To see if this custom-fit item will work for you please tell us what vehicle you'll use it with.
This Thule roof rack lets you carry cargo and gear on your vehicle. Aerodynamic crossbars with split rubber strips in top channels work with channel-mount and clamp-on accessories. Installs to raised rails on your vehicle's roof.
Features:
Specs:
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Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hi, I'm Matt with etrailer. Today we're gonna talk about the Thule roof rack on our 2022 Nissan Armada. Now this can be a great option if you're looking for something that's gonna be really easy to work with and is gonna look good on top of your roof. So let's check it out. Now, something I do recommend doing with these is just putting in your vehicle's information into our fit guide to make sure you get in the right one, 'cause you can get this in a couple of different variations. Now the one we have today is gonna be the raised rail option.
And why that's important is 'cause the Armada comes with that raised rail. And the way you can tell if you have that or not is if you put your hand underneath here, and as you grab onto this, you know you got it. Now what I think really stands out about this one today, or really any type of roof rack, is the ability to load up your roof, 'cause we have a lot of space in real estate here. And I like using this instead of the back of a vehicle because, let's say, you got a trailer that you're pulling behind you, or even a cargo carrier, that's really extending the footprint of your vehicle. So if you're trying to get into those tight spots, like a parking lot, that's gonna be a lot tighter to do, especially with this already large vehicle.
So with the vehicle already being large, you might as well use a real estate on top of the roof. So today we're gonna be focusing on how this roof rack interacts with a vehicle. And this is gonna come in two pieces. So up top, we're gonna have the crossbar. You can put gear on here one of two ways.
You need to have clamp-on accessories that grabs onto the rail. This is gonna be a fairly standard one, so most of them should work with this. And then here at the very end, if I flip this tab over, this will gain access to this T-channel, which you can mount accessories like this too if you don't wanna go with the clamp-on style. I like this 'cause this is really easy to work with. Other ones out there, typically you have to take this off completely.
This is taking a few steps out of the equation. Now underneath it, we're gonna have the actual towers. And with these towers, they're gonna have this hole here. You can put the plastic lock core that comes with your kit in here, or you can put a metal lock core. That's one I would suggest investing in. You can actually find those on our website. And why I recommend that is 'cause this is a fairly nice roof rack, you don't want that going anywhere. And you can also get this keyed-alike with your other Thule accessories. Underneath there, you can see what's here. There's gonna be a bolt that tightens it down into place. And this does a fairly good job, because when we look at how's it grabbing onto this railing here, we don't have any glaring gaps. And that's nice 'cause, one, it looks better, and two, it won't cause any wind noise. Now let's get a couple measurements to see how this is sitting on here. So the first one I'm gonna get is gonna be how high it sits up. So going from our rails here to the top of the crossbar, that's gonna be a little bit under three inches, which is a pretty good height. I still suggest getting the total height of your entire system. So what that's gonna be is your railings, your crossbars, and any gear that's sitting on top of them, get that measurement so you know if you're can make it under a low clearance spot like a garage. Now the next one we wanna measure is gonna be the clearance underneath our rails, and that's gonna be about 2 1/2 inches. That's plenty of clearance for any type of more bulky clamps that get on here. Now if your vehicle has a sun roof on the very front of it, then definitely take that into account because that might go up and make contact with something over here. But like I was saying earlier, the Armada has a ton of real estate. Right now, we're just using the front section of here. This is gonna have a crossbar spread of roughly 28 inches. So that's gonna be compatible with most gear out there. If we needed a wider one, we simply just move this back to the second section, over here. Or if I needed to pull the whole kit back some, I have the room to do so. Now, how much can you put on it That's really gonna come down to the weight capacity. It's gonna have a pretty sturdy weight capacity, but also check what your vehicle's roof is ready for. You can find that in your owner's manual. Then go from the lowest rated component so you don't damage anything. Now, in my opinion, I think this is a solid choice for what I was talking about earlier. One, it looks good on top of our roof, and it's just easy to work with. Especially when you're going out on a trip, you don't wanna have to fuss with something for another extra 20 minutes before you actually get out on the road. Now another option that's also pretty easy to work with is gonna be the Rhino-Rack roof rack. Now it's gonna be a little bit more low profile than this one. But for me, I personally just like the look of this one a little bit more, but it just comes down to aesthetics at that point. Now when it comes down as you're getting this on here, it's a pretty simple process. It only takes maybe about 10 minutes if you know how to do it. But if you do go with this, let's know how it's working for you in a review if it really is that easy to use or not. But with that said, let's jump in into the install. So where we're gonna start off is just laying everything out. So I'm gonna have the two towers, their end caps, the tool that comes with it, and the measuring tape. And we're actually gonna have the crossbar itself. Now I only have one set here. I already got the other one on the roof, but it's gonna be the same process. So where to start is just by flipping this over, so the underside is showing up. We're going to come to one end. We're gonna remove this end cap by pressing on that tab, pulling on it, grabbing a tower. You have these tabs at the very top of it and push it in this orientation where we have the head of this bolt facing out. What'd you have it like that, put you in cap back on, and repeat that on the other side. And now we can put it on top of our roof. Something I'll do though, just double check the gaps in between your clamps so it'll as you fit around your rails. And if they don't, you can just loosen up with your tool, and now get it up there. When you're putting it up there, you wanna make sure that fixed side is facing forward, thin side behind us. You're gonna place it on a roof by lining it up with your rails. If you can't really see what you're doing, just do it slowly and get one side on there, and then go to the other side and adjust it. And once you get both crossbars up here, what I like to do is make sure we have a good crossbar spread. And what I'll do is make sure they're even too. What I'm doing is just bring this to the edge of this bar that holds up your rails on either side. That's gonna work for me. But again, just double-check that this spread is gonna be compatible with your gear. And then the second measurement I like to make sure of is our overhang. So make sure this is about the same one either side. Mine is. So I'm just gonna come back over here with our tool and then tighten this down. And I'm gonna just do this a little bit at a time, going back and forth until we have this fully on. Now you're eventually gonna get to the point where you're gonna have a lot of resistance to this. You're gonna hear that click a couple times. Once you hear that, you know it's gonna be fully tighten down. Just make sure you're doing that to the other side. And from here, I'd have to give it a good shake test, make sure it's not gonna go anywhere. And if it feels good, we can load it up and take it for a ride. Now if you guys have any other questions, let us know here at etrailer. And again, I'm Matt, and thanks for watching.
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