it would give the boat a lower profile and also reduce costs while still keeping the boat secure.

[jaimico]

That´s a good job, I´m planing on doing the same on my 2007 sedan, but in my case would be for bikes, I just do not like the way Yakima, or Thule sit on the roof with it´s towers.

I´ll be using Thule model similar to your system, but with aluminum bars, I´ll post it when I´m done.

[JonS]

I was pleasantly surprised that there were no stability problems at all. Granted, I only got up to about 40mph or so, but I don't anticipate any problems on the freeway as everything seems very stable. I think the foam blocks will work just fine, especially with bow and stern lines...they really snug things up. Do you have a plastic or fiberglass boat? If plastic (you probably already know this) it's really important to not get things too tight as the plastic will easily deform under tension. Anyway, I'm convinced that there is no reason whatsoever not to use the Yaris for kayaks.
Cheers,
Jon

[colpumpkinnuts]

I'll be buying a plastic boat and I'll be very careful to keep the tension at a reasonable level to avoid deformation.

[JonS]

Good fun. Be sure and post pics when you get the chance.

[dingbat]

Originally Posted by JonS

I think that page 59 of this link shows that the side curtain airbag wiring is not located in the roof:
http://www.etimago.com/yaris/repairmanual/EWD.pdf

Page 60 however..... Looks to me like there are squibs in the roof toward the rear. It's on a sedan though.

Your rack looks awesome! What length tracks did you use? 54" or the shorter one? Did you drill for every hole in the track? How far from the rear of the roof where it meets the hatch did you start the track? How far in from the channel with the black strip did you place them?

[birdman]

I have side curtain air bags and would like the tracks too. Has anyone with side curtain air bags installed them?

[JonS]

Mine is an '09 and has side curtain airbags.

Dingbat: I'll get the measurements and post them this afternoon.

[JonS]

Okay, here are the measurements. Please use these numbers as food for thought only. Perhaps I just lucked out on missing the interior light wires, airbags, eject buttons, etc. Anyway, the end of the aluminum tracks are 10 inches from the rear of the roof panel. This measurement does not include the plastic end pieces, which obviously put them closer than that to the rear when they're installed. The rear of the tracks are approx. 1/4 of an inch in from the channel that takes the black roof trim. At the front, the tracks are approx. 2 1/8 inches in from the channel and about 10 1/8 inches back from the front of the roof panel.
As for the track screw holes, working from the rear, I used the end hole, skipped the second, used the third, skipped the fourth, used the fifth, skipped the sixth, used the seventh and eighth ones. This is how it seemed to work out as I scale up the schematic I got from Toyota that showed where the roof braces and wiring were. Using these holes and measurements, I did not hit any of the braces and the interior light still does its thing. I haven't hit the car with a hammer, so I'll just have to hope the side airbags are still good to go.

Hope this helps,
Jon

[dingbat]

Thanks a billion!
Just waiting for the rain to stop to put mine on now.

[JonS]

You'll be happy you went with tracks. Oh, on those measurements I gave...Those are from the roof channel to the edge of the tracks, not the screw hole centers. If you use those measurements, you'll have to mark the proper drilling locations while you or a helper hold the tracks down.

Post pics when you get em on.

[colpumpkinnuts]

I've now got all the parts for the rack. Now I just need some time to install it. Probably this weekend. Since I'm using landing pads rather than tracks I'm probably going to have the front crossbar be a little wider than the rear to get the loads closer to the edge of the roof. I'm not worried about hitting anything up front when I drill the holes but I'm curious what kind of distance from the rear of the car I'm going to need to clear the rear roof brace.

I'm also thinking I'm going to try to get a set of Hullyrollers to make loading the boat onto the car by myself easier.

[myt]

I'm working on gathering my parts now. I am going with the Yakima Landing pad option. I figured that I won't need to shell out the extra cash for the tracks since I will be just carrying 1 kayak. Total cost = $174. For all you guys looking for a good site to buy stuff new check out backcountry.com They even offer free shipping for orders over $50! I bought the control towers used from craigslist and bought the landing pads and bars from backcountry. I will post pics once I get the rest of my parts and install it... wish me luck!! :)

MYT

[dingbat]

Originally Posted by colpumpkinnuts

. I'm not worried about hitting anything up front when I drill the holes but I'm curious what kind of distance from the rear of the car I'm going to need to clear the rear roof brace.

I found that I could feel where most of the roof braces were by pushing the headliner up against them. There seems to be a brace right at the rear of the roof that covers at least 3 1/2" from the gap where the hatch starts.

I installed my rack this morning. Went well for the most part but I had a couple of surprises. I used a Thule TP54, started it 3" from the rear of the roof. When I drilled the rearmost hole I found there was another layer of metal just underneath. I had to drill through that too in order to install the flare nut. Fortunately, there was enough room inbetween the two for the flare nut to work. I got lucky. From there I drilled the next hole, skipped the third, drilled three more, skipped the seventh, drilled the last three. The front end of the track comes within 5 or 6 inches of the winshield. The hole on the front end had foam underneath it. Scared me when I first saw it. Thought I might have hit something important. If I had it to do over knowing what I know now, I'd use the longer track but cut it back one hole at the front due to the curvature at this part of the roof. The little plastic end pieces lift at the front and I need to come up with some sort of material to fill the gap so crap doesn't get jammed in there while I'm driving. Also, the front of the roof is pretty flexy so I'll probably keep the bar back a bit anyway. I'd still deal with the extra layer at the back end. I don't think the hole in that extra layer will cause any problems and I'm sure the car is faster now due to the weight savings. I made the front of the track 1" wider that the rear just to help counter any illusion of the front being narrower due to the roof getting wider at that end. I don't plan on moving the bars around and the angle isn't enough to cause any problem with their opperating properly. Over all I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. The extra spread of the bars is mint. I plan on carrying a 9' longboard up there and maybe a canoe if I think the front bar will bear the weight.

Lent my camera to my brother. I'll put up picks if I ever get it back.
Thanks again to all the folks who put up their info for this project. Don't think I would have done it otherwise.

[colpumpkinnuts]

Dingbat, thanks for the info. Good to know the front of the roof is flexy. I'll try to get the rack back a bit but also try to avoid that rear brace. Close is good, on top of it probably isn't the best solution. Myt, good luck and I'll try to get pics up of my install after I do mine this weekend.

[colpumpkinnuts]

I found some extra time today and was able to install the roof rack. Everything went pretty smoothly. When drilling the last hole for the front right pad I barely missed part of the headliner that sticks up. Most of the rest of the headliner is about 1.5 inches away from the roof so there isn't much chance of accidentally hitting it. I missed all of the braces and I didn't drill into any wires.

Most of my time was spent very carefully measuring things. I studied the pictures of the bare roof from earlier in this thread and decided to use the interior grab handles as landmarks for the holes.

The plus nuts that were included with each landing pad kit were different. One set had a nice neoprene washer on them. The other had cheap looking flimsy foam. I used plenty of sealant on both of them as per the instructions.

The front pads are located 10 inches from the windshield and the rear pads are 6 inches from the hatch. I put both pads 1/4 inch from the edge of the roof to make the installation as strong as possible. Because the roof tapers back, the rear cross bar is a couple inches shorter than the front.

I need to trim the front cross bar a little and install the end caps on the bars. Then the rack will be completely done.

The landing pads with the towers removed and covers on aren't as ugly looking as I expected. I'll post pics of the completed rack and the bare pads after I get it completely done.

[colpumpkinnuts]

Forgot the pics.

[Red Horse]

please some1 make a DIY