Any reason not to use 2 mounts and 2 bars only?

I have an RSI Smartcap I'm trying to put an rtt on. My issue is with the full top rack I can't fully open the doors/side windows of the RSI, they hit the side rails and I'm worried it could break the glass.

What would work perfectly is just mounting 2 bars with no side rail. Unless I am missing something this should still give the same load capacity, or even better, as the 2 bars will be mounted the same as they would be with the complete rack system. Just no other parts of the full rack. It may look a bit ugly with nothing covering the ends of the bars... Thoughts?

 

How do you mount the bars with no prinsu side rails? That is what they bolt onto. Maybe I am missing something here?

With that said, the more bars you use the more load is evenly distributed and more secure it is. The more bars also add stability/rigidity to the Prinsu side rails. While you don't need all of them, I am not sure I would go with just two. I have a DCLB and use 6 of the 7 bars it came with. Left one out for the moonroof.

 

You are correct that the Prinsu side rails support the cross bars, on a cab rack. But on a cap rack (camper shell), the opposite is true. The Prinsu feet bolt to the track on the shell, and then to the cross bars. For example, the Prinsu rack for a 6-ft. camper shell has 7 cross bars. 3 of those 7 cross bars are attached directly to the feet. The side rails support only the intervening cross bars, and the end cross bars.

So, what the OP is proposing is theoretically doable. But the 2-bar setup may lack the strength.

This.

 

Got it thanks. I should have looked up the cap rack mounting.

Ya I would not go without a minimum of 3 bars which sounds like that is what OP could do. But the weight distribution? Heck if you want to go with 2 bars, just go with a traditional setup like Thule or Yakima.

I think the heavy duty Rhino Racks advertise 110 pounds per bar. So 2 bars is 220 pounds ASSUMING the cap is rated to the same or higher. If you add a 3rd bar you go to 330 pounds. Prinsu has to have a similar methodology, like every bar added gives a higher weight rating. But there also has to be a point of diminishing returns where adding another bar doesn't get you that much more, instead you are adding bars to be able to mount more stuff with more flexibility.