Thule Short-Roof Adapter Kit for Traverse Roof-Rack Feet

Video Transcript for Thule Traverse Roof Rack Installation - 2006 Mini Cooper

Today, on this 2006 Mini Cooper, we are going to install a roof rack using the following part numbers. We will go ahead and point out the components here and the accompanying part numbers. First off are these two cross bars here. This is the THLB50. These two bars here and accompanying hardware on the side here are the TH487. That is the short roof adapter. It allows you to install the roof rack system and keep it at its proper distance. Alright, and this is the fit kit, part number THKIT1366. This is the traverse foot pack, part number TH480. 0:33

We will go ahead and start our assembly. First off, we are going to work with the cross bars. And there is going to be two pieces that go on the end of the cross bar from the short roof adapter kit. And these little rings go on just like this. Our next part is to go ahead and start installing the foot pack. Start with one of the feet. And what we are going to do is unlock it. So we will just take this lever right here and pull it out. And then we can go ahead and slide it on our bar. This is our foot pad right here and that gets installed on the very bottom. The padding on here is really thick. You have about 7/8 inch on one side and about 1/4 inch on the other side. What that does is matches the roof line and the vehicle. And then the rest of the fit kit will get installed later, once we put it onto the vehicle. Now we will go ahead and set our bars up for proper spacing. The front bar is going to be 36-5/8 inches and the rear bar is going to be 38-1/4. Alright, when you have the proper distance set between foot packs, go ahead and lock it into place by pushing down on this lever. 1:36

Let us go ahead and start installing the roof rack to the car. And we will set our first cross member on. You can see how the foot pad meets the edge of the roof line. Now there is a measurement where this has to sit away from the pillar here. And that is going to be 4-3/8 inches. So that is going to be from this mark right here to the outside edge of the foot. Now that we have our cross bar in the proper spot, we will go ahead and attach the fit kit metal bracket. It is going to fit underneath the edge here and we will roll it up forward where it catches. And then we will put our foot pack on top of it. Go ahead and do the same thing back on the other side. Let us go and install the rear rail. Put that on there. And we want to get the distance between the center of this rail and the center of this rail at 27-1/2 inches. Now go ahead and install the short roof adapter. And what is going to happen is that this part right here is going to hook into this ring right here. It is just going to fall in the little track. There is one on each side. And this is the part that actually does the work that clamps it down. There is nothing for the fit kit to fit over here, so that is why we have to use a short rack adapter to catch right here. 2:45

And there is an actual measurement where this has to go. So we will loosen up by pulling on this lever right here. And then we can move it where we need to. We are going to measure out from this edge of the fit kit here to the opposite edge on the next one. And we are going to measure out to 17-1/2 inches. We have proper spacing. We will go ahead and put our fit kit bracket in the channel. We will lift the lid up, out of the way. Fit it inside of here, like this. It is going to snap over this plastic part. And we will take our bolt that comes with the short roof adapter and just thread it into place. Then we will use our tool to tighten it down, just enough to get it started. And then we will lock it into place. Alright, and we will go ahead and repeat the same process back over on the passenger side now. At this point we can go ahead and tighten it down. And we will use our AcuTight tensioning tool. And what is going to happen is we are going to spin this down tight. We will do a little bit on one side and then move over to the other. But what is going to happen is that this line on the green part, when you are properly torqued, is going to line up with the line on the gray part. When those two lines meet, it is properly tightened. 4:03

We can go ahead and take our tool out. We need to go back to the short roof adapter and tighten it down. And do it the same exact way. And then we can put our plug in for our lock core. And we will store our AcuTight tensioning tool back into place. It is definitely not going anywhere. And there you have it for part numbers TH480, TH487 and the fit kit part number THKIT1366 and the load bars, part number THLB50.