I've got the same setup on a 99 Caravan and love em. I haven't experienced the rolling problem and lubricate the rollers regularly with 303. They are ideal for the sharp V of the Nordkapp and Eddyline Falcon. cya -----Original Message----- From: owner-paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net [mailto:owner-paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net] On Behalf Of Bill Leonhardt Sent: Monday, August 23, 1999 5:00 PM To: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] rolling Yakama bars In sort of a spirit of "me too" ism, I've also had problems with Yakima bars rolling. I have saddles in the front and rollers in the back. The bars are the "double cross" version mounted to the factory rack rails on a '97 Dodge Caravan. In the beginning, I assumed that the Hully Rollers were rotating around the bar. I replaced the factory nuts with ordinary hex nuts (more to slow down thieves than anything else) and tightened the hell out of them. It was then I learned that the bars were rotating in the towers. I would tighten the towers to the point of almost breaking the little red levers and, in a few months, the rubber would extrude out and things would loosen up. I DO NOT like having to tighten my whole roof rack with those fragile little red levers. My wife actually hurt herself seriously while unloading some boats alone once because the bars rotated and the rollers moved enough to allow a boat to drop. Yes, I've read of other people fixing the problem with sand paper and, no, I have not taken the bars apart to do that yet. I also haven't talked with Yakima. I suppose I'm feeling lazy but also feeling very disappointed that a system from a company such as Yakima should be so much of a hassle. The set-up on my van has the front saddles straddling the front bar towers and thus the whole set-up is a real hassle to put on and take off the roof. So... my set up lives on the roof 365 days a year. I really, really, really miss the old set-up I had when my old van had rain gutters. Easy on and off and they stayed tight. I've also been disappointed with the performance of the rollers. Just looking at them, they have so much promise but they really don't perform that well. There are times they choose not to roll (yes, I did unlock them). They would probably work better if our boats had a much more pronounced "vee" shape. In fairness, though, the rollers do (most of the time) make it easier for me to load boats alone on such a high vehicle. I too have been thinking of a trailer. It would certainly make to loading/unloading part of paddling a lot easier. The bottom line for me now is I have what i have and will live with it for the forseeable future. When it come time to look at a new rack set up, I will probably not go again with Yakima. Bill Leonhardt *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Aug 27 1999 - 08:15:13 PDT
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