These have been featured in another thread on here, but they need a thread of their own! I'm not talking about the roof racks that clip onto the frame/doors of the car. I am talking about the tracks that are drilled on to the roof. I have only seen jgills240's post on them, and I was about to follow his direction when Thule told me to do elsewise! I called Thule Customer Service, who told me that I should install the TP42 tracks, not the TP54, because the tracks should start at least 1 ft from the front windshield and end at least 1 ft from the back windshield. Having longer tracks will apparently cause stress on the frame of the car and the tracks, regardless of whether they "fit" on the roof of the vehicle. Here comes the dilemma. I'm looking out the window at my car while trying to visualize these 42 inch tracks. Is this going to create a stable enough base for a kayak, with the towers being so close together? I almost think the TP54 tracks look like a perfect fit! And when I look at pictures of Prius with the temporary roof racks, the fit kits are almost always positioned quite close to the windshield/back window, so I'm unsure. Thule Customer service admits that there is not set directions for installing any kind of permanent rack on top of the Prius, because it's not a typical thing to do. But given the measurements that they do know, shape of the car, etc. he would suggest the TP42 and the 43 inch bars. He says to go with the 43 inch bars because the temporary racks require the 47 inch bars, and they are placed further out on the frame than the tracks are. Here are the other parts that it will require, if anyone is interested. This is for if you want the Rapid Aero bars (which are the newer bars that Thule makes, as opposed to the older square ones). TP42 Tracks (the tracks) Rapid Aero Bars 43 Inch (the load bars) 430R Foot Packs (pack attaches to load bar) TK1 Fit Kit (installs on tracks, is receiver for foot pack w/bars attached) 544 Locks (optional, but recommended for security)
Thanks McD, I'm also interested in any feedback, doesn't seem like much is coming. But I also was hoping to put the TP54 if I did the roof rack tracks.
Is this something that can be verified by another call to Thule? Is it possible that the representative was trying to pass his opinion as fact? I know it may be a long shot, but stranger things have happened. Mike
I don't plan to have it on all of the time. I put my bikes on the back of my car when I need to, and I am willing to sacrifice some mpg to support my surfing and canoeing/kayaking habits. I have a car so I can do these things!
Jumping on the thread as a new Prius may be in my future - But, about the Kayak. I currently drive the '02 Prius and have Yakima rack with only 28" - 29" spread (per the installation manual). This is almost half what you aim at but still works. I would not worry using the 45" spread at all, but if you can reasonably mount a 50+ spread - even better. I use my rack to carry one and sometimes two 17 foot sea kayaks (22" width, about 55-60 lb each). The fiberglass kayak does quite well IMO, using Yakima Mako saddles front and back. The plastic kayak does get deformed slightly and temprarily from the front saddles - unavoidable - so I prefer to carry it upside-down so that the deck supports it rather than the hull. When carrying both, the glass boat goes on the saddles, and the plastic goes on with the help of a pair of "stackers" on its side and it seems to feel quite at home this way. Of course, on loger trips I use front tie-down - simple $0.19 per foot rope from Home Depot that works very well when tied down at the two front tow loops (and unlike tie-down straps does not make noise or flutter in the wind, plus I can use it as tow rope while paddling if I want). A rear tie-down of the same kind would be nice to have to further minimize up/down movement. Lastly, the bar width. I have 48" - I can't imagine why you would want anything shorter than this! Unless you plan to only carry one kayak at a time that is. These 48" bars mount with only 1" on each side sticking out of the support mounts and they do not stick out over the width of the car at all. Not sure if the '04" Prii are any narrower than my '02 though. The 48" bars work fine for two boats if each boat is under 24" or so wide, but I also have one wider boat or if I want to take all 3 boats on it gets a little tricky -. Or you need to put the boats sideways. Not sure about the Thule bars, but for Yakima round bars if they are too long, you can simply cut-off a few inches and place the cap back on. 48" I think is the minimum one should consider as the narrower ones are much more restrictive about what you can carry, yet are just about the same hassle/gas hog to have on as longer bars. On the fuel economy, I seem to get 35-42 MPG with one boat on (depending on how fast I go), 42-45 MPG or so with the rack on but no boat and 45-50 MPG without the rack, so removing it when not needed is a good idea.
