Thule Roof Bars Question

ForumNewbie

I have just bought Thule Aero roof bars and Pro 591 cycle carriers. I am a bit puzzled by the plastic stoppers that go on the end of the bars. There is a 6 inch long, thin steel rod on the end of each stopper that goes inside the bar, but doesn't seem to provide any function as it just hangs loosely inside the Aero bar as it doesn't connect to anything. The stopper fits on fairly tightly to another pastic fitment on the end of the bar, but the steel rod seems superfluous. I am also concerned that once the plastic fitment loosens through use pulling off and pressing on each time you attach the cycle carriers, that it could fall off with the steel rod scratching the car roof.

Anyone with Thule Aero bars got views on this?

GeorgeShaw

Aren't these the winders for the clamp to the roof rails?

So you put the bars on the roof, bring one end of the clamp flush to the roof rail, pull the end cap and then wind the other half of the clamp tight by turning the end cap. Then you push the end cap back on and lock.

I hope that makes sense.

el_presidente

GeorgeShaw wrote:

Aren't these the winders for the clamp to the roof rails?

So you put the bars on the roof, bring one end of the clamp flush to the roof rail, pull the end cap and then wind the other half of the clamp tight by turning the end cap. Then you push the end cap back on and lock.

I hope that makes sense.

Thats how my Thule aero bars worked, the steel bars are pretty crucial

ForumNewbie

el_presidente wrote:

GeorgeShaw wrote:

Aren't these the winders for the clamp to the roof rails?

So you put the bars on the roof, bring one end of the clamp flush to the roof rail, pull the end cap and then wind the other half of the clamp tight by turning the end cap. Then you push the end cap back on and lock.

I hope that makes sense.

Thats how my Thule aero bars worked, the steel bars are pretty crucial

Thanks for your replies. In view of what you say I think the difference might be that I have a car with fixpoints and the bars attach by the 753 footpacks to the fixpoints on the car roof. It seems that you guys have the footpacks that clamp to the roof. I have now looked at the fitting instructions for these footpacks and it does appear that they have a different use for this metal rod, in that it does seem to screw into the footpack to clamp to the roof. In mine it is a screw in the fitting pack that clamps it tight to the car roof fixpoint. You will see from Step 1 on the my fitting instructions below (aero bars is the 2nd diagram down) that the metal rod just goes into the middle of the aero bar, but it doesn't screw into anything:
http://files.thule.co.uk/rapid%20fixpoi ... 006-02.pdf
I've checked again on my actual bars and there is definitely nothing for it to attach to, so I still don't think the metal rod has a purpose with the sort of footpack/fitting kit I have.

oakleedoki

Ive just fitted thule aero bars to my vw caddy. Ive got the same fitting as you-fits onto fixpoints and footpad locks both onto roof and onto bars-bars not clamped down using end stops. I agree that metal rod superfluous to the way our bars fit. Does it seem strange to you that you can just pull off the end cap assembly even when fitted onto car/van. Im a bit worried of em coming off mid-journey and scratching van or doing damage to other vehicles.

Northwest Trailrider

I just bought a Thule system with aero bars and 757 footpack (car has roof rails). I fitted the aero bars today but didn't get round to the cycle carrier. When I got to the plastic caps with rod you descride it said on the cap lock with a down arrow but there is no lock and nothing in the instructions. Fortunately I bought the 12 alike key lock pack because I wanted to use the same key. Not sure how often I will take this off the car, maybe never but I thought if I'm spending £250 on carrier bits, I may as well spend another £35 and have a 1 key system. Anyway back to the end caps, I pushed out the flimsy plastic moulded lock cover and fitted a lock in it's place. When I fitted this to the aero bars, it allowed me to lock the cap in place and it seemed to stop sideway movement of the aero bars and the metal rod went into a U shape recess in the footpack. If you don't lock these in position I'm pretty sure they wouldn't fall out and the lock has to be an additional security measure. For nearly £300 I am disappointed with the lack of information regarding fitting that Thule provides (back to the MFI joke - throw them in the bin and work it out for yourself). Anyway, I hope this helps.

