This is a Yakima Skyline "landing pad", four of which you screw into the roof of vehicles that have factory-drilled screw holes for roof racks. The towers with crossbars can quickly attach and detach from the landing pads. You can see the screw in the middle of this landing pad going into the factory screw hole:
When the towers+bars are detached, you can put a landing pad cover on each landing pad. Here is one of the covers:
The covers snap onto the landing pad with friction, which supposedly makes the landing pads look sleeker and more aesthetic, like this:
Having taken my Skyline towers+crossbars out of the landing pads for the first time, I wanted to clean the car before I went to the beach two days ago, then to REI to buy a Base Camp 6 tent, and then to the best pizza joint in Connecticut, Modern Apizza in New Haven. So, I also was putting on my landing pad covers for the first time.
But . . . wait . . . I was taking the car through the local car wash, and I actually wondered whether the covers could be knocked off in the car wash. Nah, I figured, the MIT engineers that work for Yakima would have computer-designed the covers to survive to-be-expected car washes.
Here is one covered landing pad as it emerged from the car wash:
Oops . . . MIT ain't what it used to be. The cover came off and disappeared into the car wash underground mechanism.
Actually, I blame myself for taking this easily avoidable risk. I had visions of having to buy a whole new set of landing pads, or at least a set of four covers, to get one lousy plastic cover. But, hooray, etrailer.com sells single Yakima landing pad covers for $10, but with shipping and tax it still stung at $17.
Morale of the story: Remove your landing pad covers before going through a mechanized car wash.
When the towers+bars are detached, you can put a landing pad cover on each landing pad. Here is one of the covers:
The covers snap onto the landing pad with friction, which supposedly makes the landing pads look sleeker and more aesthetic, like this:
Having taken my Skyline towers+crossbars out of the landing pads for the first time, I wanted to clean the car before I went to the beach two days ago, then to REI to buy a Base Camp 6 tent, and then to the best pizza joint in Connecticut, Modern Apizza in New Haven. So, I also was putting on my landing pad covers for the first time.
But . . . wait . . . I was taking the car through the local car wash, and I actually wondered whether the covers could be knocked off in the car wash. Nah, I figured, the MIT engineers that work for Yakima would have computer-designed the covers to survive to-be-expected car washes.
Here is one covered landing pad as it emerged from the car wash:
Oops . . . MIT ain't what it used to be. The cover came off and disappeared into the car wash underground mechanism.
Actually, I blame myself for taking this easily avoidable risk. I had visions of having to buy a whole new set of landing pads, or at least a set of four covers, to get one lousy plastic cover. But, hooray, etrailer.com sells single Yakima landing pad covers for $10, but with shipping and tax it still stung at $17.
Morale of the story: Remove your landing pad covers before going through a mechanized car wash.
