September 6, 2010
Rack Attack Team
Welcome back, Rackies, to another installment of Rack That Vehicle! Today we have a Ford F150 pickup truck that needed an extra crossbar on the cab of the truck to help secure the canoe this customer had strapped to the topper bars. Without the bar we're adding, this customer complained that the canoe would bounce on the roof of the cab while driving on the highway which caused a pretty serious dent in the roof of the vehicle. "No problem," we told her, "you've come to the right place!"
Because of the bouncing that occurred with the canoe secured only to the topper, there was a significant dent in the top center of this truck's cab! Luckily we were able to work around the dent for the purpose of this installation. By adding this one additional support point for the canoe this customer should no longer have any problems with securing even a 30 foot long canoe to the roof of their F150.
The choice of the Yakima Control Towers with Landing Pads came down to the customer's preference for Yakima (They already had Yakima gear and wanted to be able to keep the same keys for all their racks.) I will say that this setup looks awfully great on the roof of this vehicle, and considering how secured the system is with the locks (and the superb job we at Rack Attack Minneapolis did with the actual installation) i'd say this customer is ready for whatever canoeing adventures there are left in the North American Continent. We'll get you there with all of your equipment intact, but its up to you to make it back from your adventure.
The Yakima Control Towers and the number 6 Landing Pads come in sets of just two so that doing a single bar on the cab of a pickup is easily accomplished without having to buy extra parts. Because Control Towers are so easy to remove it is important to get locks to secure the towers to your roof. Even when they're keyed, however, the Control Tower system is extremely simple to remove when not in use. So, when you're in need of an extra bar on the cab of your truck to help distribute your load, or just to give you another bar to secure your load to, call or come by Rack Attack and we can discuss your options. Until next time, Rackies!
