Desperately seeking roof rack for 2016 Prius (Four Touring)

Hi. I am purchasing a 2016 Prius II tomorrow and have been trying to find a roof rack for bikes too! REI couldn't help and the though of screwing rails on sounds like a less than ideal solution. The Toyota sales guy could not find any factory solutions either. I thought they would be able to install rails but no... Hopefully Thule releases the parts on 8/1.

 

Thule has added the 2016 Prius model dropdown list on the website but no product yet.
Guessing OEM (Brink?) still working on it. Hope Toyota didn't contour out the edge needed for clamping on to.
New Thule Roof Rack Fit Kits for Early 2016 - Rack Outfitters

 

Latest news from THULE.
The new kit for the Prius 5 dr hatchback for 2016 will be KIT1824. It will be available in the US and Canada in the first weeks of August.
Now Available in Europe. Instruction available in PDF (THULE website) France, United Kingdom, etc.

 

I buy the Prius Cargo Bars OEM (april) here in Canada and i return it the same day. Too much wind noise. Poor plastic quality.

 

Anyone have any luck finding this kit in the wild yet?

 

Bought 2016 Prius Two Eco Aug 8. Unable to find fit kit for Thule racks, needed to take kayaks on vacation.

I was able to fit my old Thule rack (from 2014 Prius) by very carefully measuring bat placement and "grab distance" for the rear towers.

I covered the pant with 3M urethane film where towers touch and have a dense plastic "padding" over that. Bars are secure and whole thing works great!

I recommend using the approved kit if it becomes available, but for now this is satisfactory.

 

View attachment 115478

Bought 2016 Prius Two Eco Aug 8. Unable to find fit kit for Thule racks, needed to take kayaks on vacation.

I was able to fit my old Thule rack (from 2014 Prius) by very carefully measuring bat placement and "grab distance" for the rear towers.

I covered the pant with 3M urethane film where towers touch and have a dense plastic "padding" over that. Bars are secure and whole thing works great!

I recommend using the approved kit if it becomes available, but for now this is satisfactory.

 

Currently, Rhino-Rack has several options specific for the 2016 Prius. I ordered the Vortex 2500 RS, complete with feet, aero-crossbars cut to vehicle-specific length, and locks for $429. Additionally, Thule will is suppose to release their Transverse Fit Kit 1824 this week.

 

I have a Yakima Q-Tower rack that would presumably need new Q-clips to attach to my '16 Prius Two. On eBay, I see advertised Yakima 800731 Q-clips that are listed as fitting a 2016 Prius. However, when I go to the Yakima site, there is no such item number, and they don't seem to have any rack that fits a '16 Prius. Does anyone have experience getting a Yakima rack to fit, particularly the Q-Tower rack?

 

Decided to go with the hitch-mounted bike rack that I already have. UHaul charged me $100 for the hitch and $90 for installation.

Receiver by afriedma posted Sep 11, 2016 at 9:39 PM

Rack by afriedma posted Sep 11, 2016 at 9:38 PM

Bike Rack by afriedma posted Sep 11, 2016 at 9:19 PM

 

Well, no. Thule promised Aug 2, then Aug 9, then Aug 16, then Sept 30. I checked today and they CLAIM that KIT1824 will be available next week.

In the meantime I checked with my Toyota dealer and the OEM Toyota bars just became available. The parts guy saw 800 sets in stock in the US and said mine *should* arrive tomorrow. They are p/n PW301-47005. The parts guy says they will sell for $265 a pair.

The Thule setup lists for nearly twice as much: $500. $200 for ARB53 Aerobars + $200 for 480R foot packs + $100 for adapter kit KIT1824. Amazon is selling Thule stuff at list price, alas.

As far as I can tell at the moment, the main functional difference is that the Thule setup is rated for 110lbs vs 100 for the Toyota bars, and the Thule is "guaranteed for life" (whatever that means). Max spacing between bars for the Thule is 30.5". I measured it out with a tape measure on my Prius, and 30.5" looks similar to the spacing shown in Toyota's photos and video.

