Yakima Roof System Question

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D'Animal

D'Animal

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Is it cost effectively possible to get one key to use on all of the Yakima locks on my rig? I have three Yakima systems and can never find the right key.

I have one key for the uprights per system since the kocks are different.

I have one key for the ski rack.


I'm glad there is not a key for the canoe mounts or the bike rack.


I called yakima and they sent me extra keys for each lock at $6 per key and $12 frieght.

Is this something that I could send all the locks to Mr Locksmith and have him change everything to one key?


What have you done?
 
Dan, take the key you want to be "the" key and all your cylinders down to Key Evidence. I had them reset all my cylinders years ago so I could get by with just one key. The Yakimas are wafer locks and they're super easy to reset. It was about $7 per cylinder back then, probably a little more now, but once you do it you're set for life.
 
A place near me that sells racks and stuff (I think it's called "Sports Rack" or something) sells the SKS lock cores in bulk. What I did find out, though was that some of lock cores I had on some older gear were not the same size as the newer cores. I think I was hoping to use the lock cores from my old towers in new towers, but they didn't fit, so I had to purchase all new cores. From what I remember the bulk cores were not necessarily cheaper than the card mounted cores, but I could purchase the number I needed (six, vs a card of four or a card of eight).

Ed's idea above seems appealing, assuming you can remove the cores. When I purchased my cores, they gave me a "special" key that was used to remove the cores from the towers, etc. It was basically a key blank
 
Thanks, I will give them a try.

ed97fzj80 said:
Dan, take the key you want to be "the" key and all your cylinders down to Key Evidence. I had them reset all my cylinders years ago so I could get by with just one key. The Yakimas are wafer locks and they're super easy to reset. It was about $7 per cylinder back then, probably a little more now, but once you do it you're set for life.
Click to expand...
 
Ed's suggestion is a good one.
I won't be changing any of my locks.
I have four 1A towers with two keys and they are all keyed the same.
The bike rack takes a separate key, but I don't mind that.
Now I just need to get the cross bars for the towers...
 
I think pretty much all the newer yakima bike mounts have some mechanism for locking the bike. I have one of the fork mount systems (like the copper head) and the skewer that holds the fork in place locks in the closed position. The one I have is more of a deterrent than true security. The opposite side of the skewer has an adjustable piece that screws on. A set of vice grips and a few minutes would probably loosen it enough to get the bike off even with it locked.
 
Yak sells an accessory that accepts key cores to lock things to the bars themselves (ie: bike rack to bar). Easily defeated by a strong tug against the nut that actually holds things in place...
 
D'Animal - The 1A tower locks are different from everything else which is a pain.

However, pick the SKS core lock that you have the most of. Take the key / lock number off of that and call Yakima. They will sell you as many additional lock sets keyed to that key as you want. You can buy 10 today, 1 next week and 6 next year. This is how I keep up with my ever expanding Yakima gear.

Then take your old ones and sell them on Ebay.
 
SunTzuMD said:
D'Animal - The 1A tower locks are different from everything else which is a pain.

However, pick the SKS core lock that you have the most of. Take the key / lock number off of that and call Yakima. They will sell you as many additional lock sets keyed to that key as you want. You can buy 10 today, 1 next week and 6 next year. This is how I keep up with my ever expanding Yakima gear.

Then take your old ones and sell them on Ebay.
Click to expand...

That's what I did too, though I am curious to see how cost effective of what ed97fzj80 had suggested - have locksmith reset the key core...:hhmm:
 
I don't think the 1A tower locks use different cores. I have a bunch of different lock cores that I got out of a bin at a shop and they fit in both of my bikeracks and in my towers. YMMV?
 
D'Animal said:
Your bike rack has a key?
Click to expand...

Yeah, it actually has two same-key locks. One at the top cable to lock the bikes and another at the hitch to lock the cross-bolt to the receiver.
You can see the cap to the lock in the first photo.
Both photos show a mod I was working on to allow complete drop of the tailgate without hitting the rack after pulling the pin to lower the rack; painted it and now I don't have to worry about denting the tailgate.
DSCN3008b.webp
DSCN3012b.webp
 
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