After the first meeting, some time ago, I was invited back at Yakima‘s European headquarters to see what would be the best roof rack fit for the van. At the first meeting we came to the conclusion that a tray would be better than a box. Knowing that the engineers had a Voyager Pro Tray from their Prorack line set up for me, already assembled and good to go.

There are endless possibilities on how and where to mount a basket like this, the only sure thing is that it needs bars. Whispbar has different styles and variations, the toughest and most durable bar is de HD bar. This option is the best because it can hold a heavy load and besides that looks really bad ass.

Being a bit of a “know it all” I thought I came up with some nice solutions on how to mount the rails to the polyester Westfalia roof, but the engineers had some ideas that directly made more sense. The Westfalia roof is much thicker on the outer edges, on these outer edges the weight is directed straight down to the bodywork of the van, so this is where the bars should be mounted. The idea was to mount some tracks to these outer edges where the Smartfoot Technology would slide into.

These tracks actually re-inforce the strength of the roof before distributing the weight of the tray. Besides being the mounting points for the Smartfoot the tracks can hold several options to secure luggage like eyebolts or ratchets. After the four planned tracks were mounted most of the work was done. The Heavy Duty roof rack bars simply slide into the tracks where they can be secured indefinitaly.

Mounting the tray on top of the bars is just a matter of lifting it up there and tightening the nuts. In between every bottom piece of the tray a bracket snuggly clamps down the tray onto the bars. With the nuts not 100% tightened the tray can be located exactly before securing it.

After a day of good fun and advice I am sure that the van is equipped with the best possible storage system, and that it will be able to handle the roughest roads from Canada to Argentina. Thanks Yakima Europe for this awesome set up and installation. We can’t wait to put it to the test!

Along with the HD bars, tracks and tray Yakima Europe sponsored us with several items to mount recovery tracks, Hi Jack lift and surfboards to the tray. The masculinity of the van has been doubled since Yakima has partnered up with us, great value and even greater comfort is added to the van! Thanks again for helping to build our Dreams On Wheels!