Sherry and her husband in Cheyanne Wyoming are in a jam trying to haul bikes on their car. She says they couldn’t attach the roof rack they already have to their new ride, a Lincoln Town Car. So she wants to buy a $3000 stretch limo! Duhhhhh.
Sherry, please think about just getting the bikes into the car! Sure there’s plenty of space inside, but that space is made for people, not bikes. Loading and unloading will be a catastrophe.
I have a better idea. This will save you $2750 (plus tax, DMV fees, title, and premium insurance for the limo).
Most likely your present roof rack is designed to attach to older vehicles, the kind with gutters above the side windows. Somewhere about two decades ago, those gutters started to disappear, to reduce wind noise I think. In response, the major roof rack companies, Yakima and Thule, created new “towers” for their products which enable mounting the same rack accessories as usual for bikes, kayaks, canoes, snowboards, luggage boxes, etc. The tower is the foundation for any roof rack, it’s the part (four of them), which contact the vehicle and which hold the crossbars.
All you need to do is replace the towers on your existing rack, everything else will be the same. You can use all the same parts you already own for your entire fleet of bicycles, including the cross bars. Round bars are Yakima, Square bars are Thule.
If your rack is a Yakima, their product is called “Q Tower”, list price $165.
http://yakima.com/shop/racksystems/naked-roof/q-towers
If you have Thule, you need one of their “foot packs”, probably the Traverse or Podium, about $190.
Really, you’ll be a lot better off with a rack on your current Town Car. Just buy new towers. Think what you could do with that $2750 you save! Braces for the kids maybe??
–Roadtripper