Oem roof rack material

What Material is the oem roof rack cross bars made of? Plastic or Aluminum like the aftermarket ones?

 

Crossbars are aluminum.

 

The bases that bolt onto the roof are all plastic, the crossbars are lightweight aluminum (not aluminum extrusions), the ends of the cross bars are attached to sort of a plastic swivel ends which is the weakest point of the entire rack in my opinion. If you put load on the cross you can see how much stress it puts on those plastic ends.
Having said that I have put 20 12ft long 1/2”x4” pieces of wood trim and it handled it....kind of sketch but it handled it.

 

3rd Gen rack weight limit is 100lbs, 2nd gen is 75lbs. I have a 3rd Gen rack on my 2nd Gen. It isn’t a heavy duty rack like fixed aftermarket ones, so expectations should be set accordingly. It does offer the unique ability to swing the pars out of the air stream when not in use for better mpg and lower wind noise, which is why I went with OEM.