Thule Water Slide Non-Skid Loading Mat

Video Transcript for Thule Roll Model Roof Mounted Kayak Carrier Review

Today were going to do a review of part number TH884 from Thule. This is the Roll Model. Well start off the review with all the parts laid out in order of assembly. These are the parts that are installed on the back crossbar. This is the roller assembly right here. Youll put the front part of your kayak and it rolls so you can push the boat forward easily.

This is a hydroglide assembly. It has a waterproof mat on here so the kayak will slide on it, fully adjustable to match the kayak contour, and its spring loaded. This is the hardware were going to use to attach it with. Basically they just slide over the square bars and the bolt clamps them in place. For a crossbar going toward the front, this is a set to go saddles.

It kind of has a rubbery surface so it will kind of grip the boat. This will match the contour of the boat. Once you have it in its proper spot you can just tighten down this knob. You notice that we set for that particular boat. This clamps in place through the front crossbar.

Heres also, depending on the crossbars your using they come with a long and short bolt. Then well move onto the straps that hold that hold the kayak in place. These are tie down straps that will go to your boat or kayak so you have something to tie off to if you need to. Depending on the boat if it already has these straps you probably wont need these. These are the straps that actually strap down the boat to the cargo carrier.

These are the lines that help time the front and back of the boat to help keep it in line while you go down the road. Lets go ahead and install this and load up a kayak. Well start off by taking the roller assembly and placing it on the back rail. It comes in a few pieces. All youve got to do is push them all together as close as possible. Well go ahead and put this on our crossbar. Notice we have room for the antennae. Well go ahead and install our hardware with the carriage bolts and then the knob. All right, well do the other side. Next go ahead and install the hydroglide assemblies. They may go toward the inside and attach the same way with the carriage bolt and the knob. Were finished with the backload bar. Now lets go up to the front and install that hardware. Now we can go ahead and install the set to go saddles. Well take our hardware. Well push it in first on both sides. Then place on the bar till your clamp can put underneath and install the knobs. Lets tighten up and make it snug, but we can still move it and roughly in the right spot. Well make our final placement when we actually put the kayak on the rack, because we have to adjust the height on these as well. All right, lets go with the other set up bar and install the other saddle. One last thing before we load up our boat, we can actually protect the vehicle a little bit more by using two of these waterslide. This will be part number TH854. Basically this is a mat that you temporarily install on your rear crossbar when youre loading up your kayak so it protects the finish on your car. Since this vehicle has a spoiler on the back this will come in handy. Here you take your mat and slide it up to the bar and weve hook and loop fasteners to wrap around the bar and back onto itself. This just helps hold it in place. Its not intended to stay on there all the time, just for loading up the kayak and thats it. At this point we can go ahead and load up our kayak. Well take the bow of the kayak and well put it as close as we can to the back crossrail. Well pick up the back half and push it all the way on. When we get it roughly centered on the boat, now well go ahead and take the saddles and adjust them to match the hull. When you load up your boat we want to make sure that the cockpit will end up between the straps so theyd go over the boat and around the crossbar. You wont be able to get it exact every time but you want to try to aim for that as close as possible. Ill just take a second an make sure that the boat is in a straight line with the car and then we can adjust our front saddles. To adjust our saddle well lift the door up just a little bit. Well push it in until it hits the flat on the bottom. The well take the outside edge and just push it up. It will snap as it goes. We may have to go up one snap and let it back down, to make it mesh to contour. Once your satisfied with the placement well go ahead and tighten down the hardware. Were done on the passengers side. Lets repeat the same process on the drivers side. Take a few moments and double check after your mounts are adjusted. You may have found out that youve moved them off left or right just a little bit. At this point we can go ahead and remove the water slide. Again, this is only used for just loading up the kayak. Now well go ahead and install our straps. Theres cover that comes for the buckles here. We just got to throw the strap through the bottom. After were done synching everything down our cover will go over the buckle to keep from scratching up the kayak. When we run our strap around the kayak well have one end to go underneath the bar, and then both straps going up over the top to the other side. Then well take our strap and run it through our buckle and well go ahead and just tighten it down. Well go ahead and slide our cover down over the buckle. Now you can also take your strap and run it through this side of the cover to help take up the excess, or you can take it underneath the strap as well. Basically repeat the same procedure for a strap going up to the front. This is our strap that wed use if we needed additional length or clearance. On this application were just going to tie off to our knob right here and our rope. This is just going to keep it steady, its doesnt really pull any load on it whatsoever. One part of our strap weve got to attach our hook. All Ive got to do is just put a knot in it. The other half will get our ratchet. We have to push this down as far as possible, so its full free wheels. Then we can go ahead and push our rope through and take it and let it do inaudible 0:06:53:0. Let it do the work. There. Well take our ratchet, put it up by the boat and take our other half for a strap, and then go down to our tie down point right here. Part number TH530 from Thule. This is a quick loop. This is part of Thules weather sport accessories. This product is intended to help you tie down the bow or stern of the boat. Were just going to take up enough slack. You put some tension on it, maybe just moved the boat just a little bit but not much. Well take up the rest of the slack anywhere possible. Now repeat the same process going toward the front. With that that will finish it for our review of part number TH884 from Thule, the Roll Model.