According to marketing materials and literature, Yakima is committed to reducing their carbon footprint. If you're not aware of what the hell that is, I like to consider it the public's favorite Buzz Word Phrase of the Year. Time will tell how viable this concept is. Regardless of the truth behind the concept, I totally approve of Yakima's efforts at reducing carbon emissions from the product manufacturing process - whether or not you believe that global warming is a problem or not, being mindful of the junk we pump into our air, water, and earth is damned noteworthy and admirable.

CEO of Yakima, Jerry Heinlen, says, “The outdoor playground is critically important to all of us, and it is not replaceable.” I like this approach, this understanding that the earth is not replaceable and that we're killing it. Admittedly, moving toward sustainability - and practicing it - is something we all need to concentrate on.

Aside from that, Yakima products always exhibit a fine finish and are extremely modular. With a pair of load bars, you can attach Yakima's killer bike trays, kayak holders, ski/snowboard mounts, roof baskets, etc. etc. etc. All this stuff is made for one another. The hardware is stainless steel, aluminum, and powdercoated (where necessary).

Powdercoating, by the way, produces less hazardous waste than your typical liquid coatings, like paint. Say yes to powdercoat.

I love the design of these products, too. Installed properly, they have a classy yet adventurous look to them. So sue me if I think that one reason to install these things is because they look good.

I should give this 6 stars.

What makes the install easy and solid are the fasteners that are included with the Landing Pads (kit 7, part number is 8000227). With this particular kit you get a clever drop-in nut that lets you bolt the pads down to nearly any thin surface - most importantly, the kind of surface where you don't have access underneath it. In this case, that's the roof of my Nissan Frontier (Navara) D40.

Turn the nut vertically, drop it in, then as you go to put the bolt through the landing pad to screw it down, the bolt pushes the nut horizontally and the threads bite.

Each pad needs 2 holes. Here's the process for installing the Yakima Landing Pads kit 7, the control towers and cross bars:

Set of four Control Towers: These hold the cross bars and "snap" into the landing pads. The control towers also come with the round end plugs for the cross bars, and an allen wrench that fits the bolts that attach the cross bars as well as those that come with the landing pads.
Two Pair Landing Pads: Yakima makes 7 different varieties of these landing pads for different applications. Kit 7 is designed for surfaces under which you don't have ready access. The perfect kit for installing on your roof. The pads come with a protective cap for when the control towers are detached, and they come with a rubber pad that resides between the roof and the plastic landing pad. Click image for a closer view.	Above: one pair of Landing Pads. Two pairs are needed for this rack as one pair will support one cross bar.
One pair 66" Crossbars: Yakima bars are 1" round steel with an 1/8" thick wall. The coating on these bars is a thick sythetic that brings the outer diameter to 1-1/16". That odd diameter makes all their accessories proprietary. 66" crossbars weigh 11 lbs
Assemble crossbars with control tower: To mark the holes for drilling, the cross bars need to be attached to the control towers, set to the appropriate width, and simply set down on the roof. In this instance, I've elected to mount them just to the inside of the rain gutter and 6.5" from the front edge of the windsheild. This position puts the crossbar directly even with the front edge of the sunroof of the Crew Cab Frontier.
Test the dry fit: Before drilling holes, I removed the weather stripping and pulled the headliner down as much as possible to reach my hand inside. I just needed to be certain that this position wouldn't interfere with the sunroof or the wiring inside. It's tight, but it works.
Punch a mark for the holes: Basic enough. When drilling metal, use an awl or punch to make a little divot for your drill bit to bite into. This keeps the bit from traveling around and off-centering your hole. To keep the crossbars parallel, it's important that the holes are drilled precisely. I marked one side of the vehicle then the other, and kept the bar aligned for a precision install.
Drill pilot hole, then the final hole: Again, simple enough. Just a quick and little hole of about 1/8" diameter. After this, the hole needs be drilled to 25/64".
Finish the holes: De-burr the holes with a conical grinding element in the drill, then paint the exposed metal with touch up paint.
Drop in fasteners: The fasteners drop into the hole. Bada bing. To aid the weather sealing, Yakima provides a little tube of silicone. Squeeze a good glop onto the fastener.
Bolt Landing Pad in place: With the landing pads, Yakima provides a thick rubber gasket/pad that the plastic product rides upon - going between the sheetmetal and the plastic pad base. Very nice, right? The provided bolts are stainless steel allen heads, the same size head that fits the allen wrench provided in the control towers.
Attach Control Towers: This is a simple matter of lowering the towers onto the pad, and closing the tower's cap. The towers lock into place via a sliding pin that actuated by the tower's cap/door. When the cap closes, the pins extend outward into the Landing Pad, locking the whole contraption in place.
Repeat: Repeat the whole process for the next crossbar assembly and then verify that the cross bars are centered on the vehicle. You can loosen and tighten the crossbars at the Control Tower. Slide 'em back and forth to get the centering just right.

