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This aerodynamic Thule roof rack mounts flush on your roof for a sleek, factory look. Crossbars with split rubber strips in top channels work with channel-mount and clamp-on accessories. Installs on your vehicle's naked roof.
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Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hi everyone, Aidan here at etrailer. Today we're gonna be taking a look at and showing you how to install this Thule Edge roof rack system on our 2020 Chevrolet Spark. With a roof rack, you've got a lot of options for mounting up accessories and really expanding the cargo space of your vehicle. So with your Spark being a smaller car, if you do need to get some extra stuff with you on your trips because you don't have room in the back, you can put a basket or a box up top. And especially comparing this to other options for your car like a hitch, the Spark doesn't have many options in the world of hitches. And for the ones that do have options, you're not gonna have as many accessories to choose from because it's only gonna be inch and a quarter hitches.
So my recommendation for expanding the function of your vehicle would be a roof rack. And this option from Thule is a great fit. So if your vehicle has the naked roof, no raised bars or anything preexisting, this is gonna be the one for you. And this one's nice because it's a flush mounted system which means that these crossbars end in the foot packs over here. So nothing extends out, you don't have any risk of hitting your head as you're getting in and out of the vehicle and I think it gives it a much cleaner look.
Now with all that being said, you are still gonna have limitations. Your roof has its own weight capacity. The roof rack system here it has a weight capacity of 165 pounds, but that doesn't mean that your Spark can handle that on the roof. So check your owner's manual, figure out what that weight capacity of your Spark is, and if it's lower than that 165 rating for the roof rack go by the lowest rated component only follow that measurement and don't overload your roof. Aside from that though, you're gonna have a wide range of accessories to choose from.
And these bars, the aero bars, are gonna be very accepting of most clamp around accessories or in some cases if you want to a T-track accessory where you can actually slide that into the top channel here for a nice clean mounting solution. You can access that T-track by popping these covers off. And you can see right in here, this is the channel where your T-track accessories will slide in. It'll go between these two weatherstrips here that's going to help reduce wind noise when you're going down the road and they'll just conform around whatever accessories you add in. So no extra trimming required.
Then when you pop the cover back on it blocks that T-track in so no one can access it. And your kit does come with the plastic cores to add a little bit of security. Realistically, anyone with a quarter or a flathead screwdriver can turn it, but you can upgrade these to proper locking cores after the fact. And you can find those here at etrailer if you're interested in them. The crossbars up top are aluminum with a black powdercoat finish. It gives it a nice clean look. And the aluminum's lightweight and you don't have to worry about rust and corrosion. This is designed to be mounted exactly where it is. Your kit comes with the fit kit, these rubber pads that are custom-shaped to mold and fit around the contours of your roof and clamp into the door jamb. So where we haven't mounted up is where it's gonna live. And because of that we've got to get some measurements. Things like crossbar spread. That's gonna be the distance between one crossbar and the other. And that's going to be 29 1/2 inches. That's gonna be an important measurement when picking out accessories because certain baskets and boxes and bike racks will only work with certain crossbar spreads. Most of those have adjustments built in, so it'll work with a range anywhere from 20 to 32 per se. But you just wanna make sure that what you're picking out is compatible with that measurement because you're not moving the crossbars. As far as height measurements go, you're going to have about 2 1/4 of an inch of space underneath the crossbars between it and the roof. That's plenty of room, I'd say for most clamp around accessories to attach down here and still be able to clear the roof. And then from that roof to the top of the crossbar it's about 3 1/2 inches. So pretty low profile. And coming back to the antenna here, it doesn't stick up any higher than that, so you shouldn't have to worry about any garage clearances or things like that. One thing I would point out though is accessory mounting. Depending on the accessories you choose, if it extends far from the back crossbar, maybe like a large box or a larger box, you're probably not gonna be putting two larger box on top of your Spark. You just wanna watch out for it because depending on the accessory it might hit that antenna. And in that case you might need to remove the antenna when that accessory is mounted. Or you can look for an aftermarket solution to shorten the antenna. There's some options out there, but personally I'd just remove it if you need to, or with certain accessories like bike racks, you'll be able to work around it just fine. And with all that in mind, one thing that I like to think about is the install process because if it's a pain to work with, then you're probably not going to get a really solid fit. But this one fits perfectly and the install process is very straightforward. So we'll walk you through how we got ours installed right now. Starting off the installation on the ground, we're gonna set out everything and make sure that you've got all the pieces in your kit. Now's a good time to separate the pieces as well because this is a bit more of a custom fit. So you're gonna have two crossbars and they're gonna be different lengths. The shorter one will be for your rear and the longer one will be for the front crossbar. The feet here are gonna be the same all throughout but there are going to be specific sides. So I'll turn these to you. And you can see that on the inside edges here, they flare out a little bit. That's going to match up with the shape of the crossbar. So this will be towards the rear of the