A word of advise for the guys and gals who leave the gear basket on all the time. I normally have my gear basket off but for a couple of months I had it on to move stuff around. This past weekend I decided it was time for it to go. You can not believe the amount of tree and bird crap that was under there, it was so ugly that after I pulled the basket off, I also pulled of the wind deflector. It got even worse when I did that.
To make a long story short, for those of you who park around and under trees, it might be a good idea to remove the basket and wind deflector once in a while and clean the area. I actually had to get the rubbing compound out to get some of the stains off the paint. By the way, the X does not look that bad without the basket and wind deflector.
Happy cleaning !

I've had my basket out for a while, but just took the wind deflector off yesterday - what a mess! And I like the look without it too, so will be leaving it off for a while.

Plus I want to see if it helps me get better gas milage....

I remove mine regularly for cleaning. Only takes an extra minute.

As far as removing it for mileage, I'm not sold. I had mine off for a couple weeks once while I was working on the roofrack and I noticed absolutely no change in mileage. For that matter I noticed no change with the crossbars off the rack either. On top of that the naked roof made me ill and my Xterra looked like some plain old boring SUV. Add to the fact that I was blinded by the sun coming through the sunroof and it just made for an unhappy couple weeks.

I took it, and the airdam, off the truck last time I washed it. I haven't been bothered to put it back on, but I kinda like the way it looks so I'm in no hurry to get it back on.

Offtopic: I saw an X with the entire rack removed, yikes ... now that's ugly.

Took mine off a few weeks ago to clean underneath it. Actually, was removing the basket so I could move the front crossbar forward in order to carry a luggage bag on top for vacation.

When I hoisted the air dam up and across the truck, I slid it along in my hand to position it. There's a really nasty, sharp edge along the bottom or the top, can't remember which. I was too busy soaking up blood.

Be careful when taking the air dam off or putting it back on!

hmm i slide mine on and off all the time and i havent cut myself yet mine has a rubber seal along the botton i dont know what would have cut you.

2000, 2001 and early production 2002's have the old style air damn, which does not reach all the way to the front edge of the roof, thus eliminating the need for a rubber "seal" all the way around. Most 2002's and the 2003's have the new style air damn that runs flush with the front of the roof, as well as around the front corners of the rack, and has a rubber fitting that seals the front and sides of the dam.

This is assuming of course that Malcolm slid his hand along the bottom...if it was on the top of the dam, then a bloody finger may be coming your way too . In that sense, I guess we're lucky .

Old and New dams

ChrisW

I leave the whole rack assembled when cleaning under it twice yearly. Always do it with two people. Unbolt everything and just walk it off the front or back. One person on each side. Pretty easy job.

I've taken both of mine off, and I couldn't take the wind noise...have you noticed this?

I got more noise with the air dam and basket removed too. My basket spends most of its time in my basement since I noticed all the crap trapped under it early on.

Brent

I only notice the change in wind noise when the sun roof is open. But now that the temperature has jumped 30 degrees, the sun roof will be closed and the AC is on.
Along with removing the air dam and basket I also removed the cross bars. Have not calculated mpg numbers yet but the raw data has been recorded. Just going by the low fuel light, there has been a measurable improvement. Maybe as much as 25 more miles til the light goes on.

dave and xtoy - thirsty little bastard

I could never get consistent results with it off vs on. I don't think the wind noise was louder, but it was definitely a different frequency (lower pitched) which I guess would mean louder to those of us with some hearing loss.

I think I'll keep the basket, and put a cover on it to keep it from acting like a cup/scoop. Speaking of which, has anyone seen someone put a lid on the basket? Figured it would be easy to do a quick set of hinges and plex. Got em in the garage just waiting actually.

Could be nice to keep stuff from blowing out of it or make it tougher to steal from (not by much however).

-=RB

RB -
I think covering the basket is a good idea. I considered it, but want to use the sunroof instead. Add to that we took the basket off because it held lots of snow.

dave and xtoy - but cover it and cut the bottom of the basket so the sun roof opens...

Does anyone know what temp plexiglass softens at? I wanted to make a cover for my basket, but didn't realize it's curved a little.. I figure I can make a mold with some sheet metal and bake it - but I can't remember if Plex slumps like ABS plastic does (~200 degrees?)

-=RB

When the plexi will 'slump' depends on the grade of plastic. Since there may be no way to know, start at 200 f. and work your way up slowly - say 10 degree steps. Experiment on a scrap piece of the plexi that you will be using.
FWIW, the temperature when a material 'slumps', good description BTW, is called the glass transition temperature, Tg for short. If you look at the data sheet for many plastic materials you will see Tg listed along with other specs.

dave and xtoy - and we used DSC, TMA or DMA to get that value