The roof of your vehicle is a great place for extra cargo, bikes, kayaks and more. Many vehicles come with factory installed racks but if yours did not it does not mean you have to miss out on the fun. Thule believes this as well and has designed after market racks for many different vehicles. Our video here shows how to install the rack on a VW Jetta and provides a better idea on what is required no matter what type of vehicle you have. It is time to get your car, van, SUV, truck decked out and start getting yourself out there!
Essentially this kit consists of three pieces. First you have your crossbar here, next is the aero-foot which connects the car and the crossbar, and finally the fit kit. The fit kit converts the aero-foot to match the type of vehicle you are using whether it be the Volkswagen we have here or your Ford pickup. Now we will show you how these components fit together, first off you want to take the fit kit foot and put that on the bottom of the aero-foot which has a little peg to help you line up everything. It simply fits together by press fit. Now we can put our aero-foot onto our bar. First we need to pull this cap off, and then we will just slide it onto the bar. This part here has to be pulled out to keep it as loose as possible. Now we will just slide it on, once you have it put on the bar the way you want it, this part needs to be pushed back in by squeezing these two together.
Next we need to install the rest of our fit kit, that sits in like so, then you re-install the bolt. We will leave it like so because we need it loose to install onto our vehicle. Now we will put our cap back on the bar. Now that we have it assembled, we will go ahead and install it on our car. Depending on the application you catch the roof edge or below the seal like this one does. In our case we are going to have to peel this back and our pad will sit about right here and the fit kit will grab one of these screws hanging out from the roof here. We will install it now, it is a good idea to have someone stand on the other side to catch it and make sure it does not scratch up the paint. Just work it into place sometimes the seal comes loose a little bit too. Now it needs to catch in there and we need to repeat for the other side. At this point it is just a simple process of tightening it up. We will clamp everything into place and you might want to turn a couple of times and give a few more turns because every time you tighten it down it brings it toward you a little bit. Once you get it tight the way you want it, the lever itself snaps into place and locks. Now we will install the front half of it again same thing applies, it is just on the front. There you have it the install is complete, it is a reasonably easy install that may take a couple of extra hands. Those are the basics of all the Thule roof racks whether it is on a car truck or SUV, it is the same components that just vary in size and the fit kit for the particular vehicle.
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