biff44

Has anyone ever found a cage type roof rack that FITS the new (shorter) OEM rails on a 2018 lx570? that or the OEM crossbars?

i see plenty of quality roof racks out there (frontrunner, etc) that look good, but are fabulously expensive AND require you to remove the OEM rails, and screw them to those rail mounting holes.

well, that is not going to work very well if i want to drive around most of the time with the roof rack off, but put it on when i am planning a long trip. If i take the roof rack off AFTER removing the OEM rails, then i have holes in the roof for rain to get in. also, resale value will go down as many buying a used LX570 will not want the roof rack, and would want the original OEM rails intact.

i am starting to think about just a generic steel cage roof rack attached to my oem crossbars, but it will probably look like a kluge!

Planning some logging road canadian road trips, and due to the gas mileage we get, looks like i might need to be packing two or three jerry cans for gas. need a cage roof rack to transport those....

biff44

I tried to get along with the OEM roof bars for the my 2018 LX570. But the flush mount rails make it impossible to lash anything down to the car (non flush rails at least allow you to attach a rope/strap to the rail itself), which made for some odd carries. Also, the OEM roof bars have plastic end caps that, if the load shifts and it bumps against the plastic, the plastic piece just falls off.

So i finally bit the bullet and ordered a real roof rack system. after much pondering, i went with a thule kit:

also, thule is having a big sale this weekend...added impetus to buy it now.



there were other options, like yakima, but i like the sleek look of the expedition style platform. Rhino rack has an expedition one that is bigger, but like WAY bigger, and i was not sure how well that would fit on the lx roof.

biff44

powder coated aluminum
went with a shorter rack (59 x 59") because i did not want to lose my sat radio reception on long roadtrips (with a metal rack right above the sharkfin), wanted to allow the moon roof to pivot up, but did not want it too tall in case i want to park in a parking garage. So many tradeoffs....

Bgw70

Great choice, I have a Thule receiver type bike rack…they make some high quality products.
Please Post up some pics when you get it installed

biff44

Ok she is up. took a little time to assemble as the instructions are all in Cuneiform, not a word printed. I set it up in the logical place, so that the wind dam was just short of where the moon roof rotates up to. but that put the rack almost directly on top of the satellite antenna. I was getting a lot of sat radio drop outs driving around in moderately hilly new hampshire terrain.

In new england, these geostationary satellites have a 22 degree look angle in elevation.
and inside the shark fin we have TWO ceramic receiver antennas to worry about.


two ceramic squares are the Sat antennas

So to miss the end bar of the roof rack, i have to move the roof rack forward at least 7.5 inches.



So i then spent some time deciding where to push the roof rack forward to. with the air dam positioned like they recommend in the instructions (weirdly facing back),




i actually had to push the roof rack forward about 12 inches. Now it clears when the moon roof is rotated open.






BTW, you will neede a torque wrench with a 6mm allen wrench tip in it to assemble the rack:

biff44

I still have to drive her around and make sure the wind noise is acceptable. i did not hear ANY wind noise with the rack positioned back, and the wind dam 1/4 inch gap to the roof.
NOW with the wind dam half way down the moon roof, i need it almost a full inch gap above the glass to clear it when rotated up.
I assume the satellite reception issues are fixed, as it can not go much further forward!


this shows the cardboard triangle with the 22 look angle. clearly, the line of site to the satellite is ok now, and not obstructed by the rear rack bar.



this is the thule caprock M size. IF i did not care about satellite communications reception, i bet the Large caprock roof rack would fit too.
Note: the left and right edges overhang the roof top by about 5 1/2"

biff44

. Its a good thing i do not live up in Alaska or northern Canada! I COULD move it a few inches back toward the antenna, but i ran out of travel on the air dam, and it would start to hit the rotated up moon roof. i would need to modify the air dam slots.

i did not put the plastic cover plates onto the 4 feet yet, as i am suposed to re-torque all the screws after fifty miles.
note, you have to buy the metal cylinder locks separate ($67), the kit only comes with plastic ones that can be undone with a screwdriver

It seems very sturdy, and being aluminum, will not rust. the only negative i can see, the ~100 lb payload limit. I guess that comes from the lexus roof rated for 165 pounds, and the rack itself weighing 65 lbs. i noticed what might be a poor design choice, the entire roof rack is held up by four screws going into T-Slot aluminum channels in the two crossbars where the four feet are. If those T-Slots bend, or one of the bolts sheers off, that roof rack is going to fall onto the roof top.

biff44

Height Clearance seems to be 79 1/2 inches with the thule.
but considering the AHC system's operation, i would add a good inch more for safety! so maybe call it 81 inches

the thule seems to be about 2" taller than the OEM Lexus crossbars

biff44

don't forget to retorque the foot kit, and the bolts on the crossbars. after 150 miles they all needed snugging up.

