etrailer | DIY Install: Yakima SkyBox NX 16 Rooftop Cargo Box on your 2024 Subaru Outback Wagon

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Full transcript: https://www.etrailer.com/tv-install-y...
Hi, everyone, Aiden here with etrailer. Today, we'll be taking a look at the Yakima SkyBox NX 16 Rooftop Box and seeing how it fits on the top of our 2024 Subaru Outback. Now, if you're looking to expand the cargo space of your Outback and you want to utilize that factory roof rack since you already have it, the SkyBox is gonna be a great way to do it, and there's a number of reasons for that. For one, it's a pretty sizable box, giving you 16 cubic feet of storage space. But two, the factory roof rack sits really close to the top of the roof on your Outback, and that can present problems for certain clamp round accessories just not having the room or maybe making contact with that painted surface on your roof. The low-profile clamps on the SkyBox are gonna work great with your factory bars on your Outback, making it, in my opinion, the perfect solution.

And here's a closer look at those clamps. It's hard to see because like I said, everything's so close to the roof. But at its closest point, you've got about an inch of space here, and the actual clamp part that tightens around the bar sits up even tighter than that. So it's going to keep your roof protected while still keeping a strong hold on those thinner factory bars. Other nice details about the fitment include the antenna fitting perfectly underneath one of these ridges on the box.

We could even push it back further if we needed to, but there's also plenty of room for hatch clearance. So where we have the box positioned right now is pretty much centered on the roof. We're not extending forward over the windshield at all, and like I said, plenty of clearance with this back hatch. So we're not sacrificing any function of our vehicle. Plus, we've got optimal spacing on the bars so that when we load it up with stuff, it's not gonna be lopsided or overloaded in one area.

And the final fitment thing I really like is the width. Your factory bars aren't super wide, but the box occupies most of that space really effectively. So we can open the box up with relative ease because it comes close to the edge of the vehicle, giving us much easier access in to load up some stuff or close the lid when we're done. But it also can be open from either side. And because it's perfectly centered on our roof, we can reach both sides really easily.

The box is constructed of an ABS plastic, which is completely standard across all rooftop boxes. What sets this one apart is the textured finish. They call it their nano-texture. And really all that comes down to is that texture will hide scratches and scuffs a lot better than a glossy finished would. Some people just like the look of a glossy box better, but me personally, I like the function of that texture to protect it overall. Inside the box, you have a decent amount of space to work with because of the wider front end. You do have actually a lot of functional space in here where you can pack some bags closer to the edges and you're not just limited to the middle. The anchor points that clamp around the bars have tie-down loops right here, so you can feed a strap through and around your cargo to keep it still. And overall, the box can handle 165 pounds of weight evenly distributed throughout. Now, keep in mind that the box itself does carry a fair amount of weight. So you wanna check what your roof rack on your Subaru is capable of and keep in mind the weight of the empty box and just go by the lowest rated components. We're not overloading our roof. The interior usable height of the box is gonna be around 14 inches. That may change depending on the cargo or the place that you have all your cargo loaded up at. For example, the front kind of tapers down here, so that height might differ from the very middle of the box where you've got the highest point. But compressible cargo, like a duffel bag, is gonna lend itself best for something like this because when you close the lid, it can kind of conform around those contours and those different shapes. Me personally, I used this exact box on a big road trip I took this summer and we went all around Utah and loaded it up with all of our camping gear, so the sleeping bags, the tent, anything else that was kind of in that soft form where it's not super heavy. So it wasn't a concern with the weight capacity and easily compressible and it worked great. We loaded it up with a lot of stuff and held it all real