Video Transcript for Checking Out the Thule Motion 3 Low Profile Rooftop Cargo Box

Hi everyone, Aidan here with etrailer. Today we're gonna be taking a look at the Thule Motion 3 low profile roof box. This is gonna be one of their larger sizes offering 18 cubic feet of storage space while still maintaining a lower profile so you're not adding near as much height to your vehicle. A low profile box like this is a great option if you're primarily carrying things like skis and snowboards. That's what a lot of these are designed for because those items tend to be a lot longer and not nearly as tall as things like duffel bags and suitcases would be. So why add the height to your vehicle if you really don't need it That space is gonna be better spent by creating a longer box for those longer items.

Now, that's not to say that this can't haul other things. There's still a good amount of height in there to work with if you have some small bags. But if you plan on taking this on a family road trip and loading primarily camping gear and luggage and things like that in here, you just might find better luck with a taller box and not the low profile one. Let's open this up and take a look inside. There's gonna be a lock and you get two keys with it, so you can just pop that in there and twist it to the unlocked position and then squeeze this latch right here to open the lid.

This mechanism is really nice. I'm a big fan of that because it's easy to operate and we can push the lid open from there. I have noticed a little bit of sticking with the lid, but you don't want it to just fly open. That's a pretty solid fit and it's gonna keep things in there protected from the elements when you're driving, and those hinges will just kind of take the wheels after you push it up a bit and hold the lid open for you. But as you can see, just from the ground, we've got a good amount of stuff in here.

Like I mentioned, just because it's low profile doesn't mean we can't fit some bags in there. We've got everything tied down right now, but there's still a good amount of height to work with. And to be a bit more specific with your interior measurements of actual usable space, front to back, you're working with 86 and a half inches. Side to side, you're working with 30 inches and from bottom to top, once the lid close, that's gonna be 11 and 11 sixteens of an inch. So overall really good.

