So awhile back I bought a set of the Mopar cross rails to go on my '08 Aspen roof rails so we could carry our Yakima cargo box or ski racks, etc... I installed the cross rails once, and we had nothing but problems. If I pulled hard enough, I could undo the cross rail without loosening the clamp bolts. Also, one of the cross rails even came unlatched on one side in the middle of the trip, I had to tie it down to the roof rail with a shoe lace till we could get home to fix it. Anyway, I haven't used them for awhile since then. I reinstalled them last night again and noticed that the Aspens roof rails have grooves cut out in the center of the rail (in the trough) about every 14 inches or so. I also noticed that the clamp piece of the cross rail perfectly fits in those cutout grooves. So I tried using that cutout as the place to clamp the cross rails, and it seemed like it worked great, they feel way more secure then the did the last time when I just randomly picked the spot on the roof rail to clamp them down.

So my question is, is that what those cutout grooves are for on the roof rails?

 

Nevermind, I found the installation instructions online, and it confirms what I thought.
http://www.mopar-accessories.com/en-...r.ashx?id=1538

They have to be installed on the notch like I did this time. So i'm good to go.