Adding rails to factory Roof Rack for bikes

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mswillia1@hotmail.com - 01 Mar 2005 17:15 GMT

I was reading that the factory rack is not held on very well and then I
was looking at some of the roof rack bars that clamp to the factory
rack and noticed that some of them just hook over the factory rack and
clamp together. So theoretically you could clamp the bars so tight
that they rip the factory rack off of the roof?

I have a 1998 S-10 Blazer with a factory roof rack and I want to
upgrade it to cary 3 bikes now and then in a few years a 4th bike
(small child now). I would like to get a Yakima or a Thule but they
seem so expensive for ocassional use.

Does anyone else have a blazer with a roof rack that has added bars.

Yakima had lowriders, thule has a similar product. These appear to
clamp around the factory rack.

Pro-Line has one
http://www.a1-autoracks.com/proline-cb5800-roof-rack-crosspars.html
Does anyone have one of these?

Or should I not attach to the factory rack at all?

Anyother source suggestions? Or compelling reasons to get the Yakima
or Thule?

What bike holders do you reccommend? I do not have quick release
wheels so I do not want to take them off. Thule looks better than
Yakima in this respect. Any preferences? Any others?

Thanks

Mark

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John Everett - 02 Mar 2005 17:27 GMT

>I have a 1998 S-10 Blazer with a factory roof rack and I want to
>upgrade it to cary 3 bikes now and then in a few years a 4th bike
>(small child now). I would like to get a Yakima or a Thule but they
>seem so expensive for ocassional use.
>
>Does anyone else have a blazer with a roof rack that has added bars.

We added a roof rack to my girlfriend's Blazer. When we were deciding
what to do we checked out Yakima and Thule racks, and then settled on
the GM factory rack. It was much cheaper than either the Yakima or
Thule, and once we got it we found it's actually a re-branded Thule.
So go visit your local Chevy dealer.

jeverett3<AT>earthlink<DOT>net http://home.earthlink.net/~jeverett3

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Jonathan Race - 14 Mar 2005 05:19 GMT

We had a '95 Blazer with Yakima towers and crossbars clamped onto the
factory racks. The factory racks were sturdy enough to support two 14'
kayaks and gear without a problem, and we did that for 8 years with that
truck. The only thing I didn't like about the Yakima system at the time
were the round cross bars. I think sqare or flat profile bars would have
been better but we got a deal on the Yakima rack from the store when we
bought my wife's kayak so that's what we went with. The wife now has a Kia
Sorento which is taller than the Blazer and therefore harder to load the
kayaks onto, but I own a Chevy Silverado so that is what we use to haul the
kayaks with now. The Yakima racks are now just taking up room somewhere in
my backyard shop.

Cheers - Jonathan

Signature

Jonathan A. Race
Lieutenant, EMS Supervisor
Orange County (FL) Fire Rescue Department

(This message may contain personal opinions and/or information not related
to my employment or employer)

>I was reading that the factory rack is not held on very well and then I
> was looking at some of the roof rack bars that clamp to the factory
[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]
>
> Mark

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