New to the forum and I know this has probably been discussed (I searched though and didn't find
an answer other than 'Get Yakima'). I just bought an '04 Outlander (it seems as though it's the former
vehicle of an experienced forum member) with the factory racks/tubes
and am looking for crossbars so that the racks are actually not useless anymore (I want to be able
to haul a longboard around).
I found the crossbars on a couple of sites for around $30. Great, I think. Then I find out that
you need to also buy the 'adapter kit' which is around $100!! WTF?
Has anyone found a solid way to rig the crossbars onto the factory racks?
If not, any good sources for ways to not get raped into spending $100 for clamps to attack
the crossbars?
Any help would be greatly appreciated...thanks.

 

Does my avatar look like the car you got?

 

Ummm, yes. I see you've been busy on here....

 

Don't know about Thule's but I have the Yakima Low-riders "clamps" that go on the factory bar and then the cross bars are mounted to the "clamps". You'll see on ebay, people selling "Double Cross" clamps saying that it's the same as the Low-riders -well they are not. Low riders replaced the Double Cross but Double Cross jaw is not big enough to go around the fat factory bars of
outlanders. And yes, these clamps do go for $90-100+

Good luck.

 

.....I may have been here a couple times

 

I purchased my rack from Mitsubishi.. I was little disappointed that there just standard Yakima racks.. my last vehicle was a Subaru forester and when I purchased the roof racks for it they were costume fit, low profile.. very stream line. the only negative with them was they were bent to match the curvature of roof, that made accessorizes like snow board racks require a adapter to fit on.. These are just standard looking clamps with round bars
I've only seenpictures of the Thule rack for the outlander but I think it maybe slicker then the Yakima one.

http://www.yakima.com/

http://www.thuleracks.com