ForumNewbie

Northwest Trailrider wrote:

I just bought a Thule system with aero bars and 757 footpack (car has roof rails). I fitted the aero bars today but didn't get round to the cycle carrier. When I got to the plastic caps with rod you descride it said on the cap lock with a down arrow but there is no lock and nothing in the instructions. Fortunately I bought the 12 alike key lock pack because I wanted to use the same key. Not sure how often I will take this off the car, maybe never but I thought if I'm spending £250 on carrier bits, I may as well spend another £35 and have a 1 key system. Anyway back to the end caps, I pushed out the flimsy plastic moulded lock cover and fitted a lock in it's place. When I fitted this to the aero bars, it allowed me to lock the cap in place and it seemed to stop sideway movement of the aero bars and the metal rod went into a U shape recess in the footpack. If you don't lock these in position I'm pretty sure they wouldn't fall out and the lock has to be an additional security measure. For nearly £300 I am disappointed with the lack of information regarding fitting that Thule provides (back to the MFI joke - throw them in the bin and work it out for yourself). Anyway, I hope this helps.

Luckily I got the one key system free but I will still need to spend an extra £15 to get the 4 locks for the end stoppers if I want them. Even with the locks, with the 753 system the metal rod would be superfluous because there is nothing for it to fit into. I've only used the roof bars and carriers once so far and the end stops stay on fairly securely. If I was leaving the bars and cycle carriers on the car all the time, I think I would get the locks for the end stoppers - but as I only plan to fit the bars and rack on the car when necessary I'll probably not bother with the extra locks. It does seem strange that the Thule instructions had nothing about the stopper locks and didn't include them even though there is a push out bit on the plastic and it says lock beside it.

hitthewall

I've got the aero bars and fix points. Must admit it also stumped me at first but I've had no issues with the end caps (complete with the steel rod) coming loose and I dont have locks for the caps (only for the fix points).

As GS said, the rods are the winders for the clamps that would fit the bars to integrated roof rails.

Northwest Trailrider

I just finished fitting the 2 x Proride carriers I got and this was not straight forward either. To cut a long story short, it says to fir this system should take 15 mins assembly time and 5 mins to fit to the car........another great joke from Thule. It has probably taken me 5 - 6 hours all together to get everything aligned, central and square.

I have a question regarding the Proride carriers. The first one over the driver side went on no probs. For the second one over the passanger side, I wanted both bikes facing forward so I reversed all the brackets as advised in the instructions under 'fitting tips'. I squared it all up..........great, just the job......until I tried a bike on it. The downtube clamp interferes with the chainset so I tried changing this round and you can't get to the winder. The only thing I could do was change it all back and mount the carrier backwards. It's no big deal but I wanted them both forward and I have seen this on other cars. Anybody have any ideas how this is done or do people just fiddle around to get their bike on top?

ForumNewbie

Northwest Trailrider wrote:

II have a question regarding the Proride carriers. The first one over the driver side went on no probs. For the second one over the passanger side, I wanted both bikes facing forward so I reversed all the brackets as advised in the instructions under 'fitting tips'. I squared it all up..........great, just the job......until I tried a bike on it. The downtube clamp interferes with the chainset so I tried changing this round and you can't get to the winder. The only thing I could do was change it all back and mount the carrier backwards. It's no big deal but I wanted them both forward and I have seen this on other cars. Anybody have any ideas how this is done or do people just fiddle around to get their bike on top?

I also initially wanted the 2 bikes facing forward but decided it was too much hazzle to change the brackets. In view of what you say I was probably right. I think it is okay having one bike facing backwards.

robadub

Also got the 753 pack with superfluous metal rods in the end caps, the metal rods are vibrating against the inside of the bar causing an extremely irritating noise whilst driving, after seeing Thule charge 6.95 for ONE end cap without rod i think i'm just going to saw the metal rods off myself !