FatCat EVO 4, Black

We’re novice XC skiers but it didn’t take long to figure out that cramming skis in between our seats for hours long drives was not ideal. Combined with Jetstream bars, I have a simple solution for transporting a few pairs of skis or snowboards safely, effectively and with virtually no noise. I opted for the shorter length to allow for future addition of a cargo basket, but if you need the larger capacity, go for it as the mechanics are the same. I appreciate the integrated SKS locks, simple installation and general good looks of this product. Yakima does it again!

The whole "no tools needed" installation concept spoke to me. I chose this rack over another specifically for that reason. Regrets. The rack looks stellar (the biggest redeeming quality) and is easy to operate. However, the thing is a pain in the butt to install. I wish I had listened to the other reviews about it being more difficult than advertised to install. Simplicity is key in this situation, and unfortunately, this is a massive swing and a miss from Yakima. I will likely sell this once I take it off for the season because I don't want to mess with getting it back on.

The new Fat Cat ski rack is awesome! It was easy to install on the car. It's easy to operate. I love the low profile and it easily fits our family's (5 adult size skis) on the rack!

This is the best rack to quickly attach to your factory rack. Quick, easy, solid. Another winner from Yakima.

We really love the Fat Cat 6 ski/snowboard rack. It's easy to use and pretty quiet. I almost forget it's on the roof. I would recommend

Easy to install, works and looks great with the whispbars on my wagon.

Solid product and very easy to use once you've installed it. However, Yakima, time for your engineers to go back to KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid. Way overdesigned and unnecessarily complicated to put on. If the bolt drops down a bit and isn't sticking out enough to attach the thumbscrew to, then it's a nightmare to push it back up while trying to hold the washer on and get the thumbscrew started at the same time. Even with two people trying to hold everything at once. There is no reason it should be this hard for a simple ski rack.

I got these racks installed on my 21' Toyota 4Runner, and it works great during the snow season. The wife and I snowboard, so we can place both of our boards side by side and still lock down the racks. I had these racks for about two years and didn't have any issues with them. We got these because of the capacity to hold up to four snowboards. Yakima need to redo their instructions because it provided a general idea of how to install the racks but not in detail.

No doubt, the FatCat EVO 6 is the best-looking ski/snowboard rack on the market. That is actually why I bought it! Very sleek and virtually no wind noise at all cruising at 55 mph. Why only three out of five stars then? Well, I wasn’t impressed with the build quality at all. First of all, there is a minor cosmetic issue with the Yakima stickers on it beginning to peel off the moment you take the racks out of the box. This isn’t a huge deal, and ultimately, I would have just taken them off if had kept the rack. I used this rack TWICE before I sold it. Here’s why: Yakima has cheaped out on the design by using a plastic ladder as the securing mechanism. Yes, you read that right; they chose to use a piece of plastic literally millimeters thick to secure the clamps down. Why oh why they decided to do this boggles my mind. The clamping mechanism is what keeps your skis on the car! And what’s worse, is not only is it plastic, the ladder steps are so shallow that it will sometimes slip a step when you are trying to secure down multiple sets of skis. I almost used zip ties around the racks as a backup because I was positive any bump on the road would pop clamp right open. To my surprise, I made it up to the ski hill with all of my gear still on my car! Needless to say, I promptly sold the rack and got a Thule Snowpack L instead, which features a metal clamping mechanism with large steps on the ladder! Maybe I am overreacting, but when you are spending $300+ on a ski rack, you want it to last. I could tell that the Yakima would be broken by the end of the season with the use my gear gets. Yakima, if you are reading this, please please please replace the plastic clamping ladders with metal! I will sell my Thule and buy another FatCat Evo if you do this! I routinely drive with $3-4k worth of skis on my car, and I just cannot risk it with the current design.

Our set up is these fatcat 6s on 50" airplane style cross bars on a Jeep Renegade. We have had this set up for 3 winters of constant battering. They go on in November and they come off when the snow melts (May - July). Their effect on fuel efficiency is minimal. We live in Mammoth Lakes and have taken these loaded to utah twice and colorado twice. We can easily put snowboards upside-down with the bindings shut. Unless you're crossbars are stealth you should be able to too. On one of those Colorado + Utah (moab and big cottonwood canyon) trips we fit 2 pairs of powder skis, 2 splitboards, and 2 snowboards on it, AND my husband's boards are wides. The snowboard bindings we removed for aerodynamics. We've used the fatcats for backcountry shuttling. Latching does become slightly harder when you fully load it, but that's be expected (that's why there are multiple teeth). We also have a Yakima lockset in them and have never had any theft issues. On an occasion or two we've put a binding just in front of the front fatcat when binding stance was wide and we didn't feel like re-positioning the cross bars. If you can't make 6 skis/ boards fit on there, then you must not be very good at Tetris. Hint: When in doubt, click ski bindings "in" so brakes aren't an issue and put skis on top of a snowboard. 2nd hint: If your snowboard bindings are hanging over the edge of the board (might want to rethink your positioning) tetris them so the greatest overhangs are on the outsides of the fatcats.

So, buy these if you want an aerodynamic ski rack and have a big family and/or a lot of friends.