Custom RCP Fit Kit for 4 Rhino-Rack RC and RV Series Roof Rack Legs - Fixed Mounting Points

Video Transcript for Rhino-Rack Vortex Aero Roof Rack Installation - 2018 Ford Explorer

Colin: Hey guys, it's Colin here at etrailer. And today we have a 2018 Ford Explorer. Now we're going to go ahead and do a test fit of the Rhino-Rack Vortex Aero roof rack system. As you can see, this is mounted to our flush-mounted side rails, it actually utilizes the fixed mounting points that are on the inside of each flush-mounted rail. And this is just going to be a really great accessory to add to your Explorer. So you can get a lot of other things loaded up on top, whether it's a bike rack, a cargo box, maybe you want to get some extra luggage up there and create more space inside your vehicle.

Or maybe even a kayak carrier, because as you can tell, we probably can't fit a kayak inside our Explorer.Now up top of our roof rack, we have these Rhino-Rack Vortex Aero Crossbars. These are 54 inches long. So you got a lot of space up top to get your accessory loaded. These have a nice elliptical shape. That's going to help cut down on wind noise and drag, especially if compared to a square or round bar roof rack system.

We also have this nice rubber strip up top that is letting us know we can utilize T-slot accessories when we're using our roof rack, all we do is take this key right here, unlock the end cap, pull it off, and then we'll just pull the rubber strip out and cut it to length for our T-slot accessory that we want to use. We just lock that back up when we are done so that the end cap stays on.You can see we have black crossbars on now, but they're also available in silver. So if you think that'll match your Explorer better, go and check out our website for that color.Now right here, we have the RCH legs. This is what's connecting our crossbars to the fit kit that's on our flush mounted side rails. I really like the legs because with them, it gives our roof rack a really low profile look easy there's not a lot of size to them, but they still are going to be able to hold a lot of weight.

Now we have these lock cores included. So it's a nice step to turn so no one can just come up and remove your roof rack. Get this bolt that's included, this is what secures our crossbars to our flush-mounted side rails. That's something I really like is that a lot of times other companies won't include lock cores with this roof rack from Rhino-Rack, they're included in the kit so you're not going to have to worry about theft too much.And then we have the fit kit for our Explorer that's going to consist of this rubber pad up here. That's sitting in between the bracket and our RCH legs.

This is how the rubbers help protect the flush-mounted side rails from any type of scratches or abrasions. You can see this bracket is connected to the fixed mounting points on the inside of our flush side rails for our Explore, all the hardware is included. So when we get it tightened down you can see that it's a really secure fit on our roof. Now I want to provide you guys with a few measurements, first from the top of our roof to the bottom of our Vortex bar, it's about three and a half inches. That should be plenty of space to get your clamp on accessories underneath your crossbar, without risking scratching your rooftop.Now I'm going to measure from the top of our flush side rail to the top of our crossbar. And that again is about three and a half inches. So that's relevant because that's how much height you have added to your vehicle. So any low clearance situations, you just want to be mindful of that additional three and a half inches. I also want to measure the crossbar spread for you guys, just so you know for any accessory that you might have, if it'll fit this crossbar spread, since it is fixed. With our crossbar spread it's looking like about 27 5/8 inch. So as long as your accessory can fit within that, a lot of times accessories will say they can fit across for I suppose, between 25 and 30 inches or something like that. So, as long as it's a. As long your 27 5/8 measurement is in that range, then you'd be good to go.And what's nice is that there's actually another point on our roof where we can mount the second crossbar. We have these points right here, but we can also scoot it back to this point right here that will scoot our crossbar backs, if you have an accessory that requires a really big crossbar spread, we can do that. And that can actually give you an idea of what that crossbar spread would be.It would be about 39 1/4 of an inch. If you decided to go back to here. Now, this roof rack does have a weight capacity of 165 pounds, but you do want to be sure double check with your Explorer's owner's manual and make sure your roof can handle that weight before you load it up. And one of the things I really like about this roof rack is that you can remove part of it and keep the brackets installed and just put these caps on and reuse the bolts that come in the kit. When you do this, this just gives a clean look to your roof. It's very easy to remove the roof rack if you're not using it. Personally, if I'm not using it, I'd really take that wind noise and drag away, and then just put these casts on, so it gives a clean look to my Explorer.Now that we've gone over some of these features, I'll show you guys how to get the whole thing installed. The first thing we want to do is get our bracket into place onto our fixed mounting points. Now, before I touch that, I just want to show you guys how to put this rubber grommet onto the bracket right here for these four notches on the rubber bracket. This is going to go through these four holes right here. So we'll just slide it into there. And you want to make sure that you get all of those little rubber pieces through the holes on the bracket. Now we need to remove the little plastic nuts that are right here. There's plastics once you loosen up with this tool right here, you can pull it out with your finger, do make sure you hold onto these on all eight of them, just because if you ever want to take a roof rack off or something like that, then you can cover these fixed mounting points back up.What we'll do, take the bracket and set it down. You going to have to push and have that rubber piece form to your flush-mounted side rail. Then we'll take the included hardware, we have a lock washer and a flat washer on there. We'll just begin threading it on with our hands, it goes far as we can with our hands, just take the included security tool, tighten that all the way, then make sure you repeat this process for the other side. Now we need to get the rest of the crossbar assembled. What we'll do is just flip it over we just need to get our leg installed into the bottom channel of our vortex bar. See this square piece up top, just going to go into the channel. So we'll just bring it up like so, slide into the channel, and then we'll take the end cap of our vortex bar put it on there. Don't forget to take your whole plastic tool, lock that up to make sure the end cap stays on.Now we're ready to get on a roof. So we'll just stretch it over top and set it in place on the brackets we've already installed, there we go, and we still have them pretty loose. So once we get those set in place, we got the overhang even on both sides. What we'll do is come and grab our tools and the first thing we're going to do is reach up and tighten up the bolt underneath here to make sure we get the little square and our channel secured. And that's going to make sure that it can't. The crossbar can't move back and forth.Now we'll get the legs secured to the brackets on our flush side rails. Just take this bolt with a flat washer and a lock washer, drop it through right there, keep threading with our fingers first, there we go. And with a 10 millimeter wrench we'll just get it secured the rest of the way. Now we've got everything secured and I personally always like to give my roof rack a good shake on the crossbars, make sure everything is secure. You can see the Explorer moving back and forth inaudible 00:08:13. This thing's not going anywhere, now we're ready to get our favorite rooftop accessories loaded up and then hit the road. Thank you all for watching, but that's going to do it for our look at the Rhino-Rack Vortex Aero roof rack system, on our 2018 Ford Explorer.