Thule roof bar owners??

pdid

Just a quickie, are the settings, ie the spacing on the feet, which are supplied with the relevent car fitting kit alwys spot on?

Reason i ask is that i have an Audi A2, now the rear feet are spaced at 26 which seems fine, both rubber feet marry up with the gutter. But the front, spaced at 31.5, don`t marry up properley and this has led to the front part of the rubber feet coming off the roof. It is still secure though.

I have sinced respaced the fronts to 32.5 and the feet and gutter seem to marry up much better.

Has anyone had similar experiences?

BTW its the aero bars with the 591 carrier.


Thanks Phil

stucon

dude,

did you get the bars from audi or aftermarket?? if you get them from halfords or places like that they tend to send a kind of "will fit if you make it" type of kit...

you will prob find that they fit on to an a2 as well as some vw, pugs, citroen etc, so they just do one type of fitting kit that does (not very well) a range of cars...

if you had got them from audi you would prob find that they would of fitted a lot better because they only have a fitting kit for an a2......

and if you did get them from audi they would of fitted them for you as well...

stu (Audi worker for to many years!!!!)

papasmurf.

Mine fit find..from what i can remember though the fixing kit was specific to the car

pdid

Its a thule, aftermarket from ski drive.

The kit sent is for a2 only, as the instructions are a2 only

Don`t get me wrong, now i`ve adjusted to give slightly more width the fit is much better. I just wondered if anyone else had to make adjustments on from the manufacturers settings.

Even if i`d bought Audi, i still would have had to fit them myself at some point as i don`t intend driving round with them on all the time.

Thanks Phil

shin0r

Hi

My thule aero bars were a right pain to fit to my car ( 5 series), even though they came with a specific fixing kit. I also had issues fitting the second bike carrier. Because the base unit isn't perfectly symmetrical, when you flip it round to fit the left hand side of the car, the angle of the securing arm changes. This meant it wouldn't fit my bike! A bit of sliding around cured it, but now my left and right-hand bike carriers are not parallel Oh well.!

sam1234

Thule use standard bars, footpack etc but then have a specfic foot pack for each car.
I've found with my current and my last car that I had to adjust the foot spacing a bit to get a better fit. Never had a problem with roof rack on ethier car.

You can get cheaper racks that as said above you to make fit, but these tend to cheap and dogy. Some one I know lost two kayaks of the top of there car becuase they had a cheap roof rack.

El Capitano

I've got them on the Legacy. Can be a bit fiddly to fit, but once there, they're very secure. Bought a car specific foot pack, which TBH looks like it would fit more than just my car.

pdid

Cheers for the replies guys.

Nice to know its not just me. I`m much happier now i`ve adjusted them slightly. Seem to fit better and more secure. Also, with the A2, the curvature of the roof doesnt help. The kit recommends 230mm from front windscreen, then 700mm between bars, which is fine except the bars arn`t vertically aligned. However once the carriers are in place the system is very secure, despite part of the front feet raising off the roof slightly.

Cheers Phil

lovewales

sam1234 wrote:

You can get cheaper racks that as said above you to make fit, but these tend to cheap and dogy. Some one I know lost two kayaks of the top of there car becuase they had a cheap roof rack.

I lost a bike that was securley fastened and checked after going 15 miles into a 300 mile drive from Thule 591's . I think a dip in the road caused the wheel starps to come loose

lm_trek

I brought offical roofbars from citroen for my citroen, i paid about £30 more than a set of generals from halfrauds, but they are secure and fit perfectly! i then fitted some thule 591's for my bikes, i dont mind paying a little extra to ensure its secure

sam1234

I've lost my own kayak of my roof before that had more to do with straps coming lose. Fortanly everything was ok 9kayaks tend to be more solid than bikes). But just becuase you have got an thule roof rack it dosnt mean stuff wont come off. Thats why it worth checking but as said above the unfortant can happen even after checking.

If I'm taking my bike on a long journey I will put it in the car if I've got room, but for some of us that's not always an option.

fireheed

I've got Thule for the Ocatvia, once on it's very secure and is exactly what i wanted but the foot kit looks like it could fit a few cars. I't doesn't sit very flush and seems to sit higher than it needs to but it's very easy to put on and off on you own so i'm happy with it.

Vegeeta

The ones for my Clio were spot on. I'm just angry about all the scratch marks it made on my roof though.