Maui19

I'd like to hear from anyone who has a luggage box for their Q. Specifically, I'd like to know:

1. What make/model do you have?
2. How much noise does it make?
3. Does the tailgate hit it when raised?
4. Do you still get satellite radio?

What are the pros/cons of the model you have?

Hopefully this thread can help folks (like me!) who are in the market for a luggage box.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

mksap11

(1) Thule Evolution 1600
(2) It's fairly quiet with no whistling -- I tend to forget it's up there but it's obviously a little bit louder with it on the roof than with out.
(3) No. The 1600 shorter and wider than some of Thule's other boxes
(4) n/a - we have Sat, but it isn't activated. The fin is unobstructed, however
(5) I'm using the Q7 specific Thule rack imported from the UK, not Audi's.

K2audi

I went this route because it had a sleaker profile for less wind noise and less wind resistance. It is quieter than my Thule Evolution 1200 that I use on my allroad. It packs a lot of stuff and opens from both sides, which was a feature I really wanted since my first box I purchased years ago only opened from one side and became a pain in my side when getting into it, and mounting other attachments up on the bars. (bike racks, kayak, extra ski racks). The Spirit is on the new rail system so you can slide it forward or back to fit your needs,(remember, you can also set the height opening on the tailgate as well.......if you have the power tailgate of course). It also clamps down very quickly, it has 4 claws for the mounting points and you just turn the ***** inside the box to close the claws around the bars. I do not have sat. radio but have never had a problem with my nav system though.

After owning 3 Thule boxes, the Spirit has been the best to own. I hope this helps.


<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/70417/whistler_ski__snowboard_festival_041.jpg">

Q7_taxi

Note that it is only 74" long and so, it's limited to 180cm skis before needing to load them diagonally. Since I'm the only one in my family with longer skis, it was an acceptable trade-off vs. other boxes. I have Sirius, which is more signal-direction challenged than GPS (3 satellites for Sirius vs. 32 for GPS), so I was concerned about blocking the fin. Also, the 1600 is 2" taller than the Spirit 1600, so it fits more of the bulky stuff (luggage) my wife and daughters seem to carry more of on each successive trip, LOL.

2. Not much noise at all. Less noise than the road noise from the often-bad highways around here...we know when we're near home because the road gets MUCH quieter.

3. Not at all. It has the rail adjustment, so you can adjust fore/aft mount positions. I have mine mounted full forward to avoid the fin antenna, which is just a bit covered leaving

4. Reception 98% of the time. The blocked directions appear to be ESE and WNW -- yes, I had 30 hours of driving to deduce this. Even then, it's not completely out...just a couple of seconds, intermittently.

Hope this helps!
Butch

whitedoutQ7

I went to Thule's website and they said they didn't have a rack for it.

I'm glad I found this post! So which bars are you using? what parts, etc do i need to get the crossbars on the existing rack?

Thanks!

Maui19

Go to roofrackshop.co.uk. It is about $80 to ship to the US (at least to the eastern US). There are several good threads about this topic. Try searching with the keywords "roof rack" and "Thule" and you should get a wealth of good info.

Thanks to everyone who has responded thus far!

Maui19

Re: Thule Spirit 1600--is that thing 90" long?

Paul3.2A4avant

I've been a fan of Thule products for years but I'm sold on the Yakima box. The shop I was at said that Thule is expanding into many other product lines and their quality is dropping. Many of the Thule roof boxes arrive damaged and their hinges are now poorly made. He showed me how strong a Yakima box is by standing on top of it. He then demonstrated the high quality hinge system by opening it with just one hand. Apparently on a roof box, the only thing that wears out are the hinges. And yes, you can attach a Yakima box to a Thule areo roof rack. (I also bought our Thule Q7 rack from Roof Rack Shop in the UK)

K2audi

Yes, it's a tad over 90 inches long. As you can see by the picture, it's not to large for the Q7.

K2audi

I also went through www.roofrackshop.co.uk.com. The racks are Aero as well.