klidge

I need to carry a canoe and two bikes. Criteria is: ease of installation and removal, security, as little wind noise as possible, and no marks on the car.<p>What's the best roof rack for the 1.8t?<br>

Greg Slater

You'll never get a definitive answer on this one, just a bunch of opinions, like mine. <p>I very highly doubt that any one person has actually used BOTH Yakima AND Thule racks on his/her A4, so each person responding will say that whatever he/she has is best. Kind of like how I think my Thule is best...<p>But they're both good racks and you'll be both happy and OK with either one.

Drew S.

I had this discussion with my father once. At the time, and this may still be the case, Yakima had round support bars, and Thule had rectangular ones.<p>Now from and engineering point of view, round ones are better in that they can support a greater load before warping and/or breaking.<p>On the other hand, we're talking about a roof rack, and you're probably not going to put such a load on these bars that they bend. If you did, you would probably be exceeding the weight limits of what the roof of the car can safely hold.<p>That's about it. I hope someone else can really answer your questions.<br>

DJW

Agree with Drew's comments. Another consideration with the round bars (Yakima) is the idea that the rack accessories will always fit to the bar as designed, regardless of the shape of your roofline (eg. VW Beetle vs. GM Suburban). Makes sense in theory, although I doubt it really matters in practice.<p>I don't think you can really go wrong either way as far as fit, quality, and function. Maybe you could locate a dealer that carries both, and try them both on. Consider appearance and price.<p>My personal choice was Yakima because I thought their products looked better. They also have cool names... 8-)<p><br>Regards,<br>Dean W.<br>Avant with DoubleCross towers, RocketBox, and WindJammers <p>

jeff

I have had a yakima rack on a three different makes of car....and the adapters have let me move it without too much hastle. It is bulletproof. Thule is supposed to be just as good...<p>On the round bars, the audi roofline is not perfectly flat...but it almost is.<p>Yakima is US made (pretty sure), Thule is Swedish, if that matters to you.<p>jeff<p>Both are good, and colorado cyclist even has a bunch of parts that can be used with BOTH brands!!!

Greg Slater

I just moved my Thule rack over to my A4 from my Honda two weeks ago, and I noticed that the ski rack attachments definitely do not both stand "straight up", due to the curvature of the A4 roofline. Both of my rails are located at the official position designated by Audi for such things (indicated by the marks at the top of the door frame). Not a big problem for the ski rack, but when I put my bike racks on in the spring, their rectangular clamping mechanism certainly won't sit completely flat on the rails.<p>But then, my bike racing team in Colorado some years ago used to use Yakima racks all the time, and we had big problems with the front wheel carrier thingies rotating around on the round rails, with the freely-spinning tires coming into contact with the roof of the team cars and making big ugly marks. Not such a big deal, except one of our sponsors was John Elway's Jeep/Eagle dealership, and they used to give us cars to drive to the races, and we'd often return them with unremoveable tire scuff marks on the roof. Oops. :-)

Andrew C.

From my days of bicyle racing, I've seen several bent Thule cross-bars (w/o bent roof). Never seen a bent Yakima.

Another Drew

First, both are very good systems and you won't go wrong. Drew S.'s statement about round vs square is true if you compare it apples to apples (ie. equal width, thickness, material, type of stress/loading etc.), but both bars are very stiff. <p>My beef was that no matter how clean you try to keep the footpads on the roof, dust/dirt always manages to work underneath and leave behind marks. My solution was to seal out the dirt/dust/water by using static cling window tints that I've cut out into the shape of the footpads. Whenever I remove the rack, I take off the tints and voila, completely clean and no marks.<p>Drew

Andy Hedin

I've got a Yakima rack with two SteelHead fork-mount bike carriers. I also purchased two wheel holders to hold two front wheels. Sure enough, they moved out of position and that spinning wheel came in contact with the roof on my old Corrado, putting a small gouge in the paint. Needless to say, I don't use those wheel carriers anymore. I usually just throw the front wheels in a trash bag [I'm a mountain biker, so they're usually pretty muddy] and then throw that in the trunk.<p><br>Andy Hedin<br>'97 A4 1.8Tqms, Wett 1.0 Bar Chip, ABT Filter, Euro Headlights with<br>PIAA SuperWhite's, A!AvantGarde Grill, Smoked Side-Markers,<br>Clear Corner-Markers, Tint<br>

PTaylor

Check www.rei.com, I shopped pretty heavily and found them to have excellent prices and great service (also had free shipping). fwiw .. I bought Yakima.<p><br>