What is spread, the length of the tracks? The distance between the two tracks? Are you talking about length of the tracks, or the length of the support bars? Okay so you are talking about he length of the support bars across the roof. Got it. And you drive a Gen 1, so the roof widths and lengths are different. I am going to measure now.
Spread = distance b/w the front and the rear bar. Width of the rack - the length of each bar. I think you got it though. I do not have a photo handy I'm afraid but you can visualize it - 28 to 29 inches b/w the front and the rear bar and imagine only 1 inch sticking outside of the support of the bars. Thule support arms I think may be angled more towards the inside and the same width bar may stick out a little more relative to the support but of course it would stick out the same from the roof line. ============= OK. Here's a photo. Not very representative, but you can see how little the 48" bars stick out.
Darrelldd has a great show-and-tell with his roof-rack systems: EV page He tries out two different kinds, shows installation, and has lots of pictures. I think this is right up yoor alley.
I checked those out a while back, but we're talking about permanently installing tracks, he installed landing pads. And the other racks he tried were the ones that clip into the doors, yuck!
How is the permanent tracks installation different than the permanent landing pads installation? Both require drilling holes in approximately the same area to be safe and to maximize the distance b/w front and back... I am thinking of two things that make a difference in usability. First, I suppose the usability of tracks is better as you can vary the spread b/w the bars. But being so short a roof line, I think I'd pretty much always use the widest spread available that would give me the proper angle of the entire rack when installed. What I mean by that is that the rear of the roof is lower than the front. Thus, if you use the entire length of the roof I suspect your front bar will ride higher than the rear bar. For one of my kayaks, this is actually desireable, since when upside-down, the front of the deck is higher than the rear and if one bar is higher than the other I can use that to off-set the kayak's height difference and get a roughly horisontal position of the kayak on the rack. On the other hand, if I place the kayak normally (hull-down/deck-up) then I want the front and rear bar to be the same so that the kayak is leveled. With the tracks I could vary the position to adjust for this, with the pads I can't... But may be it does not matter - not sure now much difference there is in the height of the roof line fore and aft on the Prius... Second, not sure if the tracks are any stronger once mounted because they are being linked to each other (one piece front to back). I would think they may be a little stronger overall, provided the mounting points and number and type of fasteners used are roughly the same as in the pads. Besides these two things, I really see no difference. Both are permanent installations that allow to remove the racks easily (the pads or tracks stay on the roof at all times). Anyway, I think the landing pads post answers your original question - where to drill and therefore how long of a track to buy. If he could drill where he did, you should be able to as well and install tracks of appropriate length instead of the pads if this is what you prefer. You just need to do the math from his measurements to determine the track length he could have used in his installation, right?
Bought the parts yesterday to finally do the install, am planning on doing it myself. Yikes! We'll see what happens. I'll post next week! Another member on PriusChat has a blog about how he did it, with pictures that has helped in my thinking that I can do it. Prius Rack Install
I have Thule racks and find the square bar a bad design for the curved Prius roof. Because of the arc of the Roof, the square bars dont sit flat. This makes little difference if you are mounting a surfboard, but if you are trying to place a bike tray, it doesn't fit flush. The round bar (Yakima) is a better design for our Roof.
Hmm, I haven't ever had a problem with that. That being said, I use Thule's "Rapid Aero" bars which aren't square like the old ones, they are oval. Also, one of the other perks of having the Thule tracks drilled/mounted on to the roof is that you can move them up and down the track to find the best fit for whatever you're carrying.
I have the Thule square racks with aero feet mounted 24" apart. I also have the plastic deflector on the front of my rack and I like them just fine, however, my gas mileage suffers when I have them attached to the car. I average 47 mpg without the racks installed. With the racks installed I average 36 mpg. I get 36 mpg with or without the box on top of the car. The common factor is the roof racks. I think the deflector is what kills me, but it sure looks cool!
