2002 p5 roof rack Q

[aschoen]

I'm looking to fabricate my own rack towers to bolt on to where the stock p5 roff rack bolts on to. I'm wondering about the strength of those bolt holes though. Does anyone know if those go directly into the roof? If I bolt my yakima mounts directly to those holes will it be as strong as using the Q-towers?

Thanks in advance,
Anton.

 

[privateer]

from what i saw when i took off the factory roof rack rails no.as ive posted mazda will tell you that the factory racks are not rated to carry anything that causes wind lift[surfboards windsurfers ect..] you can do it but you take the liability so is it the attachment points or the racks themselves?, if you remove your headliner take it to a body shop show them your design and and ask the question. i too was hoping for a rack system like the canadians their p5 have a different enternal roof structure than usa in the end i settled for function over form and went with thules but even the thules i had to get longer bolts than the ones they provide to get the right fit called them to tell them of my dilema in a nutshell i think that they believe i did not install correctly but i can assure you and at least my self that this is not the first time i have ever used their products getting back to your question all i saw was sheet metal where the small bolts go thru with 8mm nuts,if there was a support strut that ran the lenght of the roof in that area on both sides than maybe a yes would be a possibilty in the end a big question is what you intend to carry mine was surfboards show us your desin if it becomes functional good luck.

 

[aschoen]

Bummer! Thats what I was afraid of. I have the Yakima Q towers, which I'm not very happy with as they scratch the hell out of my car and are a pain to adjust. I use my rack to carry windsurfing boards and would rather not lose a couple grand of boards when I'm rolling down the road at 80mph. I'm not really in the mood to start punching holes through my roof, just thought it might have been a possability. Thanks for the info.

Anton

 

[savaho]

Anton,
I don't know what kind of surboard rack you have but try looking into yakima horizontal mount adapters instead of using q-towers, you may be able to mount the rack directly onto your factory p5 bars if so equipped.

 

[aschoen]

The problem is I usually have alot of gear when I head out. Like this past week I had my bike, 2 boards, a big bag with all my sails in it, and another bag with my masts in it. I think that might overload the factory bars.