I have owned a Yakima Outdoorsman 300 full truck rack for about 3 years now. I’ve got it rigged to Toyota Tundra and I typically carry 1 polyethylene kayak (~ 65 pounds) on it over freeway and paved roads. At most I’ll carry three kayaks on it ( ~ 65 pounds each = 195 pounds).
I have not had any problems with this system until recently. This past summer I loosened a “J” bolt so I could relocate a tower. The J-bolt snapped. I replaced the snapped j-bolt with a new one that Yakima provided. As I loosened the bolt on the opposite tower, that J-bolt snapped too. Thought that was odd to have another snap. All bolts had anti-seize applied to them upon initial installation, hex nuts were moving when removed from the bolts. I noticed the original J-bolts no longer maintained their original "J" shape. The hook part of the “J” shape of the bolt pulled away and no longer had the original “J” shape (see photos). I then attempted to remove another J-bolt from a different tower to see if that was becoming disfigured too. As I loosened that bolt, it snapped too. I now have had a total of 3 of 4 J-bolts snap. All 3 had snapped close to the base of the threading. Upon inspection all original 4 J-bolts are disfigured where the hook end of the “J” bolt has been pulled/stretched.
A side by side of a new J-bolt, the solitary unsnapped bolt and 2 of the three snapped J-bolts.
A pic of the bent J-bolt sitting on top of a new J-bolt.
I’m happy that Yakima replaced all the J-bolts. But they couldn’t explain why this was happening. Would like to know if any other Yakima users had similar problems? Is this a common trend in the j-bolts used for the Outdoorsman 300?