Review of Yakima Roof Rack Accessories - Universal MightyMounts - Y03590
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Yakima Roof Rack Accessories - Universal MightyMounts - Y03590 Review
Ellen: Hey everybody. I'm Ellen here at etrailer.com and we're looking at the Yakima Universal MightyMount. Now this is a set of four feet to attach your Yakima accessory to your roof rack. Maybe you've had this Yakima accessory for a while, you really like it, it's working just fine, it's got many more years of service left in it, but you've upgraded to a different vehicle, maybe one that has a factory roof rack system, or you've gotten an Aero style bar and you want to still be able to use your Yakima accessories.So this is going to allow you to adapt it to do that. It's pretty simple to do. The nice thing about it is that it doesn't really require any kind of tools to get it in place.
It's just a matter of kind of swapping out hardware and figuring out what is the best mix of what comes in the kit to fit your stuff.As far as how it fits with the accessory, Yakima has a pretty good layout of how that goes together in the instructions that come with this kit so they have some specific guidelines for how these spacers go together to make sure that it fits really well. So you definitely want to follow along with those to get everything fit up. Do that first, attach the feet first to your accessory, and then you can put it on your roof rack.As far as what these will fit with roof racks, it really is pretty universal. I tried it on a bunch of different bars here at etrailer. Some out in our test fit studio, some out in the parking lot, just to kind of see how well it'll adapt to those different shapes and sizes, and I was pretty surprised how well it would adapt to different shapes, some of the kind of more unique styles of bars it even worked with.
So that Thule Aero bar, that's pretty much a stand in for any kind of Aero style bar. The Thule Evo, that's their new Aero style bar. The Square from Malone, very similar to the old school Thule square bar. The Thule Pro is a just kind of weird shaped bar that I didn't really think it would work on, but it did. And then the Yakima HD bar is also just a really big thick, beefy bar.
I wasn't sure it would fit on there, but it also fit on that.So just kind of some examples of different shapes and sizes that these would go around pretty easily with what comes in the kit. So when they say universal, it's pretty true. I know that was a very Thule heavy example, not favoring Thule, I take no sides, but just to give you some examples of those different style bars as far as what it'll go around. Through the factory bars, I don't think you should have any problem, pretty easy to get those around. I didn't even have to really change anything as far as the different things that come in the kit.So I tried it on two different vehicles that had factory roof racks, a Chevy Envoy, and then a Toyota RAV4.
They went on really easy, had a nice snug fit around those bars. I know a lot of times it can be kind of tricky with those factory style bars because they can be kind of slim and it can be hard to get a really nice, good clamp around them, but these go down so small that I don't think you should have any problems.A lot of people who have been asking about for the Subaru, the Crosstrek, the Forester, the Outback wagon, I don't think that they're really going to be any different than the ones I tried it on as far as the fit. It goes down to about three quarters of an inch at this widest point in the clamp, the sides come all the way down, so it really does grip all the way around that bar to hold really securely. As far as that goes, I think it should work for just about any kind of roof rack that you have out there.So I'm going to show you how it goes on just to kind of clear up any other questions that you might have. Again, it comes with everything you see laid out here on the table. We've got an Aero style bar. This actually isn't an Inno bar, but just another example of that kind of newer style Aero shape.So the main thing you want to do whenever you're attaching it to the bar is just pay attention to which end is the front and since this is not mounted to a vehicle you got to pay more attention. You're going to want the opening to go towards the front, so the bolt side goes to the front side and then clamp it around. You want to start with the smaller bracket. There are two different sizes, an A which is stamped on the bracket itself right here on the end, it might be kind of hard to see, but there's an A for the shorter one and B for the longer one.So start with the small one first or the short one first, just to see if you can get it on there, and what you're looking for is to be able to get some threads to go through the bottom and right now it's a little too short but I've got another notch I can put it in, so I'm going to slide it down to that second one. Should give me a little bit more space on this backend. Try it again, and it looks like that fits pretty well. So I'm going to tighten it back down with that thumb knob.So it's all just hand tools, you don't need any wrenches or anything like that to get it installed on the bars. For getting it installed to your accessory, it does come with a little hand wrench to tighten down the nut that attaches it, but it's all just hand tight. I'm trying to move this around and it really doesn't want to budge, so pretty straight forward. It fits really nicely around that bar. It's got a really good contour to just kind of match with this elliptical shape.So all in all, I think it's a really easy system to use, and again, it just keeps your Yakima accessories, your favorite stuff, lasting for many more years to come. If you're wondering about security, you can use this with a lock system. So if you use that part number there, that is going to be a lock core kit and also the locking system. They are sold separately. You can find those here at etrailer.com. If you have any of the SKS systems you can get . Or the same key system, you can get the locks keyed alike with any of your other Yakima accessories. So that's kind of the nice thing.The part number that I have up there comes with two cores. You really only need one per lock, so it's kind of up to you as far as how many you want to get, but that's one of the smaller quantities of locks. So again, I actually have that here to show you how it would work on this one really briefly. So basically you just have a jam nut, a little rubber O-ring, and then the lock housing itself. So this is what's going to go on there and create the lock.So you replace this thumb screw or a little nut here, put the jam nut on followed by the O-ring, and then this also threads on, and you just have this lip going up, and you thread it on there until it comes all the way up and then this little lip holds it in place and prevents those nuts from coming off. So that's basically how it works. You do have to get that same key system though to actually have the lock core. It does not come with the lock core as it is, it's just the housing.So again, that's sold separately, but if you're wondering about security, you do have an option for that. You can get four of those lock housings, one for each foot, if you really want to go to town and have everything stay super secure. I think you could probably get away with just having one or maybe one per bar, and if they can't get that one foot off, it should be pretty hard to get the whole rest of it off. So that's just another thing to think about whenever you're looking at this guy.But all in all, that's pretty much all I have to talk to you about with this kit. I hope this has been helpful in answering any questions that you might have about whether this is going to work for you. Again, I think it works really well on just about any kind of bar I've tried it on. There are a few caveats as far as what Yakima accessories it works with, but most of them should work out pretty well, except for the ones I mentioned like the Anklebiter, the HullRaiser, and also the KayakStacker.But I'm Ellen here at etrailer.com. Thanks for watching.
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