Just want to show some pics and say that the Yakima Lowriders work great on the factory rack. I ended up wrapping a piece of foam pipe insulation around the front Yakima bar to stop the deafening howling that resulted.

There is one downside to this mod.........15 MPG with the kayaks up there.

rollers on back

saddles in front

no kayaks

with kayaks - front view

with kayaks - side view

Looks good.

I am not sure what I am going to do with the rack yet, but that looks very clean.

As for the howling, that was the first thing I noticed years ago when I first put my Yakima rack on my Intrepid. I went out and bought the deflector that evening (not that this would be a good solution for the X).

knaffie, how much were they, if you don't mind my asking?

I forget how much, but they were cheaper on courtesyparts.com than anywhere else, including Ebay. There is a high demand for Yakima parts on Ebay, so the pricing is high on them. I'm thinking around $100 for the set of 4, then the rest of the rack setup is worth over $400.

Knaffie,
Do those have rubber padding on the inside of the clamps to protect the finish on the rack?

YES!

Is the saddle attached to the Xterra cross bars or do the lowriders come with a new cross bar or do I have to purchase the aftermarket crossbar seperately? Also could you list all of the parts you purchased to get both kayaks up on the roof and sorry for all of the questions I am new to kayaking. Thanks for the help and by the way nice ride it looks just like ours.

The only thing that the factory rack does is provide a point to attach the Lowriders.

Parts needed:

4 Yakima Lowriders
2 Yakima Crossbars
4 Yakima Hully Rollers
4 Yakima Landshark Saddles

The factory rack worked fine for carrying one kayak if you use pads on the crossbar, but there is absolutely no room for two of them up there, so I set it up like this.

Can one person load the kayaks on the roof?

Kind of. I'm 6' tall and I can barely do it. Without the rollers in the back, non way. I have a big thick rubber-back rug I put on the back of the vehicle and on the back of the factory rack. I set the front of the boat on that rug, then lift the back and slide it forward. No way my wife could do it - she's like 5'5" 120#.

Thanks for your help and have a great day!