Today we are going to review part number TH480 from Thule. This is Thules traverse foot pack. And we will also be using fit kit part number THKIT1522. And the cross bars we will be using on this demonstration will be THLB58. Those are sold separately. And we will be taking these parts and will be installing these on a 2003 GMC Sierra extended cab pickup truck. We have our parts here laid out with just one end of the bar so you will not get confused. We will flip the whole assembly over so you can see it easier. We are going to start off with our tower here. To slide it onto the bar, what we are going to have to do is loosen this clamp up. So we pull back on this latch right here. Then we can slide our bar in. We will just leave that loose for now. We are going to pop on our little cap. We are going to need to open up this door here. It just snaps open. And while we are here, we will use this tool to tighten down this screw which actually will clamp it down to the car. Then next we will go ahead and install the fit kit itself. 1:00
It is kind of a good idea to grab this piece of metal, right here. Pull it out a little bit. Make sure the screw is sunk in all of the way. And then our fit kit actually fits in this slot right here. The rubber foot will actually get snapped onto the bottom. And all this does really is just gets pushed into place. The foot pads on the fit kits do match the contour of the vehicle roof line. And they range from about 1/2 inch to 7/8 inch in thickness. We have our cross bars assembled, let us go ahead and space them out as specified in the instructions for this particular vehicle. For our first bar, that will be 45-3/4 inches. That goes toward the front of the vehicle. And the bar that goes towards the back of the vehicle will be at 45-1/2 inches. Once you have the foot packs set, go ahead and lock them into place. 1:43
And then we will go ahead and install our first bar on the truck. It does sit over this rubber piece right here and grips the steal that is underneath of it. Let us get it started. And then next we will need a measurement from the center of the bar up to the front windshield. We want to scoot back to about 11 inches. So, let us move it back about an inch. Alright, we will go to the other side and get that even too. Once we have them set into place, we can go ahead and tighten them down. And we will use our little tool here that stores inside. And all we have to do is just tighten it down and we want to do about two or three turns on each side, alternately, to tighten them down. And when you start getting them tightened down, this little green line right here will actually line up with this line here on the gray part. And that actually gives you a torque measurement. Once they touch, you have enough torque on the bolt. And then just store it inside there. Put our cover down and now we will go ahead and move on to our next bar. 2:34
Once you put the bars in place, it is a good idea to loosen up the bolt considerably so you can slide the foot pack over the edge of the rubber. We will let it sit for now because we are going to have to find the proper spacing between the bars. From the center of the bars, we want to measure them out to 31-1/2 inches. Once again we will just tighten down the traverse foot pack evenly on both sides, until we achieve the proper torque as indicated on the handle. Now we have our load bars installed and this is a good application, in this case, for if you want to haul something and you have a camper shell on the back of your truck. And there you have it for part number TH480, the traverse foot pack, and the fit kit, part number THKIT1522 from Thule.
