Re: Opinions on ski racks...

[dlawson@ball.com (Dave Lawson)]

My choice in this area is Yakima. I put a Yakima rack on top of my
'86 coupe GT when I bought the car in '86. It comes off ocasionally,
but for the most part is on top of a car, either the GT or the ur-quattro.
I am lucky in this respect, since these cars have identicle roofs. I
just lift it from 1 car and set it on the other. I have the large ski rack 
on
one side and 2 GT bike mounts on the other. In 10 years of use and
abuse, not one piece has broke and needed to be repaired or
replaced. Everything still functions like it is new. I don't have a
spacecase(yet), so I can't comment on these.

I am sold on the Yakima products. I have been looking for years
for a rack to carry bikes on my AWD Safari van. A few years ago
I bought a hitch mounted rack from Performance. It was returned
at the end of a weekend, the bolts broke and the quality was junk.
This year Yakima came out with couple of heavy duty hitch mount
bike racks. Very strudy peices. The rack locks to the van and the
bikes lock to the rack. They even use quality fasteners which are
cad plated. I put it to the test this past spring with a trip to Moab. It
performed flawlessly and now has its place in the garage, ready
for use at a moments notice. BTW, for skis, the van has an old
Barrcrafters rack, it's old and noisy, but it works and it was free.
But someday a Yakima ski rack will replace it.

It's just my opinion, but I wouldn't consider anything else.
 -
Dave Lawson  dlawson@ball.com