This is always a difficult part of the discussion - you can consider the product as it is designed and executed, and then you can also consider the consequences of the installation and believe those to be inherent to the product. What I mean is the cross bars will most likely create wind noise - the way I see it, the noise is the effect of putting something on the roof - it's a direct consequence. Sort of like wearing a t-shirt outside all summer long, you'll get a farmer's tan. It doesn't mean the shirt is defective or poorly made. It means you were out in the sun with a t-shirt on.

So! I still say the Yakima products are seemingly flawless. Thick walled tubes for maximum rigidity, clever clasping mechanisim of the towers for rapid and secure mounting to the landing pads, and stainless steel hardware. I expect this type of product to live out the life of the Frontier. I wonder about the UV stability of the plastic parts of the Landing Pads and Control Towers . . . Okay, so that's one potential flaw.

The roof of the Frontier is thin and mostly unsupported, so you can't pile on much weight. 100 lbs or so at the most, as recommended by Yakima. This, too, is not a weakness in the Yakima product, but a simple matter of the capacity of the substrate to which the product is fastened: a sheetmetal roof. Let's not ask for too many miracles.

Additionally, it's a foolish thing to put a lot of weight up high - your fuel economy will drop (hello, big fat carbon footprint! Nice to see you again!), and the handling/road manners will suffer.

*** Note about wind noise with Yakima base rack ***

Life with a roof rack means dealing with some amount of increased wind resistance, and therefore noise. While the bars of the Yak system are round (which equates to good aerodynamics), the specific placement on the vehicle and the shape of the hood and windshield affect how wind will collide with the rack parts.

This sucker made more noise than I approved of, so I also picked up a Yakima Fairing. I'm not so bored that I took decibel readings before and after, but I can tell you that the fairing stopped just shy of performing a bonafide miracle. It was worth the $50 I paid to get the wind noise way down.

Very fair cost for a completely modular system that installs easily striaght out of the box with ingenious hardware.

Set of 4 towers: $100
2 Pairs of Landing pads: $65
1 Pair of 66" crossbars: $60

The above numbers constitute a base rack system. Not bad, eh?

I find that the modular part is really cool: purchase mounts for boats, bikes, skis, a basket, etc. that you don't have to jimmy to make work. You can buy them down the road at your local outdoor shop, go home, and put them to use and remove them at will.

A base rack makes sense for guys and gals like myself.

The install took a lot of time to plan, since Yakima doesn't officially make a rack that's designed the for the Nissan Frontier D40 Crew Cab with a sunroof. I had to figure out the placement of the landing pads so that the fastners wouldn't interfere with anything under the sheetmetal.

So, this modification has a high level of adventure: drilling into the roof to install a multi-purpose product. I should say here that this assortment of Yakima products (the cross bars, landing pads, control towers) are not specifically designed for the roof of the Crew Cab Nissan Frontier. They are just made for general mounting on things like camper shells or trailer lids. By reason of deduction, I figured I could make them work on the roof of the truck.

In light of this, the entire contraption fits nicely and securely, and still looks good.

Now that it's all on, I like taking advantage of the bars for mounting our shade awning for sure. I have yet to use it for hauling the bikes, as the trays I have fit on the cross bars that are over the bed. One winter, I'm sure we'll use the rack for hauling the skis.

Remember, though, that the bars did make significant noise while driving at highway speeds. The fairing helped greatly.

Sometimes I think the bars are about 6" too long, so I may cut them down.

I have to admit: I like the clean "adventure" look these give the Frontier. I'm pleased with it all.