Thule Roof Rack Installation Help

I see what you mean. On my old toyota xcab 95, I used one bar rack on top & stuck my hitch style bike rack to carry my 14' Mad River Tahoe canoe around. That setup worked good for like you said, not enough spacing on top of the roof for two bars. I improvised with the bike rack for the goal post was not available then, there were no attachments either like today either. Just those clamp side ski things.
Yes way too much money spent on these trucks & my hobbies!

 

WWF, when you say that you can stow away the bars for better aerodynamics (on the OEM rack) do you mean crossmembers? I think I stumbled across your pics with the OEM rack and it doesn't appear that there's any crossmembers, just side rails.

 

ahhhh, a woman with an engineer's mind...that's nice.

 

Yeah the cross members I guess you call them. But they fit into the side rails and lock down when you arent using the cross members to carry anything. I think it looks a lot sleeker to!

 

WWF - What kind of clearance do you need for your rack. I'm guessin' THULE is about the same hieght off the roof. I need to clear 6'11" because I park in a garage at work.

I know the hieght of a stock Taco is 70.1 inches high (found this in the owners manual). Plus 5-7 inches for the rack, that's plenty of room.

 

The trouble begins when you're going away for that long weekend that you've been planning and you think, "hey, I'll load up the truck and take off right from work tomorrow" and you throw the bikes, kayaks, boards, etc on the racks Thursday night. The next day you admire your handywork and how everything looks on your taco before driving off to work....of course, you're still half asleep because you've only drank half your coffee when all of a sudden you hear it - BAMMMMMMM and you look in your rear view mirror to see your stuff hanging off the back of your truck. All I'm saying (with your situation) do whatever it is you need to do to eliminate THAT possibility as I've witnessed it a couple of times myself and it ain't pretty! As Simon's Mom said - Drive throughs can be a bitch too!

 

Guys, just purchased the THULE rack today. It's gonna be awesome. Got the fairing with it too. Super stocked about it. I'll post pictures when I get it installed. Thanks for all the input. I'll be sure to take it in stride. Especially Pyriteship's post haha.

 

BTB - Good luck with the racks, I'm sure that you'll be happy with them as they make really nice stuff. I'd like to see your pics. I'm getting motivated to get mine done up now! I've got to stop looking at this forum hahahhaha

 

Got it in this week. Installed it Friday. Pic below.

 

Front view, close up.

 

Before the tint and rack, in a rare Alabama snow.

 

how much did you pay for everything? and where? also do you got up close pics of how they mount? any drilling? thanks.

 

I have the same rack as b2btaco. no drilling. i have some close ups of the mounts in my gallery.