I checked with Yakima and got the vague response that they are "working on it". They do NOT recommend screwing Yakima Tracks to the roof of the car, which is what I had done to my 2011 Gen 3.

Thanks to a reference above, I looked up Rhino bars (from Australia) and see they offer bar sets for the 2016 Prius for $430. Theirs are rated at 165lbs and their bar spacing is just over 27.5".

Hopefully this is useful for others like me who have been totally screwed by not being able to get the bars shown on the Toyota website when I bought the car in February.

 

From Thule Facebook August 29... The fit kit 1824 has an estimated arrival date of Oct. 10th..... Incredible............

 

It seems that roof rack fitment is a perennial problem, the Prius c folks went through something very similar:
Any news on Roof Racks? | PriusChat

As I've said before, I wonder why Toyota doesn't see the light and build engineered attachment points into the roof??? I had a Honda Accord Wagon that had threaded nuts welded into the seams on each side where the center panel of the roof is welded to the door arches. Black rubber strips running fore-and-aft on each side cover these seams (you can see these strips on the Prius' roof and on the roofs of many other cars). You simply pulled up the rubber strips and trimmed as needed to expose the nuts, then bolted a Honda OEM Accessory grab rail onto each side of the roof (like the rails you see stock on SUV's), got crossbars, and clamped them between the rails. If you took off the crossbars the rails that remained cost very little air drag or wind noise. If you didn't want a roof rack no problem. Seems a lot simpler and safer than all this fuss with specially designed door sill clamps, etc.

 

An update:
Got my Toyota OEM cargo bars today.
(1) A sticker on the outside of the box says installation instructions are not in the box and that you should have the dealer's parts guy print you a set from the Toyota Information System (which mere customers cannot access). In fact, a manual IS included inside the box but it's just drawings. If you want text, you need the one from your parts guy.
(2) Load capacity is 152 lbs on smooth pavement, not 100 lbs as I stated above.
(3) Fore/aft bar spacing is predetermined at probably a bit over 29" (haven't mounted my bars yet). The bar clamps index into holes in plastic pins that you have snapped into predrilled holes in the upper inner surface of the door opening, one above each door. The cars are shipped with black plastic caps in those holes, which must be removed and replaced with the pins. So the positions of the bars are determined by the locations of those predrilled holes.

A later update-to-the-update, bars mounted:
(4) Bar spacing is 29" center to center.
(5) Bars are just under 3 1/2" wide, say 3 3/8" wide
(6) Mounting is pretty easy. You don't need the special plastic upholstery tool to remove the plastic caps from the door jambs, I used my fingernails. Pliers, used with care, are useful to pull the rubber stalks that lock the rubber footpads into place on the towers. The instructions tell you to cut the rubber cushioning strips to specific lengths before sliding them into the crossbars. It worked better for me to put on the far end cap, slide the strip in until the end butts on the end cap, and then cut the other end so 1-2mm protrudes from that end of the groove. In any case, do the front (longer) one first so if you make a mistake (as I did) you can use that strip for the shorter (rear) bar.
(7) I tested bare bars for wind noise. A whooshing sound begins around 40mph and increases at higher speeds. At 65mph, it was noticeable but not nearly as annoying as the burbling racket from bare round Yakima bars on my Gen 3. Generally I find that there is less noise when I am carrying something on cargo bars, probably breaks up the airflow. So I just remove the bars when I'm not carrying anything, which seems fairly simple.

 

I have been having the same issue with my Inno racks. I have called my local rack dealer every week and contacted Inno. Its coming they said. Well its finally here. I called my rack dealer and told them the parts numbers Inno recommends for my 2016 prius and they said the spread was too small and it would be dangerous. Really? Its 2" smaller than my 2008. Thinking of just going for it. BTW my prius parts department said he didnt think it would be possible to put a rack on my new car.

 

The decision to go ahead is yours alone to make, but I would tentatively suggest your top speed be significantly reduced when they're loaded. IMHO the stresses induced when traveling will be BIG!

 

Heya folks,

My official Toyota roof cargo crossbars came in and I love em. Check them out

 

Nice!

 

I noticed the bars are streamlined for aerodynamic, how's the wind noise on the highway?