Secure transportation

Posted by Veto on Sep 11, 2005

I have a second problem which has become major. We bought a Ford Freestyle in Jan. It came w/ a set or rails longitudinal to the vehicle. No slots for any fastener of any sort but Ford's parts dept. listed an optional carrier so I was unconcerned about carrying the boat. Bad move, the option turned out to be Yakima. Yakima's towers are an extremely poor fit to the Ford rail. The radius of the rail to the radius of the tower is not even close. I checked w/ Yakima and they have no solution. The only reason Ford (or Yakima) can sell it is the fact that the screw has sufficient length and the incredible holding power of screws. It clamps up event-ually. I have subsequently checked Thule, Saris, Perrycraft, Mont Blanc, Barrecrafter, and several others w/ similar results, a poor fit. Next, I went to car lots checking out factory roof racks. I was looking for something w/ similar geometry to the Ford rail, no luck so far! Does anyone have a solution short of machining a set of brackets to accept the Yakima crossbars?

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