etrailer | Rhino-Rack Vortex Aero Roof Rack Installation - 2021 BMW X3

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Full transcript: https://www.etrailer.com/tv-install-r...
Hey everybody, today we're going to be going over and showing you how to install the Rhino-Rack Vortex Aero Crossbar system here on our 2021 BMW X3.So this is what our roof rack is going to look like installed. As you can see here we have this nice Aero Crossbar shape. This does a couple different things. Number one, it's going to cutdown on wind noise, so we're not going to have to worry about that noisy crossbar system on our roof here and hearing it inside the cab. And number two, it's also going to be more wind resistant, which again plays into wind noise but it also helps retain our fuel economy here. We're not going to have those bulky square crossbars that can actually decrease your miles per gallon.So the roof rack is going to be an excellent option for our X3.

It's really going to make our vehicle much more versatile. We're going to be able to attach plenty of different rooftop-mounted accessories, such as a cargo box, a bike rack, a surfboard carrier, a ski carrier, or even a kayak rack. The possibilities really are endless.So right now we have the black crossbars installed on our vehicle, they're really going to blend in well with our dark blue paint here. There is, however, also an option for a silver crossbar. So it's really just going to come down to preference and which option you feel best matches your vehicle.So here we have the mounting feet, which is what pretty much holds our crossbars to our flush rails.

So all X3s are going to come equipped with these flush rails and they really make it very easy to install our roof rack here. There's only going to be two components to our kit, we just need the crossbars and then the mounting feet. We're going to have a little groove here, inside the channel of our flush rails, one on either side. And there's going to be sort of two teeth, if you'll call them, which are going to be some rubber-coated hooks which really grab into those lips there and hold it in place. As you can see it's very sturdy.The Rhino-Rack roof rack is really one of my favorite options on the market.

They don't quite have the big brand name appeal as Thule and Yakima but they really offer some great features in an affordable price. Something they do that Thule and Yakima doesn't do is they actually include the lock cores for you, which is just an extra measure of security.So in regards to weight this particular system here is going to be rated for 176 pounds. However, you do want to take a look in your vehicle's owner's manual to ensure that the capacity of the roof rails either meets or exceeds this. If it does not you'll have to go by the lower of the two ratings.A couple measurements here for you. Number one the length of our crossbars, it's going to be 54", so that's going to give us plenty of room to fit multiple items on the roof.

Something also I like to give is the distance from the top of the roof here to the bottom of the crossbar. Granted the roof does curve but at the highest point it's likely going to be about 2-3/4", which is going to be plenty of space.So now a common question we get is whether they can open their glass roof with the crossbars installed. And as you're about to see now that's not going to be an issue here for our X3, we'll have plenty of room.So now that we've gone over some of the benefits and features of our system here let's go ahead and jump right into that installation, so we can show you how it's done.So the first step of our installation we want to get a crossbar ready, along with two of our mounting feet. Now your crossbars may or may not come pre-installed with the end caps. If they are pre-installed we need to remove them. We're going to have a key in our kit that looks like this, we'll insert that into the end of the crossbar until we can turn the dial there to the unlocked position. Once we've turned it to the unlocked position we can go ahead and remove the end cap. We'll need to do this on both sides.Also, we're going to have to remove the protective channel lining here, if it comes installed. We'll just simply peel them out here, these little channels here line up with the grooves on the back. So we'll remove those from both sides as well, if they do come installed.So now we're going to take one of the feet here that comes in our kit, we're going to slide this into the channel on the bottom of our crossbar. The smooth side here, with our locking knob, is going to be facing outward away from the vehicle. So you'll see a little channel here that'll line up with the channel in our crossbar. We'll slide that onto position. We'll do that on both sides.So now with both of our feet on we'll take our end