Today we have a 2003 Nissan Murano, and were going to be test fitting a Thule Roof Rack System. We will be using the 50 square load bars along with Thules crossroad feet. We already have our load bar assemblies put together, and now we are ready to mount them on the vehicle. When mounting the front load bar assembly we need to check three things. First we need to make sure the bar is overhanging evenly on both sides of the vehicles, second we need to make sure the crossroad feet are centered on top of our side rails, and finally we need to make sure that the front load bar runs perpendicular to the factory raised side rails. To do this we are going to find a fixed point on the side rails on both sides of the vehicle, and measure from that point to the front edge of the crossroad feet and make sure the measurement is the same on both sides.
Some models like this one do have a sun roof, so you may want to position your front load bar accordingly. With our position set were ready to tighten the system down. We will move back and forth from the passengers side to the drivers side to make sure we tighten down the system evenly and help us prevent from losing our position. With our front load bar assembly tightened down we are ready to move on to the rear. Again with the rear we need to make sure our overhang is even on both sides of the vehicle, and that our crossroad feet are centered over our side rails.
We also need to make sure that the rear bar runs parallel to the front to do this well measure from the center of the front bar to the center of the rear bar and make sure this measurement is the same on both sides. This system does not have a set crossbar spread; however Thule does recommend to not exceed 44 so we will make sure our crossbar spread is under that. With our rear load bar assembly in position well go ahead and tighten it down the same way we tightened down the front. With the rear assembly tightened down our roof rack is installed and were ready to go. Finally well measure to see how much height weve added on top of our side rails.
From the top of the side rails to the top of our new load bar assemblies weve added about 2-1/2 of height, and that does it for our test fit of our Thule Roof Rack System on our 2003 Nissan Murano. .
