I have a full Yakima system (Q-towers, crossbars, twin Steelhead rails, faring, etc) that I purchased in '05 when I was MTB'ing pretty heavily. When I sold the car in '08 or '09, I kept the rack, and it's been sitting in my garage since.

Now I want to mount it on my truck, as I plan to purchase a pair of fishing kayaks for my daughter and I. I'm going to get a couple sets of Bowdown J-hooks for the crossbars. The reason I want the kayaks to ride up-top, rather than a Yakima Dry Dock/hitch mount (they're 12.5 footers, so they won't fit in the bed), is because I want to leave my hitch free for my pop-up camper (which already has fork-mount bike rails attached to it, so I'll have all the bases covered; well, once I figure out a better mounting system for my fishing rods).

When I look at Yakima's site and 'outfit my vehicle', it says to use the Q towers, but I'm not sure exactly where they'd attach, based on the design of the Q tower. I tried searching this forum and found plenty of threads and pictures of roof-mounted racks, but none that clearly showed or explained how the Q towers were mounted.

Does anyone have a picture of their Q tower mounting point(s) that they could share? Also, is a stretch kit needed on a Supercab?

Thanks for any help!

 

do you have the 2 door or the 4 door supercab? that will determine if you need the Q-stretch kit.

 

4-door. Is there a difference in size between the two (Isn't a Supercab a Supercab?), or is it that the mounting points are different, placing the crossbars further apart?

 

The size of the cab is the same but you have more room to mount the bar further back with the 4 door, and does not require the stretch kit.

 

A guy I knew had some sort of rack that mounted in the bed with J hooks that had a spring on them. I'm assuming this is different?

 

I don't want them in the bed because they're too long (12+ feet) and the overhang will interfere with my hitch/camper. I can't 'prop them up' because I have a fiberglass cover. The roof is the most logical choice, considering my options.

What I'm trying to figure out is where the latches on the Q towers hook on/in to the truck. The door jambs are covered in seals and there's no hard edge to hook on to like there was on the car this was previously installed on.

 

The hook on the door seals

 

I can picture what you dont want to do and his wasn't like that. It was a rack like roofers use for ladders or longer tools. I understand what you mean.

 

found a pic, these have been modified becuse the owner had leaking problems but you get the idea

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...w=1092&bih=533

 

That's what I was afraid of. On the previous car they hooked on to the chassis itself within the jamb, but on the truck all I can find to latch to are the seals, and I worried about the dependability of that (both, for the sake of the seal itself, but also for stability of holding on to rubber rather than steel).

Thanks for the image!

 

It clips to the metal under the weather seal, its plenty strong. My only issues has been with drips if the bars are NOT positioned in the correct location. once they are set no problems.