Kayaker

I stopped by my local rack shop to have the yakima rack installed. When setting the tower width to yakima specs, you cannot achieve a secure attacment. The clip that wraps under edge of the door frame slips up and off as you lock down the cam (Q102).

The installer with over 20 years experience called yakima. Yakima will either have to change the specs for the width between the towers or redesign the clip. It seems they have released this clip before it was ready to not loose too much market to thule.

The rack can be made secure by moving the towers about 1 inch closer to each other. The pad would rest on the rain gutter rather than on the curved frame. The problem with moving the towers closer than specified by yakaima is that it will void your warrenty.

As a side note, yakima is rated for 100 lbs, thule 150. It looks like the open sky will clear the bars if you have no accessories attached.

The point of my posting this is a simple warning that the rack will not fit if installed per Yakima's specifications. I really hope they get it worked out. I've been waiting for months for Yakima or Thule to have one for us.

clockwork

You did not have any accurate information in that last thread about yakima. What parts were you using?

Kayaker

I have used them exclusively for over 15 years. The installer used the Q towers with the Q102 clips as found on the fit guide on Yakima's web site for the 06 Audi A3. I actually like the look of the Yakima towers more than the Thule. I also prefer how much quicker you can put them on and take them off. My previous vehicles were Toyota 4 Runners. Those towers had the hook that wrapped under the door frame vs the type for our A3. The new clip depends on the pressure between the towers instead of each tower pulling up from the door frame.

As far as which system provides a more secure attachment. The installer I have used has over 20 years of professional experience with racks and trailers of all types. While he was on the phone with Yakima, he was told the load rating was 100 lbs. He was also told that you could not opertate the open sky with the racks on the car. This information was from Yakima directly.

While the rack was resting on the car, I could operate the open sky. But with accessories that have bolts extending down, the glass panel may hit the bolts. I suspect the same may hold true for Thule.

The other advantage of Yakima is that the recommeded spread between the front and rear bars is about 32 inches. With Thule I think is closer to about 28 inches. Since I primarily want the rack to carry 18-ft long seakayaks, the wider the spread the more sucure the kayaks will be.<ul><li><a href="http://www.yakima.com/Consumer/Step4.aspx">http://www.yakima.com/Consumer/Step4.aspx</a</li></ul>

skiracerdad

I'm also shopping for a rack system to mount a large Thule box on the roof that I'll leave on from Nov-April for Ski(racing) season. I was under the impression that the rack (tower plus cross bar) sold by Audi is a perfect fit which bolts directly to the roof (after removing a trim cover) Could someone that has one or simpley has researched it better than I have clarify this issue for us. If this is the case, I would think that the audi tower is the only way to go if you want to minimize damage to your paint finish.

ABarthol

"I suspect the same may hold true for Thule. "

Open Sky clears the Thule Rack fine. I've tested with mine with rack alone, rack + valance, rack + valence + box and rack + ski racks, and there were no Open Sky issues at all.

ABarthol

27 and 1/8th inch for thule.

The Thule racks both attach at what look like the "notches" in the door jam. Open the door and take a look and you'll see exactly where they would go.

I can see how you'd want the longest spread possible with kayaks that long.

Post up some pics once you have a final setup.

kennyA3

from my experience with both the audi rack and thule rack, the thule rack is less likely to do paint damage. the piece on the audi rack that clamps onto the door frame is bare metal w/o any protection and has left some small scratches on my paint. the same pieces on the thule rack are covered with a thin rubber coating...no scratches whatsoever.

also, the crossbars on the thule setup are signifigantly lower profile that the audi ones.<ul><li><a href="http://forums.fourtitude.com/zerothread?id=2385801">discussion and pics</a></li></ul>

Kayaker

I sent them an email and they responded with some great photos of a red A3 with the racks installed. The close up photo seems to show the clip working properly. I'll follow up with my local shop and see if there was some other reason why they would not secure on my car. Maybe it's all the waxing I have been doing!

boki-san

on tower spacing, make sure you are measuring to the inside of the steel bands that wrap the bar, and make sure they don't creep when you clamp the towers into place with the allen wrench, because they will try. check the measurement again after you have clamped the towers securely to the crossbar. also, see that the measurement between crossbars is centre to centre, not inside. you have probably covered all this yourself, but i have seen intelligent folks screw these up.

one other thing, are your q-towers brand new or used? if they are used, the fine adjust screw under the tower cam may be way out of normal adjustment range. when the tower cam is down, the metal bit showing over the cam cover itself, should top out between the two dimples in the nylon behind it, and the lock tab should swing into place smoothly when you lock it.

also, the weight limitation is due to the car's roof's ablility to not deform. the yakima rack is as strong or stronger than the thule, their weight warning is just more conservative(or else you read thule's weight limit for a raingutter style tower).
the point, also, does not have to do with static weight. if you have to rapidly deccelerate, the weight is magnified in reference to the rack and roof. you could safely stack way more than the 100lb per crossbar limit, but if you hit the brakes hard at 40mph, your roof would fold. the rack would be just fine, and could be safely used on your new or repaired car

Kayaker

The installer putting them on is very experienced and used a tape measure at every part of the install. The parts are all new.