Sprinter van: Yakima roof rack and awning
Years ago, we had plans to build out our truck canopy into a bed-slash-storage area for crashing at trailheads. It was an ambitious plan. One that, well, K and I never fully got behind. Because we sold that truck this past May so we could buy our Sprinter. Part of that grand canopy plan included putting a roof rack on it. So, being the astute REI employees we were at the time, we prodealed a complete Yakima rack. It was cheap, after all. Ish. Fast-forward to now.
Even the crossbars that have been collecting dust in our garage for years were exactly the right length.
All of the components have been sitting in our garage, basically taking up space. Along with a Yakima Slim Shady awning. We've used that on the rack we have installed on our RAV4, but it, too, was currently sitting in our garage. Taking up space. Why not install the rack and the awning on our Sprinter? Sort of a rhetorical question. Time to get to it.
Installing a roof rack from scratch is (maybe?) surprisingly straightforward. Dare I say, easy even. Like many things, it's just a matter of time because there are a few steps. First off, lots of measuring. And remeasuring. Lots of remeasuring. I'd say, in fact, I spent fifty-percent of the entire installation just measuring stuff. I had to figure out how to fit our Yakima SkyBox 18 roof box in front of the MaxxFan without overhanging the windshield too much. The good news: it fits perfectly. It's like this rack was meant for our Sprinter.
First step: climb up and down a ladder onto the roof 1.3 million times because each time you forget one thing. At long last, drill a bunch of holes through the roof of the van. Now I joke but reiterate how much measuring I did. I couldn't have bolts lining up with the crossbeams supporting the roof, and they were spaced out every 6" on the track. So I measured and (yep) remeasured to get them right. We were drilling holes into our van, after all.
Once drilled, I proceeded to do The Conversion Deed: file and paint the bare metal. There shall be no further rust on our van! K helped from the inside by screwing the caps on the ends of the bolts I had threaded through from above. In pretty short order, the tracks were installed.
Next up, the towers. These, too, were really quite simple to install. The instructions Yakima provides are really good. So I followed them. Yep, more measuring. I spaced the crossbars the same distance as the ones on our RAV4. That way, the roof box and the Thule Canyon XT cargo basket fit on either vehicle without any adjustments.
In maybe an hour or so, the rack was complete. I gave it the official rack installation test: grabbed a hold of each crossbar and shook vigorously. Each one shook the whole van. It must be installed right.
Time to install the awning. Basically, I just had to flip the mounting brackets because I was going to attach it to the underside of this rack. On our RAV4, it was attached above the rack.
Then it was just a matter of heaving it up using a ladder and attaching it to the rack. That's the catch: we'll need a step stool to set it up, which isn't a big deal since we'll have one in the van. K even has deemed me, apparently, 'Awning guy.' No worries.
Ahh, the joy of summer… running around in your underpants…
The thing about the awning is I can't really recommend it. Yes, it works. Sort of. The left leg doesn't cam. I may have fixed it tonight by punching in the tiny indents that seem to keep the cam from just coming off in the upper section. The left horizontal extension also doesn't cam, and the plastic device seems to be lost somewhere in the tube. I'm going to get a hold of Yakima customer support tomorrow and see what they recommend.
Assuming it can be fixed, it will be pretty sweet to pull out some camp chairs under it and bask in some shade. Maybe turn on our stereo (that installation is forthcoming). Cook dinner. This of course will be somewhere remote where there isn't anyone around; we'll have wherever it is to ourselves. Ahhh...
Oh, here's a sort of fun timelapse of the installation (which also captures K spray painting the seat pedestals):
Next up: flooring.
