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Fit/Installation Tips
Following are some great car rack installation and fit tips for our products. Many of the tips are listed on the individual product description pages (and many will link you back to this page). Longer tips are listed here. Follow the links below to find what you are looking for. We will constantly be adding to this list, and if you can't find info that you are looking for, please email us at techsupport at cracksandracks.
Base Systems
Thule 400XT Aero Foot & Yakima Q Towers
Start by reading the instructions for assembling the towers.Before attaching the brackets to the tower, measure the correct distance between the towers to ensure a precise and strong fit. The difference between an amateur and a professional installation is having even bar lengths outboard of the tower.
1. Measure your exact bar length. A 50" crossbar may actually only be 49 5/8". In your instructions, note the Thule suggested distance between the towers on the same bar. Don't confuse this number with the distance between the 2 crossbars. As an example, you might see 37 5/8".
2. Subtract this number from the total bar length you calculated using your tape measure of the bar.(49 5/8" - 36 3/8" = 13 1/4")
I know what you're thinking, you never thought you'd ever really need to know fractions. Well this is Rack-It Science friends.
3. For those of us who need a calculator, see this table to determine your decimal places.
Fractional Measurements
|
1/8 |
0.1250 |
|
9/16 |
0.5625 |
|
3/16 |
0.1875 |
|
5/8 |
0.6250 |
|
1/4 |
0.2500 |
|
11/16 |
0.6875 |
|
5/16 |
0.3125 |
|
3/4 |
0.7500 |
|
3/8 |
0.3750 |
|
13/16 |
0.8125 |
|
7/16 |
0.4375 |
|
7/8 |
0.8750 |
|
1/2 |
0.5000 |
|
15/16 |
0.9375 |
Dividing this number by 2 yields 6 5/8", which is the actual distance to measure each tower from the end of the bar. Using a tape measure allows you to be very precise.
4. When using the Aero Foot, once you've zeroed in on your measurement, squeeze in the interior clamp until the first click. This will engage the tower onto the bar, and keep your measurements intact.
5. When using the Q tower, turn the hex key that is supplied with the rack to tighten down on the bar. It is normal for the older model Q Tower (part# 0105) to slide about 1/4" when tightening on the bar, so you may need to adjust for this to maintain accurate measurement. When you tighten the tower on the other side of the bar, make sure everything is level and even.
Thule 450 CrossRoad
If you've got a power drill, and a 5mm hex head bit for your power drill, installing this rack will feel like working the pits at a NASCAR race. We always prefer professional tools when installing racks in the shop, and this combo is the goods for installing this tower.
When loading bike or ski attachments on a siderail, we generally mount the front crossbar just behind the sunroof, if there is one. This will still give you plenty of room to keep bike trays from interfering with the back liftgate. On Subaru Outback, or short roofline siderail applications, mount the front bar at the very front end of the siderail.
Line up the little arrow that is imprinted on the rubber gasket of the tower so that it sits directly on the center of the rail. The tower will naturally fall into place here. When measuring the bar extending outboard of the tower, make sure you don't move the towers off of this reference point.
Find reference points on the rail, like seams, to make sure your towers are mounted squarely on the roof. If you measure 14" from say a "screw pocket" on one rail to the edge of the rubber gasket on the tower, make sure you measure the same distance from the other side of the car too.
Eighths-of-an-inch count!
Thule 430 Tracker II Foot Pack
When installing a TK application, mount the bases first before you try and configure the actual Tracker foot. Use reference points on the roof to determine equal measurement on both sides of the car, such as a seam in the track, a bolt hole, or the actual end of the track. Tighten the bases in to the track.
When installing the foot, slide the loadbar onto the foot. You may need to loosen the small allen key by pushing in the gray button and sliding downward on the plastic cover. This will expose the bolt so that it can be loosened.
With the towers loosely on the load bar, mount the towers into place on the TK bases that you've already tightened on the car. Once you've done this, measure equal distance of the loadbar that is extending beyond the foot, then tighten the small allen bolt. Depress the gray button and pull up on the foot to be sure it is seated on the base properly.
Lock Cores
When purchasing lock cores for your vehicle, it's best to forward think about what other types of accessories you wish to purchase in the future, so that you can have all of your Thule & Yakima accessories keyed alike.
If you've already ordered locks, and wish to match your existing lock number, just tell us the lock number, and we'll get you the same number to keep everything the same. Special order fee may apply.
Load Bars
Load bars lengths are provided by Thule to create a useful foundation for many different vehicle applications. However, individual needs may vary, causing you to want a longer load bar. For example, white water boaters prefer longer crossbars so they can load more boats when shuttling up and down river.
From a legal standpoint, your load bars cannot extend further than your side view mirrors. In other words, your car cannot be wider than your mirrors. On some smaller cars, excessively long load bars may cause you to hit your head when either entering or exiting the car. Nothing ruins a good day like a mild concussion, so choose longer loadbars only if necessary.
