Attaching Roof Rack Accessories To Your Sherpa Roof Rack

When it comes to mounting roof rack accessories to a Sherpa rack, our preferred method is to bolt items directly to our crossbars using our Drop-in T-Nuts – it’s why our rack was designed around aluminum extrusion crossbars! When you purchase a Sherpa accessory mount or bracket, it will come with the appropriate hardware for connecting it to the crossbar. However, when you have another non-Sherpa accessory you want to mount, such as a ski rack or kayak rack, it can become a bit confusing. 

However, mounting these roof rack accessories is quite simple. All you need are a few t-nuts and bolts from our components page. Take this Thule ski rack, for example. As shown in the photo below, we attached the rack directly to our crossbars. First, we removed the standard Thule mount, which left us with two open holes on the bottom of the ski rack. Then, we inserted 2 t-nuts into our crossbars and secured the ski rack using 2 different lengths of socket button bolts. We often find that selecting the correct length bolt is the biggest challenge, so if you need to purchase hardware locally to experiment different sizes, look for ¼”-20 threaded bolts.

Many roof rack accessories come standard with clamp-style mounts. Sometimes, these are in the form of an elastic tab that easily fits around different crossbars, while other times, they can be rigid plastic pieces that are designed for specific crossbars. Since our crossbars are square, it can often be a hit or miss if the provided clamps will work. However, when they do fit, it's one of the easiest ways to mount your roof rack accessories to your Sherpa rack! 

Some common roof rack accessories with this style mount include ski racks, bike racks, and kayak racks. 

Although this is rarely the first thing to try, sometimes your best bet is to grab the ratchet strap and tie down your roof rack accessory or item. Every Sherpa Roof Rack features multiple tie-down points on the sideplates, so you can attach just about anything when it comes down to it! If you want even more customization, you can purchase some of our Sherpa Smiley's, which allow for tie-down points on the crossbars themselves. This opens up even more mounting options and can save you from having to purchase additional roof rack accessories.

There's never just one "right" way to mount roof rack accessories to your Sherpa Roof Rack. With a little creativity, you can mount almost anything to your rack so you can adventure with confidence.