Roof rail swap question...

2018 SR5P, interim step, I want to swap to black OEM roof rails.

I am a bit confused by what I have read vs. what I have seen in some videos. It seems some people talk about making sure you don’t ‘drop the clips’ in the headliner while removing the bolts. However, I have watched a few videos where people just back the bolts out with seemingly no concern...

Do I need to worry about this? Is the ‘clip/headliner concern' applicable to my application?

Thank you.

 

I would not put an impact on it, just regular ratchets. I did 3 or 4 vehicles so far, including my own with no issues. One was a Pro, one a SR5, and one an Offroad. They are all the same hole locations, the Pro uses torx bolts but the other two used a 12mm bolt. No issues.

My only recommendation, there's 2 per mount. Loosen one, loosen the other. I didn't want to pull one all the way out and then try to loosen the other in case there was a problem. That way, I could just put both back in and regroup.

 

You near Nashville? I am about to take 2 black ones off once they units get here from port.

 

Thank you very much for the quick reply!

 

Not even close... NH. Too bad, brand new sure would be nice.

 

Here is a view of the retaining clip everyone speaks of. The dog bone is held in place by the clip. So you want to back out each screw equally not to put strain on the clip while breaking through the red locktight.

 

Perfect! Nothing better for me than a pic/visual...

On another note, would you re-add Red or Blue locktite when reinstalling?

Thank you!

 

I would probably do blue if I thought I might take it back off. But I suspect the new OEM bolts are pre-treated with red.

 

I am buying a 'used' one, supposedly taken off when new. I will clean up bolts and add blue prior to install.

Thanks again for the help, much appreciated.

 

Thanks for the help/tips. Quick and easy swap, ‘new’ 2021 black Trail take-off now installed...

Now to see if there’s any interest in silver rails, caps and black crossbars...

Thanks

 

This is the helpful kind of stuff right here. Thanks for posting that for reference (I already took mine off and painted them).

 

Great pic - thanks.

 

Sounds like a good practice would be to loosen one to break loose the red loctite, then retighten it to hold the bracket snug, then loosen the second one, then you could remove both.

I've read some posts before where people had some problems and had to remove the headliner to retrieve the clips, that would suck.

I thought about painting my rails black when I first bought my 4R, but decided to leave the silver to help reflect the hot summer sun.

 

I ended up going with permanent tracks after I took off my OEM rails, but during the swap I used some long (80mm?) threaded studs in the brackets while I had the bolts out. It gave me a extra margin for error.

 

Old thread I know but I’m about to do this swap tomorrow, was there any torque spec to tighten the rails back up? And I’m planning on putting a front runner rack maybe later this year so the black OEM one I’m going to install tomorrow won’t be there for long. should I put blue loctite in the same spot where the red one was in the bolts?

thank you.