Why are crossbars and mounting equipment so expensive? (buying, engine, replacing)
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I have a Jeep Cherokee that came with a set of basic steel crossbars. I've been looking at replacing these with some Thule or Yakima bars, and I'm blown away by the prices.
A set of Aeroblades is pushing $500 for the bars alone, not counting any other mounting equipment I need. A rooftop cargo carrier can easily run over $500 for what is basically a mountable box.
You could easily pay more for mounting equipment, racks, etc., than you could for whatever it is you're trying to transport!
Why are these seemingly simple products so expensive?
1) Liability. Engineering and usability must be immaculate to forestall liability issues.
2) Limited market for each design, since each make, model and year range needs something specifically customized.
3) Because it's a must-have accessory for those who drive, acquire and play with very expensive adult toys.
You can get cheap non-name brand versions from China(aliexpress, ebay, etc), but they're not very durable from examples I've seen. Buying used can save a lot of money.
You can get cheap non-name brand versions from China(aliexpress, ebay, etc), but they're not very durable from examples I've seen. Buying used can save a lot of money.
That may be very well what I end up doing. This isn't stuff I'm going to use regularly. I'm not going to invest a ton into it
I have a Jeep Cherokee that came with a set of basic steel crossbars. I've been looking at replacing these with some Thule or Yakima bars, and I'm blown away by the prices.
A set of Aeroblades is pushing $500 for the bars alone, not counting any other mounting equipment I need. A rooftop cargo carrier can easily run over $500 for what is basically a mountable box.
You could easily pay more for mounting equipment, racks, etc., than you could for whatever it is you're trying to transport!
Why are these seemingly simple products so expensive?
Because they work. Years from now that Thule or Yakima will still work when the Chinese pos is in a landfill.
You could go to a metal fabricator, tell them what kind of roof rack you want, and they could build one to your exact specs, a whole lot cheaper than a Thule, Yakima, etc, those brands, a large part of the price is the brand name.
I had a local guy build mine when I had the Saturn Vue, it looked exactly like the Yakima carriers, but $300 cheaper and it was much tougher and powder coated too. Look under craiglist for welding and metal fabricators, a roof rack is pretty basic to metal fabricators.
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