Front Runner Slimline Roof Rack and a Few Accessories (Pictures)

I’m in the process of adding a couple lights, an antenna mount, a shovel mount, and an awning quick release to my Front Runner Slimline II roof rack. There are other options for roof racks, but I was impressed by the sheer number of options for the Front Runner one, and by keeping with the same brand I didn’t have to worry much about compatibility. After UPS lost part of the light bar order, I finally had the parts and the time to assemble everything. Nothing is wired yet, but I’m getting quotes this week. I thought you all might like to see some Subaru-specific photos for the Slimline II and what I picked. It should go without saying that I paid for all of this, none of this was sponsored by anyone.

First off, the LED light bar doesn’t fit between the rails on the 2021 Ascent Premium. Guess what one measurement I forgot to take? Luckily the light bar kit comes with brackets to mount either under the front or directly in front of the Slimline II roof rack.

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Assembly isn’t hard, but make sure you don’t get any crazy ideas about putting the light bar on without removing the rack. The instructions are not particularly helpful other than screw size/washer placement. I used blue painters tape and a pen to mark center on the roof rack and the light bar, then fumbled through and figured it out. This photo shows it still on the bottom/front of the rack.

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Here’s the light bar installed as well as the antenna mount. It has a cool spring loaded pin to rotate the antenna down to 90 degrees for storage. I ended up using a box knife to remove several of the Front Runner stickers- every part seemed to have one, and many of them were crooked. The antenna is a little stubby one from Midland, waiting to get that wired up with the electrical for the lights.

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In this photo you can see the rear light I plan to use for camping/offroad. Given how bright it’s likely to be I plan to keep the fuse out of it except when I’m offroad, the last thing in the world I want is to create any problems with it. The side has the ratcheting straps for my shovel. Those were pretty easy to install and probably took 15 minutes to do both.

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They’re a little hard to see, but I added the quick release brackets for the awning. These seem really sturdy, but I’ll know for sure when the awning gets here.

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Here’s a shot of the front with the light bar revealed. It has a study flip down cover to protect it during normal on-road traffic use.

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A few quick notes to share since I didn’t see this anywhere in my research:

• The Slimline II comes with an air deflector to go underneath in the front. With just the roof rack, the air deflector works well, with slight noise at about 60mph. Nothing too bad, if you cracked the window at 50mph you shouldn’t be able to hear the roof rack wind noise.
• The air deflector used in conjunction with the LED light bar makes a terrible whistle sound from about 25mph all the way up to 60mph. Removing the air deflector made the whistle go away, with only some wind noise at about 60mph. I didn’t test it past 70mph.
• This kit is a two person job- both the roof rack (installation) and the LED light bar (assembly and installation).

I hope you all find this helpful!