Yakima Exo install

Continuing the pin saga, I ended using an older Yakima pin I had that fits with their locks, and is short enough.
The other issues are:
One needs to make sure the back deck is fully extended or the lift gate will hit the back deck.

The knob used to allow swivel the back deck to swivel is not secured to the back deck and knowing me will soon be lost, so I am looking at backups.
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The back deck attachment piece is sort of permanently attached to the swing portion.



That is secured by 3 safety hex bits. I really wish they would made the attachment using the same pin system that attaches the swing base to the van. Then it would be one lock and one bolt to remove. This would allow normal liftgate operation As it is now I need to spin the unlock handle (shown in the above picture right side between van and swing base), then pull a safety release and swing the unit out everytime I want access to the back. The other option is removing everything, which is how I will normally have it though. Kind of a small gripe. Last gripe is about the Same Key System (SKS) that Yakima uses. The swing base had one key, the top deck another, the cargo box a third. Add in the roof rack and that’s four different keys. I had a few extras and ordered some more off eBay so all 12 of my locks are the same. Prepare to spend $$ if you don’t have key cores and want yours to all match.
The support jack seems a little flimsy and not very secure, so I am going to look into a folding trailer jack to see if it will help. The jack is the extension on the piece of wood. It’s basically an extending rod that is unsupported at both ends.
It is not mandatory and only provides a little extra support.

All in all, not bad. It will be used as a cooking platform up top, and to carry firewood(used fence boards in my case) below. It seems well built and sturdy. I will update with more pictures after my first trial run this weekend.

45 is tall. Would not work for most people for cooking.
I have heard complaints about 36" tall cabinets + 1-2" of countertop being too high.

One could probably pivot out the EXO, open the right barn door to open the left barn door and then leave the right bard door close. To my eye, based on the photos and your photo, copied below, the EXO pivot point is (understandably) inside of the vehicle width and at the right tail light alsmost ...

That's where the right barn door swings to 90 degrees and it locks in line with the outside half of the tail light.



So barn door people might prefer it on a left swing unit; but then when out and about, and parking along a road, the whole kit would face into the street.

Anyhow.

Cool kit!

It worked fine, but I am going to need to modify the way I pack my van. The issue is in order to allow the lift gate of the van to open the Top Shelf needs to be above the Gear Locker which prevents the Gear Locker from being able to be opened. To get stuff out of the Gear Locker, the top shelf needs to be moved, which prevents the rear hatch from closing. Also for me the hole the top shelf has needs to be taped off to prevent things from falling into it, and requiring the removal of the top shelf mast to retrieve. I think it would be possible or even better for some to build a table platform and somehow (velcro?) attach it to the Gear Locker top. The back deck for me will be most useful when traveling long distances. Food in the front of the van, all cooking supplies in the Gear Locker. Swing out swing base, swivel top deck, get cooking supplies, cook food, all at the side of the road if necessary. No need to open the vans rear to get cooking supplies, which is the way I had done previously. Did not try the extra support. Also the whole thing did not seem to affect gas mileage at all. My primitive brain thinks it may have gotten better, Kamm tail?

Yea, weird there isn't a cap for that hole. Easy enough to cover it maybe. They probably thought it would be a rust problem if they covered it? Flower vase maybe?

I thought the same thing about the table and the locker, but felt maybe swinging it 180 might not be that bad in practice. Swing the base out and swing the top shelf. Is it just too much to make it a pain?

I think i'd like to see them make the top deck arms collapse like the swing base arms. I just imagine catching one of those arms in the gut when its dark if I don't have anything mounted.

I have an amazing stainless steel folding table from a restaurant supply company. The folding legs could come off it by unbolting them and there is a perfect place to mount the cleats for this setup. Made me also think that a folding table that can also work mounted in the cleats would be ideal. You can pop it off and put it in camp or leave it on the van. Might be possible with an off the shelf folding table that has telescoping legs. Maybe a 60" table would fit?

Maybe an undermount table on some full extension sliders so that you can mount the locker on the top deck with a table under the top deck arms. Could put it lower than the 45 inches also. You could take the cleats off the locker, mount the locker to a frame and then mount the cleats back on the frame.

Can the lockers be mounted in the cleats in either direction? Meaning can the hinge face you instead of the van? Curious if you can have the locker mounted in the top shelf and when its swung out and 90 can you stand behind the van and open the locker?