LFD Crossbars.... a few questions

i decided to invest in a rooftop solution and a cargo box for my '24 ORP (while ditching my OEM crossbars) and was about to buy Yakima Timberline towers and their aero bars but now i'm leaning towards this LFD setup.

https://lfdoffroad.com/products/ruggedized-crossbar-kit-5th-gen-4runner

I've read nothing but good things about them. My questions:

- anyone have any bad experiences mounting and using these LFD bars on the stock side raised side rails?

- how many bars come with the LFD kit??? all the pics show 4 of them, is that right?

- anyone have any problems using these with a Thule or Yakima box?

thank you!

 

Nice options with steel, stainless, and aluminum.
First question, https://lfdoffroad.com/pages/faq
Thule boxes are designed to work with OEM factory cross bars, so as long as the jaws can open wide enough it should mount up fine, except for the front bar with the fairing. You could also remove the jaws and make some metal plates to hard mount the box to these rails.

 

Ihave them mounted on my stock rails . Check my posts for pics of them . I’m traveling right now so can’t help with pics .

 

I had the Yakama Timberlines. I felt they rode too high and were cumbersome to install. Way too many turns screwing the tower clamps to the rails. The screws have a lot of threads per inch. I ditched them for the LFD's and have no regrets. My Yakama Rocketbox works fine. The LFD's look better, too.

 

thank you. What size rocket box? How many LFD bars? Are you using the LFD fairing ? I see you have an 18, not sure if that has the shark fin? If not, do you think there would be an issue with it? Much appreciated!

 

Yeah, I have the shark fin. No issues there. The rocket box can be adjusted fore and aft for clearance. What size rocket box? The big one. 2 bars are adequate. I wasn't comfortable with the clearance of the fairing bar, so I just use a regular bar. Wind noise annoyance is a personal preference, but it doesn't bother me.

EDIT: The feet/clamps of the rocket box will not fit around the fairing x-bar. It's been so long that I forgot about that.

 

I have them on my ‘19 and like them generally. 4 bars and the first is the wind stop. Shark fin is lower and not an issue for anything I have carried.

3 weeks ago, I borrowed a Yakima box and found I had to remove one bar and move one far forward to get the clamps to fit. All was well, however with the box favoring driver or passenger, the front clamp nearest the center of the truck had about a millimeter of space between the roof and the clamp. If I centered the box, it was more like a 1/2 inch.

also, when on a rugged road, the box would shift sideways by at least an inch over large bumps. (I should drive slower)

since it was a temporary borrow for a trip to Yellowstone, I was ok with it. If I owned it, I would have to hard mount.

still haven’t put the bars back in place. Need to do that.

 

I have them in stainless steel. They're pretty beefy. I like them and would buy them again, although to be honest I haven't used them for much. Mainly I like that I have kind of a platform to stow things on overnight when sleeping inside the back. A few more comments:

-The set I got comes with 3 regular bars and one bar with integrated wind fairing.
-The ones I received were all slightly different widths which was annoying but not a significant problem. I did align them in width order to install them in that sequence.
-The included nord-lock washer hardware really locks them in place well. You can grab the bars and shake them and they're solid--the whole car moves but not the bar. The downside is that it would be kind of a hassle to frequently adjust the location (spacing) of the bars. You don't want to have to do that too often.
-All the slots and holes make for very versatile mounting options. You can use T-nuts or lag bolts from the hardware store in addition to straps and such.
-The wind fairing is effective and there is no significant wind noise.

 

This seems to be the issue with many of the crossbars. @OP: The Yakima and Thule style crossbars that sit on top or above the roof rails aren’t an issue, but the crossbars that mount between the rails are another story and many folks report problems with the roof box claws scratching the paint.

 

yes and most of my use case does not encounter this issue, only the claw of the box I borrowed.

I carry a shovel, kayaks, Lumber, etc. without issue.

Cheers.

 

I had a clearance problem with the factory x- bars and a Yakama Rocket box. There are now 2 permanent reminders in the roof paint. The LFD's fixed that issue.

 

Dave do you bolt your Rocket Box to the LFD bars or do you use the claws?

 

I appreciate all the insights, thanks again. I'm definitely going to order the LFD kit, get that on the truck, and then start shopping for a cargo box. Leaning towards the Yakima RocketBox Pro 14.

I'm just going to wait until July 4th weekend in the hope that LFD has a sale.

 

I use the claws. It's only used when we take the grandkids on a trip.