Quick review of Whispbar and Yakima Sky Box Pro 16s
03-21-2011, 12:19 PM
#1
Audiworld Junior Member
Thread Starter
Quick review of Whispbar and Yakima Sky Box Pro 16s
Recently purchased the Whispbars and Yakima Sky Box Pro 16s (Titanium color) and took them on a weekend trip from LA to Mammoth and back.
Whispbars: Chose Whispbar over Thule and OEM based primarily on wind noise (or lack thereof) and secondarily based on aesthetics. I wanted bars that I could put and just leave on all the time without having any reason to want to take them off. The Whispbars are as silent as advertised, relatively low profile and look great (well, as good as these things can look). Initial installation was easy, and if I were so inclined taking them off would be a snap.
Yak: I was between this Yak and the Thule Atlantis 1800 (Atlantis 1600 would have been too short for my skis) and chose the Yak because (i) it seemed to have a much stiffer/sturdier build than the Thule, (ii) I strongly preferred its opening/closing action, (iii) it has internal tie down points for cargo netting (included with the box) or bungees which the Thule doesn't, and (iv) despite the 2 cu ft difference, the Yak seemed to hold just as much as the Thule, perhaps because the floor pan of the Thule is designed in such a way that there's a certain amount of wasted volume (but see note below). During my recent trip to Mammoth, I encountered 40-50mph cross winds, 3 feet of snow, temps down to about 15 deg and torrential downpour, and through it all the Yak performed beautifully. Locks never froze, the "Pro" smooth surface shed the snow without any brushing required, wind noise was minimal up to 85mph (except when the cross winds kicked in) and it held a ton of gear (including, at one point, 4 pairs of adult skis, poles and boots, 3 pairs of kids skis and boots and a sled).
Annoyance: This isn't specific to the Yak - but in trying to choose between different cargo boxes, I found the volume specs to be only vaguely helpful and couldn't find any direct comparisons between the "equivalent" Yak and Thule models. For example, the Thule is supposed offer 18 cu ft of space, but if you look inside it (or any of the Thule Atlantis boxes), you'll see that there's a ton of ribbing in the floor pan and that the front and back of the boxes are deeper than the middle, all of which would, I imagine, have an impact on real world cargo capability. On the other hand, the Yak, which is supposed to offer 16 cu ft of space, (and all of the Yak Sky Boxes) has that steeply raked back, which is great for giving extra clearance for the hatch, but also represents some amount of completely unusable volume. As noted above, I got the feeling from looking back and forth at display models that the Yak 16s is actually pretty close in usable volume to the Thule 1800, but I'm not really certain. Given that the first consideration when choosing a box is usually cargo capacity, it would be hugely helpful if one of the review sites, magazines or retailers could do a real world usage comparison between the various brands and boxes. I was actually going to start grabbing stuff from the shelves (I purchased at REI) to put inside each to see how much of any actual difference there was between the 2, but then realized that the other advantages of the Yak would still outweigh 2 cu ft of difference, and just went with the Yak (I didn't even look at the Yak 18s - longer than I wanted for aesthetic and storage reasons).
Whispbars: Chose Whispbar over Thule and OEM based primarily on wind noise (or lack thereof) and secondarily based on aesthetics. I wanted bars that I could put and just leave on all the time without having any reason to want to take them off. The Whispbars are as silent as advertised, relatively low profile and look great (well, as good as these things can look). Initial installation was easy, and if I were so inclined taking them off would be a snap.
Yak: I was between this Yak and the Thule Atlantis 1800 (Atlantis 1600 would have been too short for my skis) and chose the Yak because (i) it seemed to have a much stiffer/sturdier build than the Thule, (ii) I strongly preferred its opening/closing action, (iii) it has internal tie down points for cargo netting (included with the box) or bungees which the Thule doesn't, and (iv) despite the 2 cu ft difference, the Yak seemed to hold just as much as the Thule, perhaps because the floor pan of the Thule is designed in such a way that there's a certain amount of wasted volume (but see note below). During my recent trip to Mammoth, I encountered 40-50mph cross winds, 3 feet of snow, temps down to about 15 deg and torrential downpour, and through it all the Yak performed beautifully. Locks never froze, the "Pro" smooth surface shed the snow without any brushing required, wind noise was minimal up to 85mph (except when the cross winds kicked in) and it held a ton of gear (including, at one point, 4 pairs of adult skis, poles and boots, 3 pairs of kids skis and boots and a sled).
Annoyance: This isn't specific to the Yak - but in trying to choose between different cargo boxes, I found the volume specs to be only vaguely helpful and couldn't find any direct comparisons between the "equivalent" Yak and Thule models. For example, the Thule is supposed offer 18 cu ft of space, but if you look inside it (or any of the Thule Atlantis boxes), you'll see that there's a ton of ribbing in the floor pan and that the front and back of the boxes are deeper than the middle, all of which would, I imagine, have an impact on real world cargo capability. On the other hand, the Yak, which is supposed to offer 16 cu ft of space, (and all of the Yak Sky Boxes) has that steeply raked back, which is great for giving extra clearance for the hatch, but also represents some amount of completely unusable volume. As noted above, I got the feeling from looking back and forth at display models that the Yak 16s is actually pretty close in usable volume to the Thule 1800, but I'm not really certain. Given that the first consideration when choosing a box is usually cargo capacity, it would be hugely helpful if one of the review sites, magazines or retailers could do a real world usage comparison between the various brands and boxes. I was actually going to start grabbing stuff from the shelves (I purchased at REI) to put inside each to see how much of any actual difference there was between the 2, but then realized that the other advantages of the Yak would still outweigh 2 cu ft of difference, and just went with the Yak (I didn't even look at the Yak 18s - longer than I wanted for aesthetic and storage reasons).
03-21-2011, 03:23 PM
#2
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Hey great review... Question for you though... Does the Whispbar allow you to fully open your sunroof as well as tilt open the front and back? I'm curious becasue I too want to leave the Whispbars on all the time but don't want to lose the sunroof functionalities.
Also are you able to open and tilt, front and back, the sunroof with your Yakima box on, or does it hang a bit below the bars making it too tight to do so?
Thanks Very Much In Advance!
Marcus
Also are you able to open and tilt, front and back, the sunroof with your Yakima box on, or does it hang a bit below the bars making it too tight to do so?
Thanks Very Much In Advance!
Marcus
03-21-2011, 03:32 PM
#3
Audiworld Junior Member
Thread Starter
No problem opening or tilting the sunroof with the Whispbar. Didn't try either with the Yak however so I'm not sure. I took the Yak off already and it'll be a couple weeks before I put it back on, but if I remember to I'll take some measurements tonight of the clearance between the sunroof in open and tilt positions and the Whispbar and of the Yak brackets. My gut is that there should still be enough clearance, but hopefully the measurements will be enough to confirm.
03-22-2011, 08:05 AM
#4
Audiworld Junior Member
Thread Starter
Clearance between the bars and sunroof is a little over 2.5 inches closed, and about 1.75 open (tilting is not at the bars and doesn't really affect clearance). The Yak bottom bracket is about 1.25 inches at its thickest point, so there shouldn't be any issue opening the sunroof with the Yak mounted.
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