Today we are going to show you part number TH5401, Thules Snowcat. This is a dedicated ski carrier. This ski carrier is designed to work with a variety of factory roof racks. It can carry up to four set of skis. Our first feature we will cover is the padding itself. It has got generous padding here for all your ski equipment. And, when you do install it, this part does telescope in and out. The one nice feature that is not told about is that the coating on the hooks themselves that wrap around the roof rack - it is kind of a plastic coating around the metal part itself. And it also has another plastic padding underneath of it, too, so it does not mar up the finish of your factory roof rack.
And really, the simple operation of this - you put your equipment in here, and you simply push down on it and it locks into place. And, to secure it, it has a built-in key lock, too. All right, we have our first one installed, to give you an idea of what it looks like. Now we will go ahead and install the second one to give you an idea of how it gets installed on the vehicle. And it is kind of long, so you may want to get an extra set of hands, just in case. What you want to do is loosen this bolt up a little bit, just so it slides over.
Then slide it over your rail and then push together, and then just thread it back together - just enough to hold everything in place. It does have to be real tight, because you will have to adjust it front to rear, as necessary, to have it even on both sides. Once you have the one side done, then you can go ahead and push the other side in or out, as needed, with the rail. All right, and once you have it the way you want it, then go ahead and just tighten down the bolts.
We have got our rack installed. Let us go ahead and load it up with a snowboard and some skis. Once you have your object in place, go ahead and center it on the pads and just pull down on the tops until it snaps into position. And once you have it snapped in, you can go ahead and lock them down to secure them. And then you just repeat the same process on the other side for your skis. That covers it for our review of part number TH5401, the Snowcat from Thule.
Questions and Comments about this Video
Nice video, thanks for the information. I have a question. Is there any way to mount a wind deflector to the TH5401 rack? Thanks,-Mike
comment by: Mike S - 11/13/2012
The wind deflectors or the fairings that are available are designed to attach to cross bars. There would not be a way to mount one of them to the Snowcat. Those fairings too, are really designed to minimize wind noise of the base roof rack and crossbars. Once a carrier is added on top, wind noise will happen. If you have the space on the roof, you can move the carrier further back, that way any wind noise generated would be further back and less noticeable.
Patrick B - 11/13/2012