Occasionally, a longer loadbar is warranted, but the next size up, for example going from a 50" bar to a 58" bar is too much. The difference in length is 4" on each side of the tower. In this case, a small hacksaw can cut the 58" crossbar to a 54" crossbar, which gives you a little more real estate, but not too much to cause the bar to stick way out on the roof.
The right amount of loadbar is different for many different applications. For bikes, you should not need more the 4 " of loadbar extending outboard of the tower to mount any fork mounted bike carrier. For boxes, you only need 2" extending, and ski carriers will only need approximately 3" extending outboard of the tower.
Bike Racks
Swing Away vs. Fold Down Hitch Bike Racks
Most SUVs, trucks and wagons have some sort of lift gate or swing door to access the rear of the vehicle. As a result, racks have been designed to allow you access to the back of the vehicle while carrying bikes.
Hitch mounted bike racks are the easiest racks to operate. As opposed to hauling your bikes onto the roof of the car, rear-mounted hitch racks make loading bikes easier since you only need to raise your bike chest high.
Hitch mounted bike racks also install easily and can be removed easily with a single tool, making it a great choice for weekend warriors or people who only want a rack for seldom use.
There are many features that round out the lineup of hitch racks. Some racks have folding bike arms that can be stowed when not in use. This feature is handy when parallel parking for example, since the rack is not sticking out behind the car. This is a standard feature on all but a few of the hitch-mounted bike racks. Yakima has incorporated a very easy-to-use QuickCam Lever that will raise and lower the bike arms simply by moving the lever forward while raising or lowering the arms. This feature is available on the Full Swing 4 and the SlickRock 4 racks, and is extremely convenient.
Other mechanisms used to fold down the bike arms are identical to the mechanism that folds down the rack, near the base. A lynch pin assembly slides easily in and out of the rack to allow you to lower the rack, or just the bike arms, or both.
Integrated locking systems not only lock the bikes to the rack, but also lock the rack to the hitch. Both locks are keyed alike, meaning you will only need one key to access either the bike lock or the hitch lock.
Vehicles with swing out doors, like the Hyundai Santa Fe, and the Toyota Rav 4 will most benefit from a swing out bike rack. There are many advantages to swing-away bike racks versus fold down bike racks. When the rack is swung open, you are afforded complete access to the rear of the vehicle even when the rack is fully loaded.
On the other hand, using a fold-down bike rack on a vehicle with a swing-open rear door will not provide complete access to the rear of the car, since the door will not be able to clear the rack, even when it's folded down completely.
Fold-down bike racks are a great choice for many vehicle applications, especially when access to the rear of the car can be achieved through an independent, lift-up rear glass. While the fold-down rack will allow you to lift any liftback or hatchback door, it is extremely cumbersome and awkward to fold down the rack when bikes are loaded, even with just 2 bikes.
Swing-away racks, such as the Yakima Full Swing 4 and the Thule Trailblazer do require a bit more work to operate than a fold-down rack since you need to completely loosen the wingbolt to open the rack, and reattach it securely to close the rack when preparing for transit.
If your application requires you to move from a 2" receiver to a 1 " receiver, you will find that the best racks for this option are the Yakima SlickRock and Kingpin Series, because they can be adapted with the 2410 1 " hitch adapter that will allow you to switch from a smaller hitch to a larger hitch, and vice versa.
Additionally, in 2007 thule introduced their new Revolver, Ridgeline, and Roadway racks. With the exception of the Revolver, the complete line of Thule Hitch Mounted racks is now equipped with an adapter that will convert the 2" receiver hitch rack into a 1 1/4" receiver hitch rack out of the box, which is extremely useful, especially if you are considering using the rack on multiple vehicles with different hitch sizes.
SKI RACKS
Check with us if you want to put more than one ski rack on your roof--you made need to combine a couple of different racks to make them fit.
Ski Binding Clearance: With the new ski technology, many skis these days have significant riser plates beneath the bindings to create more leverage on the ski as it carves. As a result, binding clearance has become more of an issue when loading skis on the roof. Racks are designed to carry your skis base to base, the same way you carry them on your shoulder. If your bindings hit the roof (the bottom ski) when you load them into the rack, we recommend using the ski lift that is included with all ski racks. This is most likely to occur on factory installed crossbars, that have little clearance already.
Snowboard bindings vary. Many riders use the easy-to-use clicker setup, which has almost no profile when mounted upside down in the ski rack. However, freestyle riders most all ride with the high back bindings for better support landing tricks. This means, even with the high back folded down, you will likely encounter binding interference on factory installed racks when not using the ski lift.
Ski Tips to the front or the back?????Ideally, you want to mount your skis so that the tips face backwards. On many vehicles with shorter rooflines, this isnít possible without having your ski tips hit the back glass when raising the back door or glass. Many factory roofracks will move forwards, but some have stops built-in, to prevent sunroof interference with the factory crossbar. If your ski tips facing backwards still interfere with your back glass, itís completely ok to carry your skis tips forward.
