Gamiviti 3/4 flat roof rack installed

[Hayes]

Finished installing a Gamiviti 3/4 flat roof rack on my 2005 LX last night.
Everything pretty much worked out as described by Gamiviti and by others here in the forum. Factory rack removal was very easy. No broken clips or covers, and no rust or corrosion. FYI, the bolts holding my towers down where plain ol' 12mm bolts, not Torx screws. I was also able to cut slots for the new center towers (Dremel with cutoff wheel) and reinstall the cosmetic gutter cover for a more finished look.
The rack and tower parts are well-made, and Gamiviti was very good to work with. I cleaned, primed and painted the rack with Kryon Rust Tough enamel, semi flat black.
Now I just need to load it up and head for the hills...

 

[yotasavg]

Wow I really like your LX, and the TLC badge!

 

[fireball]

Thanks for the photos. Really struggling with this decision! Like the gamiviti for it's low profile and less expensive price tag. Doesn't have quite as many options as some of the other racks but I don't think that's really an issue. We also carry a big Thule cargo box on long trips when the whole family comes, so need something that will easily mount to that.

Curious why you went with the 3/4 length option?

 

[Hayes]

Don't like my sunroof covered, prefer the look of 3/4 length, and don't need the full length.

 

[nakman]

Hayes that looks awesome man, nice work on the gutter cover! looks super clean.

 

[MontanaLax]

Looks great!!! Have you noticed any additional wind noise? Especially with the sunroof open?

 

[Hayes]

Looks great!!! Have you noticed any additional wind noise? Especially with the sunroof open?

Yes. Not too bad, but I can hear it with the sunroof closed. Not loud enough to affect conversation or anything, and it fades into the background when listening to music/the radio. Pretty loud with the sunroof tilted up. Haven't tried it with the sunroof open. Probably loud but you never know how the aerodynamics will work out. I'll try it tomorrow.

 

[Bomar]

Great look...

 

[fireball]

If you can take some non-close up pics that would be great. Would love to get an idea what the truck looks like with the 3/4 rack.

A front 3/4 shot like this would be awesome"

 

[Hayes]

I can do that today, as long as a driveway front 3/4 shot is an OK stand-in for sand dunes.

 

[SmoothLC]

Nice touch w/ the TLC badge.

Gamiviti does nice work.

 

[Hayes]

FYI,
Yakima ski clamps will work on the 3/4 Gamiviti.
We're headed out for an annual end of season ski trip in a few days, and I needed to make this work. The Gamiviti bars are a slightly smaller diameter than the standard Yakima bars, but the Yakima mighty mounts worked just fine once I shimmed the bars with some layers of tape. The most fiddly part however, was finding the correct position for the ski clamps to accommodate the bindings on the skis. My big bulky Marker AT bindings BARELY fit, and only between the wider-spaced Gamiviti bars. But they fit.

 

[Hayes]

If you can take some non-close up pics that would be great. Would love to get an idea what the truck looks like with the 3/4 rack.

A front 3/4 shot like this would be awesome"

 

[Yotahound]

Wow. Looks real nice. I want one.

 

[MontanaLax]

Yes. Not too bad, but I can hear it with the sunroof closed. Not loud enough to affect conversation or anything, and it fades into the background when listening to music/the radio. Pretty loud with the sunroof tilted up. Haven't tried it with the sunroof open. Probably loud but you never know how the aerodynamics will work out. I'll try it tomorrow.

Thanks! Do you think if you mounted the rack further back on the mounting plates you could squeeze in a fairing on the leading edge? Or would the front of the rack still be too close to the sunroof?

 

[nakman]

I can answer that one- the front of the rack is behind the back edge of the sunroof as it is, you still get full tilt-up operation. If you were to move it back 1" that would still be the case, but you'd still have wind noise. You can definitely put a fairing on a 3/4 rack (I've used a Yakima) but the little feet end up touching the sunroof glass. It works fine as long as you're not a tilter-upper.. when you slide the sunroof back it goes down before going backwards, so the fairing on top doesn't really come into play. But if you tilt it up then it'll want to push up the fairing.

Now could you devise a fairing that didn't hang so low and didn't use feet and allowed for sunroof tilting? probably. But the best way to reduce wind noise is with a fairing, and I doubt having it 1" further back would make much of a difference in wind noise, you'd get it either way.