Tips on attaching my old Yakima rack?

wrybread · Post by **wrybread** » 12 May 2019, 19:25

Tomorrow I plan to attach my old Yakima rack to my 2000 s70, I was wondering if anyone has any tips?

It looks like the mounting point requires a slightly different shaped bracket than the one currently on my rack. I was thinking about grinding the current one down and drilling a hole to use the screw holes in the side of the vehicle, at least temporarily. If so, does anyone happen to know the screw size?

And is there a different Yakima bracket to adapt this rack to the Volvo shape?

And in a perfect world I'd be using a longer crossbars than the stock one. Has anyone ever changed that? And any tips on what to use as a replacement, ideally one that doesn't require a heavy tax paid to Yakima?

Pics attached (and yes I see some touch up paint in my future).

Edit: found this post about extending the cross-bars with parts from Lowes:

https://forums.mtbr.com/cars-bike-racks ... 62905.html

And some notes about the screw:

https://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-850 ... ecs-45387/

From that post, the screws are M6 X 1.00. He got 16MM long.

wrybread · Post by **wrybread** » 13 May 2019, 17:44

Well that didn't work out... The bracket on the Yakima rack would take quite a bit of bending to make it work, and they're not exactly maleable, which is a compliment to their construction but outside my abilities as a metal forger...

After some more research I found that it's the Yakima Q51 clip:

https://www.rerack.com/yakima-q51-clips-w-a-pads-new/

And I'm also wondering about OEM racks.... Anyone know where I might get one of those?

I contacted FCP Euro about this rack:

https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/volvo- ... UwQAvD_BwE

Personally I like the cross bar style more. Does anyone happen to know which Thule rack fits it?

Post by **abscate** » 14 May 2019, 05:26

Hank on Cape Cod has a good selection of Volvo racks at good prices.

wrybread · Post by **wrybread** » 22 May 2019, 02:59

Well I managed to mount my old Yakima rack on my S70, thought I'd post the deets in case anyone else comes down this road.

My rack, which was probably 5 years old, used Yakima's discontinued "Q-Tower" mounting system. Yakima has a range of brackets for attaching these Q-Towers to the car, for the S70 I needed Yakima's Q51 bracket. There's tons of them on eBay, I got a set of 4 for $20. They fit perfectly. They don't screw into the rack holes, but they have a pin that goes in there. Very sturdy. Pasting in someone's else's pic:

My cross-bars were 48", which is a bit short. Yakima recommends their 58" bars for the S70. I was able to make my 48" bars fit but one of the bars (I think the front one) is really pushing it, the bar only goes half way through the Q-Tower. But I think it has plenty of bite, and it hauled it's first kayak on the highway during a windy storm this weekend with no problems.

I'd love to have bars as long as that pic above, so I might try to figure out how to make my own. I gather Yakima uses non standard pipes to prevent this, ha, but there's lots of posts around the intertubes with methods people have worked out.

But! I got a little bit of water leaking into the car where those brackets enter the car. So I'm still in the market for Volvo factory racks, if anyone knows of anything.

And if anyone happens to have a solution to this kind of leak, I'm interested.

callahanoffroad · Post by **callahanoffroad** » 31 Aug 2020, 06:49

wrybread wrote: ↑22 May 2019, 02:59 Well I managed to mount my old Yakima rack on my S70, thought I'd post the deets in case anyone else comes down this road.

My rack, which was probably 5 years old, used Yakima's discontinued "Q-Tower" mounting system. Yakima has a range of brackets for attaching these Q-Towers to the car, for the S70 I needed Yakima's Q51 bracket. There's tons of them on eBay, I got a set of 4 for $20. They fit perfectly. They don't screw into the rack holes, but they have a pin that goes in there. Very sturdy. Pasting in someone's else's pic:

My cross-bars were 48", which is a bit short. Yakima recommends their 58" bars for the S70. I was able to make my 48" bars fit but one of the bars (I think the front one) is really pushing it, the bar only goes half way through the Q-Tower. But I think it has plenty of bite, and it hauled it's first kayak on the highway during a windy storm this weekend with no problems.

I'd love to have bars as long as that pic above, so I might try to figure out how to make my own. I gather Yakima uses non standard pipes to prevent this, ha, but there's lots of posts around the intertubes with methods people have worked out.

But! I got a little bit of water leaking into the car where those brackets enter the car. So I'm still in the market for Volvo factory racks, if anyone knows of anything.

And if anyone happens to have a solution to this kind of leak, I'm interested.

Hey thanks for this thread. Really helped me when i bought my roof rack yesterday. You're 100% spot on. Those 48" bars are like putting on shorts that are just a little bit too small. I have the brackets that were for a Jetta for now, but i'll be ordering those Q51 brackets.

wrybread · Post by **wrybread** » 31 Aug 2020, 13:42

Awesome! Mine are still going strong after hauling all kinds of things on the roof, and no leaking.

wrybread · Post by **wrybread** » 31 Aug 2020, 14:23

Thought I'd post some pics of some of the things my rack has carried.

From giant 14 foot SUPs and sailboats:

To 21 foot surfski kayaks:

To wine barrels and a car full of dirt bags:

To hot tubs:

To chest freezers:

To smokers:

To goofy parade floats:

One time I was meeting a friend to go sailing, and he was asking me if I had a trailer for my sailboat. We both have the same Laser sailboat. I said nah I just carry it on my roof. He said "oh that's nice, I'd do that too except my car isn't Volvo strong". Those words go thru my head every time I'm carrying something large and ridiculous up there. "Volvo strong" should be a company slogan.

And always remember: a pickup truck is a state of mind... Or as another friend put it, "That's one hard workin Volvo!"

And on a sidenote whenever hauling ridiculous things on my roof on major roads I always run a ratchet strap over the load and through the inside of the car, so it's not all on the rack.

Post by **FLXC90** » 31 Aug 2020, 20:30

Since it was mounted externally, I guess you can claim it wasn't smoke(er)ed in.

callahanoffroad · Post by **callahanoffroad** » 03 Sep 2020, 18:37

Just wanted to share that the Q51 qclips are a perfect fit. Also here's a picture of my new rack being put into work.

32' ladder.

Post by **Chuck W** » 03 Sep 2020, 18:59

Late to the party, but we have 2 of these kits, well Thule, for our 850s. They attach the same way as the Yakima ones do.

I have one I normally run on my '97 854 during track and cyclocross season, and we picked up a spare, in case we needed something on the wife's car.

Evidently I have only one (blurry) pic of her car with my rack on it when we were all out at a CX race a couple years back.