vehicle. This end will be towards the front. And as we turn them, we can see that now this will be driver's side, this will be passenger side, and it'll match up to the crossbar. For the fit kit, these pads are gonna have different numbers for all four locations. You can look at the instructions that come with it and know that 435 will be for your rear passenger side, 434 will be for your rear driver's side, so on and so forth. And then these clamps here that go in our door jambs, these are going to be a bit longer and these will go for the rear. So once you've got all that sorted out, you can start by taking your crossbar and your first foot and attaching them. Just separate the cover from the main body of the tower here. And on the top there's going to be a series of lines and letter codes. Your instructions will also have different letter codes to match up for the distance we have these set at. And we'll show you that in just a second. But for now, make sure that this bolt with this block and the tab are facing up. Slide that into the side of your crossbar. And once it hits, just push down on the bolt a little bit so that tab slides in. And as we push it you'll see it pop out right here. Once it's locked in, we can take the included tool and tighten down this bolt on the end until the line and letter code lines up with the end of the crossbar here. For our rear crossbar on the Spark we're shooting for letter G. (tool squeaking) And as we approach that line, we can just repeat this process on the other side once it's lined up right about there. With that done on both sides, you can flip your crossbar over and attach the bases of the fit kit to the feet. We'll do this side over here first and it's pretty easy to get that lined up with the shape on the bottom of the foot and just pop it in. There's little bits like right here where this lip will grab onto that one. So just make sure it's fully seated down and press it into place. And on the top side, we can install our weather strip. That's going to come in one single piece, but you can tear it down the middle pretty easily once you get it started and pop this into the channel on top of your crossbar. Now they are side specific. This one side that has little arrows is actually going to have the arrows pointing towards the front of the crossbar. So that's the thicker edge. Get that lined up and start just pushing it into place, going down the whole length of the crossbar and repeat that process on the other side here. And with all that in place, we can take our full assembled crossbar and move it over to the vehicle. Now over here it can help to have an extra set of hands on the other side of the vehicle to guide that rubber pad into place, but it's definitely doable on your own. And right now I'm just loosely setting it in. Your instructions are gonna have a measurement sheet which tells you measurements for the front crossbar, giving you a distance from the windshield to that front of the crossbar. And then once you've got the front one in place, you can measure from that to the rear. Find that measurement on both sides to make sure they're running parallel. And make sure that that rubber pad is seated properly along the lip of the roof here and you can clamp it in. Your kit does come with a strip of paper with measurements on it so you don't have to worry about scratching up your roof with a regular tape measure. And the spread that we're going for measured from the front of one crossbar to the front of the other is 29 1/2 inches. So I've got a little bit more to go on this side just about half an inch. And like I mentioned before, I'll get this same measurement on the other side to make sure the bars are running parallel to each other. With your door open and your crossbar position set, go to the end of the foot and we'll see this moving piece right here where we can slide our clamp in. You'll notice there's some teeth. So just pop that up into place. And I found that out of the box you might even have to go in with that provided tool and loosen this up a bit just to give it some more movement. But you should hear a click and feel this hook snap into place. And then after we repeat that on both sides, we can evenly tighten them down. (metal clanging) (tool clicks) Right, there is that click. We can feel that that clamp isn't coming down and I actually do need to loosen it up a little bit more so that the hook at the end of it can slide down into the door jamb like this. We want this on both sides and we wanna just tighten it a little bit going back and forth so that we don't pull it all the way to one side before getting it torqued down using the included built-in torque setting on the tool. It's pretty minor to see, but as I'm tightening down the one side, you'll notice that pad right there sit down a little more flush with the roof. That's why I want to go back and forth a little bit at a time to make sure I don't unevenly tighten it. So once it makes contact, I feel a little bit of resistance, I'm gonna switch over to the other side, back and forth until this tool clicks And towards this last little bit, I can feel the resistance and, (tool clicks) right there, once we hear that click we know it's torqued down. Get that on both sides and you're done tightening. Make sure that all the contours and everything are sitting flush with no gaps. This one is looking great, so we know it's seated properly and it's torqued. Our covers will slide onto the ends of those feet, making sure to get them lined up, no gaps. And your kit does come with plastic cores. These can just pop into place and go into the locked position using a screwdriver. Now if you chose to upgrade to actual locking cores at this point, you'd pop in the lock cores, and use the key provided to lock it up. Once the install is done, I always like to give it a good shake test. Because if there's anything loose or not sitting right, you'll see movement. But everything on here is rock solid, so I'd say we're good to go. I think it's gonna be a really solid roof rack system, really clean look, and you're not gonna have to worry about hitting your head getting in and out of the Spark. And now you've got some room to attach accessories and expand the function of your vehicle. But that'll do it for our look at installation of this Thule roof rack system on our 2020 Chevy Spark.
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