Like I said, it's just a big box in general, even though it is low profile, you're left with a lot of usable space and for your maximum ski length, you're gonna be working with 215 centimeters. And up in the box we have three tie-down straps that are included. Just basic little cam buckles that will help secure your cargo down and keep it from shifting around as much when you're driving around. And there's integrated tie-down points on the floor of the roof box right by some of the tie-down clamps. So really nice that you've got those spots integrated. And then those clamps are gonna be really easy to operate too. Just a simple hand knob to loosen or tighten. And they're pretty low profile too, so they don't take up valuable cargo space. Once you have it all the way loosened up, you can remove it just by unclipping the clamp from the surrounding protective covers and get a better look at what that mechanism looks like, grabbing around even smaller crossbars like some factory bars you might have. So I like this design quite a bit and that track that it slides in, you'll notice there's a lot of front to back movement, so we can adjust this to different crossbar spreads and meet the vehicle where it's at. And then once it's fully tightened down, those handles will have a built-in torque device so they'll give you a click letting you know that they are properly tightened and you're safe to drive. And I did want to give one look with just some pairs of skis in here to give a frame of reference. Our longest pair closest to me is 160 centimeters, so plenty of room to spare and plenty of room to line these up side by side, especially if you offset the bindings without ever having to stack them on top of one another. The other thing is the raised sections that they'll sit on, it's gonna keep any melted snow or just any water out of the things you put in here. They'll drain to these low points and your gear will remain elevated out of it. When you go to close the box, you probably noticed by now this gray strap that's hanging from the lid, that's to help you pull the lid down to you and give you a better handhold to grab by the actual handle. The handle is this matte black plastic and it's going to really not pick up fingerprints and stuff like the glossy finish wood plus it gives a nice handhold to just click that lid down into place once it is properly aligned. One of the lids at the back was grabbing a bit for us, but I'll show that one more time so you can see a bit better what that's looking like as you close it. This handle here will give you an indicator when that red goes away that it's fully latched, and then it'll allow us to turn the key and remove it in the locked position. That's another safety mechanism just to make sure that it is properly latched. You won't be able to remove the key if it isn't fully secured. It does open from both sides, so if you find yourself in a parking spot where you don't have much clearance on one side of you, so it's not very easy to open your door and gain access to the things inside, that's okay. You can just go to whatever side's more open or just for the initial setup. It's nice to be able to open the lid from both sides when installing the clamps because the ones over here are easy for me to reach, but the ones on the far side, not so much. And especially if you're just getting set up or you don't wanna step on your seats, it's nice just to have an easier way to reach them when setting it up. Once you know the box is gonna work with your stuff though, you wanna know if it's gonna work well with your car. And a big part of that is the looks. I think this box has a lot of really nice angles and lines and contours to it, and it accents the vehicle really well, not just this particular vehicle, but I think it's gonna match the modern styling of a lot of different vehicles. Now, part of that nice look is the low profile nature of the box. From the top of the crossbar to the top of the box, it's only gonna be adding 13 and a half inches, so it's gonna keep things lower to the roof and less of a height hindrance, but still do watch out for things like your garage at home, but also how close it sits to the roof. The gap in here is quite small because from the attachment point, the box does taper down a bit. Now I was actually worried that this small gap would create a trap for wind and create a lot of wind noise, but I gotta say wind travels over this box really well. You're probably noticing rain on the car and the box a little bit, and that's because I took it around and drove it. And as for the rain, no water intrusion or anything like that, handled it really well, but getting up to highway speeds, I didn't really hear anything with this, and I think that really is because of that short stature, it's gonna have wind travel over much easier and the gap underneath didn't cause any problems, so I was really impressed with that. But with it being a longer box, the one thing I'll say you have to watch out for is your hatch clearance. So if you measure from the center of your front crossbar all the way to the back where the hatch is going to be opened and you're sitting around 55 inches, then you're gonna have enough room to comfortably open up the back hatch and not hit the rear of the cargo box. Realistically, that number is a little bit under 55 inches, but I think rounding up is just going to make for a more comfortable fit on your car and make it easier to install the box. But a lot of that clearance is just because of the sharp cutoff you get at the back here, that's gonna make it play nice with a lot of different types of vehicles. The other thing that'll help this work with a lot of different vehicles is the cutout you see at the bottom. And that's gonna allow for better clearance around your antennas. Now the one potential drawback that I can see with a box like this is the glossy finish. It looks great out of the box, and a lot of people like the glossy finish because it matches the vehicle paint a bit better. And some people like to use it as a sticker surface to show where they've traveled. That's pretty cool too. But the problem with glossy finishes is it will show smudges, fingerprints, scratches, and scuffs as it ages over time a little bit easier because there's just not much to hide it with that glossy finish. And in those cases, I would say opting for a matte or a textured finish is gonna be your better choice for durability. I've personally used a textured box, the Yakima SkyBox NX 16 for a pretty long road trip all throughout the national parks in Utah. And in that environment we saw all kinds of rain, dust, the red dirt that gets kicked up on the roads. It's a very unforgiving environment, and that box handled all that really well, whereas a glossy finish box, I don't know that it would, but you also gotta think this is a more low profile box and you might be considering it just for skiing and snowboarding. In that case, if you're gonna be in more mountainous environments, more so in the winter and you're mainly encountering things like snow, maybe not that big a deal, it's probably something that isn't going to wear on the box as much depending on how you're using it and how well you maintain it. As far as what the box is capable of though, you've got a weight capacity of 165 pounds, but the box itself weighs almost 60 pounds just empty. So you gotta keep in mind the empty weight as you're loading it onto your roof because your roof rack will have its own weight capacity, and more often than not, that will end up being the limiting factor. So you just gotta look at all the things you're putting on your roof, everything that's holding it there, even just your own owner's manual, your roof capacity on your vehicle, and just go by the lowest rated component. And the big thing to keep in mind with the roof boxes is you're not loading your heavy items up here. It's just gonna not be able to handle it because of all the limiting factors. So it's best for your larger, bulkier, but somewhat lightweight items. If you find yourself needing to load a lot of heavy things, I would opt for a hitch on your vehicle and a hitch mounted cargo carrier. If you don't already have a hitch, you can certainly find that option here at etrailer just by plugging your vehicle information into our fit guide and finding the right one for you. And even using our dealer locator tool to find an installer near you if you're not comfortable installing it yourself. But when it comes to picking out a roof box, like I kind of mentioned before, it really just comes down to how you're using it because most of the options will be pretty similar. But I think this option from Thule is going to be a really solid pick if you're looking for a really large capacity, a nice latching mechanism. I think it's probably one of my favorite things about this box. Good looks, and really easy clamps that could work well with smaller crossbars like factory bars. The one thing to know is that the Thule is a very premium option, so if you we inchesre still looking into a low profile box and wanted to maybe look at something that's a bit more value oriented, the Inno Wedge is a pretty solid option. You're not gonna get as nice of features with it, but I think it's going to be a pretty solid matchup if you still want something long and low profile for those skis and snowboards. But if you like the styling of the Thule, then I think the Motion 3 is going to be a really solid option for your roof and for your storage needs. I'm Aidan and thanks for watching.