the instructons said to do so at 50 and 500 miles. it i was halfway thru the trip then...so waited until i got home.

greygoose1

This is exactly the rack I'm looking at since I don't want to drop the headliner for a Front Runner or ARB Base rack. Thanks for sharing pictures of it installed. I thought the load capacity was 330lbs?

biff44

i ordered it direct from Thule, and the lady i talked with made sure i realied the reduced capacity.
not sure why it is so, as it looks a lot stronger than that....might have someting to do with what lexus approves for rail weight.

they were having a sale, and it was something like 25% off

Here lexus itself says 165 lbs....

https://parts.lexus.com/p/Lexus__RX-...is%20165%20lbs.

i think if you actually plan on carrying mamouth loads, you need the type you screw onto the roof itself (thru the headliner). Prinsu is saying 650 lbs, for instance.

i figure if i ever need to load it up high, i will use a ratcheting strap thru the two back door frames.

greygoose1

I'm guessing that's for the bars and not the roof itself since Prinsu, ARB, and FR are citing much higher capacities. Makes me wonder if you could install additional foot packs and double that rating. I agree the design choice to bolt to slats and then bolt the tray to the slats from the bottom is a terrible one. I think it's incredibly misleading to have all their promo material showing a loaded up rack with RTTs, etc. and then bury the tiny capacity that won't stand up to what they're showing in the fine print. Too bad, since I think the Caprock looks great.

If I drop the headliner, the ARB Base rack is also flawed with a clamshell clamping system that's already been shown to bend under stress on multiple forums. The FR and Prinsu racks both have a half-useful half-annoying lip that makes awning mounts challenging.

I've already got a Caprock on the way. I'll see if the extra feet idea is worth pursuing and how much flex there is in the slats. If it's no good, I'll just send it back and have to go the FR route I suppose.

Thanks for the info!

biff44

yes i thought the same about adding a 3rd pair of foot packs. but....here is the problem. the flush roof rails are NOT horizontal. there is a bow in them.
so 2 pairs of foot packs work fine, but a 3rd foot pack in the middle would have to be something like 1 inch shorter. and the way the foot pack/feet slide into a T slot on the underside of a bar, there is no way to hack a height difference.

this is also the reason that you can not use 3 OEM lexus crossbars....the one in the middle will always be higher than the front and rear one

you might be able to hack in a threaded rod from a cross bar on the caprock M to a rubber bumper sitting on top of the flush rail, and adjust the threaded bar height with nuts above and below the crossbar. it migh look like hell though. notice that the left and right ends of the rack DO extend over the top edges of the car. You also might be able to fashion your own footpack welded to a vertical threaded bar too....a 3/8 stainless threaded rod would probably add another 100 lbs of cargo load

another option is to use a pair of thule feet/footpack, and just a freestanding crossbar, and position it directly over the sharkfin antenna TEMPORARILY, if you need to haul heavy or long loads. I bet you can jigger around with the various thule crossbars and come up with the right height.....but i suspect the satellite reception would be bad. One good thing about the various styles of thule crossbars: they are flat. the oem lexus crossbars have a bow in them, making it harder to balance a load.

For that matter, if you are just hauling a heavy load temporarily, you can probably cut up a piece of 2x4 wood to wedge in there in the middle of the caprock M.

greygoose1

Installed my Caprock today. I went with the L since satellite radio isn't a concern for me. I may have problems tilting the sunroof with the air dam on, but I don't tilt it often; open or closed. I did some more digging and it looks like roof racks are rated for 'dynamic' and 'static' loads. It looks like almost every manufacturer (including Front Runner) sticks to 150kg for the dynamic load rating, even if they're rating it for 600+ static. I'm guessing this is some sort of liability deal. This made me feel better about the Thule since I also dig the looks and didn't want to drop my headliner.

Initial impressions:
Even though biff44 clearly said the side overhang was 5 1/2 inches, it still surprised me. This rack has a good spread. I fiddled around with the crossbars and could make individual ones flex, but no more so than my old FR rack. It's sturdy. Once I got it mounted and buttoned up I carefully did my awning test -- stepping up off a tire and bracing myself on just the edge of the rack and slowly putting my 200+ lbs of weight on it. I did this test in the middle -- the weakest point -- and even did some gentle rocking bounces. It held up just fine. I'm also pretty sure that if push came to shove, I could add another set of foot packs at spars #2 and #5 to complement the existing ones at #1 and #6. Agreed that there's no way to brace the middle without getting real janky.

I was pretty nervous about the whole load rating situation, but I'm not now. It's damn sturdy and, unlike a different system, I could add towers/braces. I also tried some of my old FrontRunner hardware -- it doesn't fit. The Thule T-channels are more shallow, but wider. I could add any accessories from the FR catalog, but I'd need to get the Thule-sized nuts. All in all, I'm happy with it. It was exactly the solution I was hoping it would be.

greygoose1

Tailgate clears, tilt clears.