Yakima : Big Powderhound SE

Review:
Yakima's has been making solid racks for 25 years, and the anniversary Powderhound shows it. The rack is all black with a dark gray latch-button, and looks very sharp on top of our black Xterra. With the Powderhound you can say goodbye to sharp edges inside your ride; since it's two boards wide, you have the clearance, you can fit two boards bindings down and two boards bindings up.

The 25th anniversary edition has all the features and refinements you expect out of a Yakima rack. Huge latch-button makes it easy to open, even with massive mittens on, and the latch ladder has several 'clicks' on it, so it fits four boards comfortably, but it will tighten down to two boards. The inner-rubber is super soft and flexible, even at -20, and holds your boards in a death grip.

My one complaint with Yakima racks is that they don't come with locks. The argument is that the add-on lock-core system means that you can match locks with all of your Yakima devices, but it also means that the rack doesn't come out of the box ready to use. The average user may only have one Yakima device, and so the lack of a lock is a pretty major downer. My other complaint about the locks is that while the latch-button is huge, Yakima's keys are so small that you're going to need to remove your glove to lock/unlock the rack, which defeats the purpose of big buttons.

Even with my lock complaints, the Powderhound is a killer rack, among the top in both looks and function.