I have been waiting over a year for a Yakima solution on the FJ. I've been keeping tabs on FJoel's Dom Mounts and then Stornco came up w/ a similar solution for the Yakima towers. Since StornCo's were done, I decided to bite. I already have a Yakima Hookup for my bikes but I wanted to have the option for my snowboards and possible roof box.
I bought them about 1 1/2 weeks ago and tried to get them installed. Bummer was that they "seemed" too big to fit into the roof openings. I thought I needed the lengths shortened to fit. I contacted Storn and he was willing to meet me at the local TechShop and help mod them to fit. I say "seemed" because they actually do fit but Storn helped slide the roof track a little bit to make space. Props to Storn, luckily for me we're both local so it was easy to fix. Also cool, for me, to support the local vendor.
Between the front and middle rack mount positions, there sits a long plastic piece that covers the roof "gutter". The placement of this track isn't perfect, so it has a tendency to slide back/forward a bit. It won't be the same on everyone's FJ so you may need slide it to get both adapters to fit snugly. Took a bit for Storn to nudge, probably because of the accumulated grit underneath. In hindsight, a good soaking of Simple Green and a shot of water pressure might help loosen it up.
I then proceeded to use the same Permatex gasket seal that Storn used, which I found at Ace Hardware. I added some grease to the threads just so that I didn't have to worry about the threads seizing later on.
There is one snag, on my part, that I unfortunately discovered. I've used my Yakima towers and landing pads on my 1996 Explorer for years. I assumed that those towers were the same size as Stornco's design. Not. The new Yakima towers fit something called Landing Pad 01. You need those to fit to this adapter. So I had to go and buy new landing pads and towers. A bit unexpected but fortunately REI has a 20% Yakima sale going on. I couldn't use the old landing pads because the screw mount spacing would be WAY too small to fit the FJ's roof spacing. I'll have to save/sell these later on.
As far as crossbar sizing, you can't use a 48" bar, you need the 58". I learned the hard way that you need to measure which bar you use before you go and mount all the accessories... The 48" doesn't reach both towers. The only negative is that the 58" leaves a little overhang, but I actually don't mind. I sometimes have bike trays on the overhang for ease of installation, since I'm only 5'6". Might also be a good spot to install mounts for a jack/shovel at some point in the future. I bought a fairing to reduce the road noise.
Because I was in a rush the other day, I couldn't do all of the mounting at once and only installed the landing pads. I was afraid that leaving the pads on the roof would cause some serious wind noise on the freeway. I was happily surprised that there was no noise at all. This is promising because it means that I can remove the bars and towers if I don't want to take a hit on gas mileage w/ the crossbars, risk damage at the car wash, or lower the overall vehicle height.
Final installation went fine. Looks great IMHO. Another do as I say, not as I do item. The rack salesperson indicated that Yakima catalog calls out a 38" for the FJ. That's if you use the stock rack w/ Yak crossbars. But w/ this set up, 44" (min) is the way to go. I forgot to measure it and already put stickers on it before mounting so can't return it. Oh well, I'll live w/ this for now and maybe move it to a new car soon. I drove it on the road and freeway and rack noise is VERY minimal w/ the fairing. W/ the radio off, I do notice that it's there w/ a soft, low hum. But not as bad as I've noticed on my other vehicles and no fairing. The true test will be gas mileage, stay tuned.
I like this mounting option because my overall height doesn't increase much. The rack adds about an additional 3 3/4", much less that using it w/ a stock rack. Overall my height is about 77 1/2", with my Toytec/OME lift, BFG 285's and the rack. Not bad, still low enough to get me into local garages.
I'm happy and recommended this to people wanting to keep their Yakima gear for use on the FJ.
Here's the pix. Sorry some are blurry. I was in a hurry this morning and just had my espresso...
oldskoolboarder's slideshow on Flickr
Stornco Yakima Adapters - THUMBS UP!
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