Real Life Review: Yakima Skybox Pro 12

Feb 22, 2007  ·  10:30 PM  ·  permalink

Having spent the last week consuming the better part of the garage, today the Yakima Skybox Pro 12 made its debut. Have I mentioned that it came in a gigantic box?

Makes me wish I was eight so I could build a fort.

So today was mounting day and after putting on my racks, I spent about an hour mounting the box. Yakima’s instructions were very easy to follow and the design of the Skybox’s clamps make it a snap to attach.

Step one was to get the box out of its packing. It is a large object and slightly unwieldy, but at 41 lbs (18.6 kg), I found it easy to move. The most difficult part was getting it out of its plastic bag* due to a buildup of static electricity.

*Note: we do not recommend donning the full-body-sized plastic bag and scaring the dog.

Next I took an inventory of the parts and got a lay of the land. The Skybox uses four clever mounting clamps that allow it to attach to almost any rack—not just Yakima. Each clamp slides in a channel to accommodate racks of different widths and is released with a lever inside the housing which can be loosened further using the thumb wheels pictured.

Here I ran in to a problem: during shipping, one of the thumb wheels had worked its way out and the lever and other parts had dislodged. Putting the pieces back together was easy until it came time to screw the thumb wheel back in—it has to pass through the lever, a cam shield, the floor of the box, and into a cross dowel (like the one shown, only longer). It’s always difficult to get cross dowels and bolts to align and it took about ten minutes of fumbling and one “m——-f——r!” to get it put back together. But, that was the biggest obstacle I encountered.

Having loosened the clamps, I lifted the box onto my roof rack with relative ease, aligned it visually, positioned it front to back and checked for trunk lid clearance, and then slid the loose clamps over the crossbars. Then it was just a matter of tightening the thumb wheels and finally closing the levers.

All in all, the mounting was easy. The universal clamps really work, and the box is light and rigid, so it’s pretty easy to handle.

The box itself has some very smart features—you can tell Yakima was really thinking about how it might be used when they designed it:

• The lid is stiff, so you can effectively close it one-handed from the front, back, or side.

• The lid supports do most of the work opening the lid and effectively keep it up and out of the way.
• The lid hinges are reversible so it can be mounted on either side of your vehicle.
• And my favorite: the latch lets you know when it’s secured—see the video.

Naturally, I had to take it out immediately for a test drive to see how noisy it is. Initial outcome: very quiet. I definitely notice a slight wind noise, but it is not intrusive, and it does not whistle, rumble, vibrate, or rattle. I look forward to see how it does fully loaded both in terms of noise and handling. Plus, we’ll be travelling on Colorado Highway 93, so we’ll get to see how it affects handling in wind.

There were also a couple of issues to note:

• It looks like my old faring may not fit with the box. I had to remove it to mount the Skybox and have yet to try remounting it, but I fear it won’t fit.
• My Big Powderhounds won’t fit unless I get longer crossbars.

We’re heading up to the mountains tomorrow, so I’ll get to try the Skybox out in real life and report back. Next up: Skybox accessories.

This is a Real Life Review—that means one of our bloggers is using this product over a lengthy period, for real, and reporting the results. If you’re interested, you should read our policies on accepting and reviewing products and services.