Rhino Rack Roof Rack Review - 2016 Volkswagen Jetta
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Review of the Rhino Rack Roof Rack on a 2016 Volkswagen Jetta
Today on our 2016 Volkswagen Jetta we're doing a test fit of the Rhino Rack Vortex Aero Crossbars. The part number for the crossbars we're using today is RRVA118B-2. For our foot pack we're using RRRLKVA and for our fit kit for our Jetta we're using DK306. We already have our front bar here installed. We have that nice vortex arrow shape that's going to help reduce wind noise and drag. It's going to also accommodate different style accessories that grip around that crossbar as well as any channel mounted accessories.
You would just unlock your end cap and take that off, and then you could cut the weather strip in here to accommodate any different accessories you may have, and then reinsert that weather strip to help reduce that wind noise and drag. Now we also have the option to lock our foot pack end cap as well as that end cap on our crossbar. Those are included with our kit here. Keep in mind that this has a 165 pound weight capacity, although you do want to check your vehicle's owner's manual to make sure it can withstand that much weight. Then the crossbars themselves are 46 inches long. We do have that front bar on; we're going to show you how to put our last foot pack together here and show you how to put the actual rear bar on and install it since it's the same way as the front. Everything that you see on this table comes with your kit.
The only thing you'll need to provide is a tape measure, whether that's a flat tape measure or a regular one. We've got our fit kit assembly here, our foot pack, and then the end cap for our crossbar, all of our keys and our tools to tighten this down. We're going to start off by putting together our foot pack. We're just going to pop off this bottom plastic piece and we're going to insert this rubber piece onto the bottom here, making sure that all the holes are sealed up. We want to make sure that both of the arrows on here are facing the same way, so we'll just flip this around.
Got an arrow here and an arrow there, we want to make sure that they're facing that same way. All right, once that's completely closed we'll take our foot pack, and we want to make sure that the arrows are facing towards the outside of the foot pack. Then we'll loosen up our bolt and take that out. Take our clamp and place that on top and tighten that bolt down. This is just tightening enough so that we can hold that clamp in place and we don't have to worry about it coming loose while we're trying to install it on our vehicle. Now we'll take our foot pack and we're just going to slide it into the channel along the bottom. Usually you'd have a rubber or plastic measuring strip here that you could cut up and insert into the channels along the bottom, but for demonstration purposes we're not going to use that, we're just going to use our tape measure.
You can use those to insert here, help reduce that wind noise as you're driving. This measurement is going to be 18 centimeters or 180 millimeters if you're using that inside strip. We'll take our included tool, we're going to tighten down this bolt down here once we have that in place. This is going to hold our foot pack in place on our crossbar. I just like to double check that and make sure I measured it out right. Perfect. Now we'll place on our crossbar end cap. Just placing that on, and then we'll take our included tool and we'll lock that down. That's going to help prevent anyone from taking any channel mounted accessories off of your roof rack. Push that off to the side and we can open up our doors to load up our crossbar. We're going to just pass this over to the opposite side and set it gently down. Now it might not grab on completely. Once we adjust our crossbar, take that measurement and get it in the correct place, they'll be able to grip around the door jam like they're supposed to. For our crossbar spread we're going to measure from the center of our front foot pack to the center of our back foot pack. Again using that flat tape measure we're just going to measure to 70 centimeters. Perfect. Now we'll measure the other side. You'll notice as we do this whatever we do to one side we want to do to the other just so we know we have everything in the same place, everything's even. When we go to start to tighten these down this will help to prevent our crossbars from pulling to one side or the other. Perfect. Now we'll take our included torque tool and we can start to tighten these down. Again, we want to do that evenly. I like to start by tightening it down so that the clamp rests just up against the door jam here. Now we'll go back and forth, tightening it down about 5 to 10 turns. We'll know when it's completely tight when this skinnier portion of our torque tool is completely straight, which we'll show you in just a minute. This crossbar spread is going to be perfect for any roof mounted accessories that you may have, as we mentioned before whether that's the grip around or the wrap around or our channel mounted ranging from any kind of roof basket, cargo basket, cargo box, bike racks, or ski and snowboard carriers. You'll see our torque tool has completely straightened out here. Go ahead and do the same thing to the other side. We want that to be completely tight when that torque tool is completely straight, just so we know that it's secured to our vehicle; we don't have to worry about that coming loose. Our doors are closed up, we'll take our end cap covers, just going to lock these in place. With these locked in place it's going to help prevent theft and tampering of your actual roof rack, and now we're able to load up any of our accessories and hit the road. That's going to be our completed look at the Rhino Rack Vortex Aero Crossbars and how they fit on our 2016 Volkswagen Jetta.
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Jacob T
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