A. R. E. Canopies

Avoid this company like the plague. Ordered a CX canopy and was advised to get the HD version for a RTT. Was not told nor does their website state that you must order their roof racks as well. Otherwise the internal aluminum skeletal frame does not touch the canopy anywhere, providing NO support. Lousy support, 40 minutes on hold, no email reply, eventually blamed dealer. Stay away!

 

ARE usually does business through local ARE resellers / dealers. Just like car dealers, the ARE dealers/resellers will vary in quality. I had a great experience with mine, where they fixed an issue under warranty no-questions-asked. Did you call ARE themselves or a local dealer?

That said... Let me google that for you. In all seriousness -- the first picture should show what you need to know:



You can see from the picture it goes through the roof, so yes, you do have to pay for them to put in the roof channels. However, you can use any rack that uses the standard roof channels. Yakima towers are commonly used, but there's other options -- I mounted my Bajarack directly to the roof channels with no rack under it.

I'm not sure who you talked to, but I'm not sure if you even got the right answer. The option that is required is the "Roof Rack - Multi Sport Tracs Only" which is $175 and is just the channels, not including the actual rack, which you can use almost any rack with.