roof racks

[motohockey]

what do people use to make the roof rack functional? do i have to use the OEM part? mine's a 2005 vibe awd. I want to attach a kayak carrier.

[lovemyraffe]

Check out what I have in my garage. I've used both Thule and Yakima. Both are great options and will comparable in price.

[truepath]

I was about to post some ways of carrying bikes that I have used with the Vibe so I might as well do that here. This roof rack would work for a Kayak I think. As you can see, I have a mountain bike mounted on it.A recumbent can also be mounted in the standard way on the roof or it can also be back mounted with the rear wheel dropped over the rear door and resting on a receiver hitch bike rack. This seems like a very good way to carry a recumbent. Here is a photo without the receiver hitch rack installed, but you get the idea. The roof rack itself is made of one inch square aluminum tubing. It's attached to the factory roof rails with some homemade welded brackets. The whole thing cost less than $20.00 (not counting the bike fork mount device which I think was another $20 or so.) I used this same rack system on an old Toyota I had and carried kayaks regularly with it. I used foam kayak pads that sit right on top of the cross rails on the rack. I intend to carry a kayak on the Vibe rack, but I haven't done that yet.

[motohockey]

thanks for the idea

[ClunkClunk]

On our vibes (all 2003-2008 models) we have a set of the factory crossbars that I can install on any Vibe in about 20 minutes. Then I strap on about a six foot Thule clamshell that my dad found on Craigslist fairly cheap.Works like a charm once you add the OEM crossbars.