I bought a new Wrangler about 3 weeks ago and the first course of action was to get a kayak on it. Racks are expensive but but other cheaper alternatives have their limitations like not being able to put the top up,windows up, clamp to the body etc.
So a friend sends me a link on CL for a Kargomaster rack with Yakima bars for $85 that is complete with every nut and bolt. Thats a savings of about $500 I was about to drop!
It's for a 4 door so I need to buy the 2 door longitudinal bars from Kargomaster for $90 bucks then some cheap Ebay kayak cradles. Maybe eventually I get the kit that you can run a tent up there. (I noticed at SEMA last year they make EVERYTHING for Jeeps apparently)
The longitudinal bars I need to swap have silicone sealant on them so the are stuck in there pretty good. Should I heat it up and try that to get them apart?
The new DD:
Complete with GRM sticker:
Why not just shorten the bars that you have?
^ They have a taper in them that snugs in. If they were smooth, you better believe I would just cut it up.
Then you could remove a section from the center of each side and bolt in a small sleeve for strength.
Woody wrote:
Then you could remove a section from the center of each side and bolt in a small sleeve for strength.
Cram you with your additional money saving suggestions! 
I planned on spending so much on this thing new. Since it was so cheap I felt like I could just take the lazy way and drop a little more money and just bolt something in and still come out hundreds cheap than I though it would be.
But I should get out there and hack away at this thing. Nothing to lose on these bars anyway.
Nice score! I second Woody's suggestion. That will be the easiest way to cut it down to fit the 2 door. I have been looking for a rack to fit my 2 door but they are all expensive. JC Whitney has a brand called N-Dure that has decent reviews and is about $300.
I'm tired of scratching the paint on top of the windshield frame with my kayak!
Of course the craftsmanship on the new 2 door bars sucked and I couldnt use them so I had the 4 door bars cut and welded at a motocycle shop near me. Overall i still saved half the money. Time for the kayaks!
In reply to crankwalk:
How does the rack attach in the rear? Does it attach to the bumper/frame or to the body?
I have an aftermarket bumper on my JK which bolts to the frame right where most of the racks attach. I'm not too thrilled drilling into the body either 
stanger_missle wrote:
In reply to crankwalk:
How does the rack attach in the rear? Does it attach to the bumper/frame or to the body?
I have an aftermarket bumper on my JK which bolts to the frame right where most of the racks attach. I'm not too thrilled drilling into the body either
Its a plate that bolts to the frame that slides between the body and the stock bumper. It looks like its drilled into the bumper but isnt. Pretty smart design.
Kargo Master is the brand I went with after measuring lots of options. I wasnt going to spend 1500 bucks and I wasnt going to drill into a brand new vehicles body either. Its a trade off but it does everything I'll need it for. Wind noise went up but a faring would look dumb on there so for today I just cranked up the Van Halen.
I like how that is mounted! Most of the other racks I looked at either bolted to the body beside the tail light or had a huge bracket that mounted to the frame rail and requires you to cut a hole in the bumper. I like how you can pivot the rack back to take the top down as well.
Some people have had luck reducing wind noise by wrapping a bungee cord around the horizontal bars. It breaks up the airflow over the bars and reduces the harmonic vibrations.
You can see the rope/bungee cord on the top horizontal bar in this pic:
If you look closely at the picture of the front you might be able to see the bungees on there. I may try one more. It helped but didn't get rid of that much. Over 40 mph this thing howls.
Also you can tilt it back to open the top but honestly it would be a 30 minute process for me so ill stick to zipping out the back and side windows.