How far should my crossbars be to apart when mounting my ski rack???Most binding plates extend a little past the toe and heel of the bindings. Ideally, you will want to clear the bindings and the riser plates when closing a ski rack, so C.a.R. recommends setting your crossbars 26"-30" apart. Too narrow a bar spread and you will have to contend with closing the rack on 5 inches of bindings and riser plates. Too far apart, and you risk some scumbag sliding your skis out of the rack and making them their own.
Thule 91726 Pull Top : If your factory rack has an elevated siderail running front-to-back on the vehicle, it is usually necessary to use the ski riser system to avoid binding interference with the siderail when retracting the rack.
The Pull Top Ski Rack is not recommended for factory installed crossbars that have excessive curvature, since it may bind the mechanism and prohibit smooth retracting action.
This rack is really wide, so if you need more than one ski rack on top of your car, you will probably have to combine a couple of different options. You could use the Pull Top with a 575 Snowboard Carrier or you could pair it with a Flat Top 4, depending on your car. Email us at techsupport at cracksandracks and we will help you figure out what your options are!
Thule 725/724 Flat Top 6 & Flat Top 4 have mounting points that are 26" apart, which is too wide for many factory crossbar applications. An example of this is the Subaru Outback factory roofrack. The Flat Top racks have a slightly higher profile, which allows them to be mounted on factory crossbars without the ski riser system.
Keep in mind that this measurement is not critical with the use of the new 91725 or 91726 applications, because the universal mounting hardware will work equally well on the thicker portions of the factory crossbar encountered on the Subaru Outback, for example.
Fat Mouth Clamps: We have found that the Fat Mouth Clamps aren't the greatest solution for round bars-they will sometimes move around on round bars.
Thule Box Comparison Chart
|
model |
volume |
weight |
length |
height |
width |
opening |
ski capacity |
|
Atlantis 1200 |
12 cu ft. |
36 lbs. |
81.5" |
17" |
24.5" |
dual side |
5-6 pair |
|
Atlantis 1600 |
16 cu ft. |
39 lbs. |
74" |
16.3" |
36" |
dual side |
3-4 snowboards |
|
Atlantis1800 |
18 cu ft. |
44 lbs. |
84" |
16.9" |
34.4" |
dual side |
6-8 pair |
|
Atlantis 2100 |
21 cu ft. |
56 lbs. |
92.5" |
18" |
36" |
dual side |
10-12 pair |
|
Ascent 1100 |
11 cu ft. |
34 lbs. |
88.5" |
12.4" |
28.5" |
passenger |
5-6 pair |
|
Ascent 1600 |
16 cu ft. |
37 lbs. |
76" |
16.4" |
33.1" |
passenger |
6-8 pair up to 185cm |
|
Ascent 1700 |
17 cu ft. |
40 lbs. |
91.5" |
15.7" |
31.5" |
passenger |
6-8 pair |
|
Spirit |
16 cu ft. |
57 lbs. |
90.5" |
14.2" |
32.7" |
dual side |
6-8 pair- |
|
Mountaineer |
17 cu ft. |
45 lbs. |
91.5" |
16.6" |
28.2" |
passenger |
6-8 pair |
|
Excursion |
13 cu ft. |
38 lbs. |
55.5" |
18.2" |
35.2" |
rear open
|
N/A |
|
Frontier |
11 cu ft. |
33 lbs. |
88.5" |
15.7" |
21.2" |
passenger
|
5-6 pair
|
|
Sidekick |
8 cu ft. |
16 lbs. |
54" |
15.5" |
25" |
passenger |
N/A |
|
Terrapin |
13 cu ft. |
68 lbs. |
50.25" |
24.25" |
23.5" |
N/A |
N/A |
Yakima Box Comparison Chart
|
model |
volume |
weight |
length |
height |
width |
opening |
ski capacity |
|
Sky Box (Pro) 21 |
21 cu ft. |
62 lbs. |
92" |
18" |
36" |
dual side |
10-12 pair |
|
Sky Box (Pro) 18 |
18 cu ft. |
52 lbs. |
92" |
16" |
36" |
dual side |
6-8 pair |
|
Sky Box (Pro) 16s |
16 cu ft. |
47 lbs. |
81" |
15" |
36" |
dual side |
6-8 pair-187 cm |
|
Sky Box (Pro) 12 |
12 cu ft. |
41 lbs. |
92" |
15" |
24" |
dual side |
5-6 pair |
|
RocketBox 16 ** |
16 cu ft. |
48 lbs. |
92" |
15" |
26" |
passenger |
6-7 pair |
|
SpaceCadet 15 ** |
15 cu ft. |
44 lbs. |
89" |
14" |
22" |
passenger |
5-6 pair |
|
SpaceBooster 11** |
11 cu ft. |
49 lbs. |
58" |
15" |
38" |
passenger |
N/A | |
