Thule Motion 3 Rooftop Cargo Box - 21 cu ft - Black Glossy

Video Transcript for How to Set Up Your Thule Motion 3 Rooftop Cargo Box on a 2022 Toyota Tacoma

Hi, Matt with etrailer and today we're gonna be talking about the Thule Motion 3 roof box on our 2022 Toyota Tacoma. What's great about a roof box is it's gonna do a great job at protecting your gear from any elements. And a situation you're probably gonna run into is if you're planning on taking a family trip, you're probably gonna have your cab maxed out so you're gonna need somewhere to place your luggage. Now you do have your bed, which is okay, but if your luggage is gonna be sensitive to the elements, that's not gonna be the great place to put it. The next best place to put it is gonna be in a roof box. And what's great about the one we have today is there's gonna be plenty of space in it.

So let's check it out. Let's start by opening up the box. So this is pretty high up here, but I need to simply step inside my car so this is a little bit easier to access. And you're gonna notice we do have a lock here so you can't combine and just open this up. So this is pretty secure.

So we will have this key. I'll just unlock this real quick. I do like this latch here. It's really easy to use and it's nice that you hear that click, will let you know that it is ready to open. We're gonna have this lever here that we can just push up on.

And you can see we have a ton of space here. And there's a few things I do like about this is that the first thing, we have those hinge locks on the lid itself. So that's gonna allow us to open this up and really not worry about having to hold this and grab anything that we need. The second thing I like is these clamps. They're really easy to use.

When I'm turning them, they're really responsive. I don't have to deal with any extra tools that I need to tighten these down. And they're also gonna be able to slide down this track so I can accommodate the different crossbar spreads. Right next to that we're gonna have these anchor points. So we have the strap right here, so maybe you're having any luggage and we do have a lot of space up here. If you don't tie those items down, they're probably gonna be sliding all over the place, making a lot of ruckus. Since we have the strap and we can tie things down, that's gonna help reduce that. And really looking at the design of the interior of this, I really do like how we have some points that are a little bit lower than others 'cause what this is gonna allow us is let's say you do put something that is wet in here, maybe some skis or something that has a lot of dirt or grime on it, that's gonna allow a lot of that to pull up into the bottom here and keep it away from anything that you are hauling. And here's the bottom of those clamps and how they are going to attach. And I really do like the design of this 'cause this will work with most crossbars from your round, square to your aero and even some of your HD crossbars, which is a pretty big thing. And I do like we do have this rubber coating on 'em so we don't have to worry about scratching anything up either. And what really separates this box from a lot of other ones is you can open it up from either side. So there's probably gonna be a time at some point where you have a clearance issue on one side of your vehicle and you can't open it up from that side. Well then, this is gonna allow you to do that. So let's say you're in a parking spot and you're pretty close to the vehicle next to you and you can't open up this door to get up here. What you could do is just go from the other side and open it up from that side. There's a few things to think about when you are closing this. So we are gonna have this strap that is here, this point we can grab onto and even trying to reach right here, that is a bit of a reach. That's just because we are pretty high up here. Now we have a hold of this when I pull down, you notice we do have a lot of flex to that box. And that's just mainly because the size of it 'cause it is at the end of the day, a really big box. When we go to close it, sometimes you'll run into some points like right back here. It's catching on there. And that's 'cause we have that extra flex. You just work with it a bit, it'll close and then you can take it off or take your key out. But I'm having an issue right now because my key's not coming out. I also see that we have this red bar here with this indicator. So what this is telling me is I didn't latch my box all the way down so it's more of a safety feature. So if I just pull in this box a little bit more and moving a bit, but still can't take my key out. I keep pulling on it, you hear some more clicks and we don't have that indicator anymore. That's letting me know this is shut all the way and now I can take my key. And like I said earlier, this is going to be a pretty big box. Right now, we are getting a little bit of overhang over our front windshield that we got in earlier and we really couldn't see it popping out any. So we're still getting a good fit here. And if you look from the side, we can really tell that we're taking up a majority of our cab. So you're really use utilizing all that real estate. Now it is just gonna have a bit of overhang over the back of your bed, but I don't really see that really interacting or getting in the way of anything you're hauling back here because those items would have to be pretty tall and really close to your box. Now for our crossbar width, it is taking up a majority of that. It is gonna be a 21 cubic feet box. So that's pretty big and I really don't think you're probably gonna put anything else up here because you're probably going to surpass what your roof is rated for. And speaking of that weight capacity, this is gonna have a capacity to carry up to 165 pounds, which is quite a bit. And it's also too important to take into account how much the box weighs. Since it is pretty large, you don't wanna overload it and damage your roof or crossbars. And since it is a large box, it is gonna sit up pretty high. It's gonna sit up by 17 and a half inches. So what I would suggest doing is taking the total height of your roof, your crossbar and box so you know what areas you can make it under. A spot to think about would be a garage. I think this box does have a pretty clean, glossy finish to it. Now the only downside I do see to it is we don't have that same type of finish on our vehicle today 'cause as you can see, it's not too shiny. It's a little bit more matte and it's just a little bit of a contrast there. But the bottom is still pretty matte so it doesn't look too out of place. Now, in my opinion, I think this is a great box if you do plan on taking your family out for a trip and you need to store your luggage somewhere. Now another box I'd recommend you checking out is gonna be the Yakima NX roof box because what's great about that is it's gonna have all the same features as this. It's gonna have a different way it clamps into place and it's gonna have a different finish to it. It's gonna have more of this nano texture finish, which is gonna make it look a little bit better on top of your roof or it's gonna match the accents of our vehicle today. But if you do really want to maximize what you can carry because none of the Yakima boxes get this large, then it's gonna be one of your best bets. That was just a look at the Thule Motion 3 roof box on top of our 2022 Toyota Tacoma. I'm Matt, thanks for watching.