Last weekend I built a carrier for my hang glider that fits on top of the Escape luggage rack. It is like a large ladder that is fitted to two Yakima cross-bars that are attached to the luggage rack.

While mounting it I noticed that the towers of the luggage rack are just pure plastic -- no metal at all!

I'm concerned that while this thing is mounted, with 150-200 pounds of payload on the roof, popping down the freeway and I'll hear a crrrack! and the whole thing comes loose. Is there an after-market luggage rack that is more serious?

 

I was told by my dealer not to exceed 100lbs on the luggage rack on
my 07feh

 

Yakima crossbars with Yakima towers have a 160# weight limit. Don't know about weight limit for factory rack, but I removed it and added tracks to use the Yakima towers.

 

Usually the load limit for rooftop racks is set to minimize the risk of roll-overs due to the center of gravity being shifted too high, not the strength of the materials involved. The Yakima racks themselves weigh 20-30# by themselves; that plus the carrier plus two hang gliders is going to be about 200# or so.

My biggest issue is not the weight or the CG problem. It is when you are driving on bumpy trails at low speed or freeway at high speed you get a lot of horizontal stresses that have to be supported. I am concerned about the FEH plastic towers that may not be up to that shear force long term, mostly in the side-to-side mode.

 

I run Yakima LowRider towers and 58" bars with four bike mounts. Not sure what the whole setup weighs, but I'd say at least 40-50 pounds. Mountain bikes being 25-35 pounds each, I'm guessing it's about 160-180 pounds total.

The rails are not impressive. I'd use the adjustable Yak towers, the Lowrider Max, if I was doing it again today. Those have the different feet so you can get a more shape-specific grab on the rails. The rails themselves appear to be reinforced with steel, they have three relatively solid supports on each side, and it's really solidly bolted to the roof. I prefer the three mounts per side for strength.

My neighbor has a 2007 FEH with the same side rails, and they run a similar setup but with a cargo box for ski stuff. Aero lift at higher speeds is probably the biggest concern for those kind of loads. For me and my bikes, my concern is the side stress. But we tested the heck out of it, and it's working fine so far. I agree with your concern about the long term and side stresses. I'm sure you yanked on it, as we did, and saw some flex.

 

As others have metioned you can pull the factory rack and buy tracks from yakima. Then use yakima control towers and landing pads. This will probably give you the strongest setup you can get since the FEH does not have rain gutters.

 

Actually you have to buy the tracks from Ford, and they replace the factory rack, same footprint and bolts. Search for my earlier thread on how to do this.