Destructive Removal of a Thule Bar

[Chip]

It was only nine years old, but the rear cross bar on my truck cap had become deformed, making some attachments difficult to fit. Some idiot had loaded boats on the bars by sliding them up from behind the truck. After a few hundred slides, hardware protruding above the gunwales had gouged the rubber coating, and then rust got busy. The bar was corroding inside the rubber, blistering and expanding the height and width of the bar.

This was one of those jobs that should take about 30 minutes, before Murphy visits. First, I couldn't figure out how to loosen the towers from the bar. Finally found a hidden tab that slides down to reveal Allen bolts that activate the bar gripper. But even after totally loosening the gripper, the towers would not budge. My choices seemed to be to remove the rubber coating and grind off the blisters of corrosion, or cut the bar. Either way, the bar wouldn't be much use. Successfully removing the bar took me a couple hours.



Now if I can just get that idiot to stop gouging the new bar with my dang boats...

 

[Cheeseandbeans]

I have the same system and one bar has the beginnings of yours. Mine started from the inside out from a missing end cap. I sprayed some rust converter inside the square stock to slow it down, but it is just a matter of time. I do see them from time to time on Craigslist. I believe you can still buy new ones as well.

Bob

 

[stripperguy]

I've had Thule bars and accessories for the last 30 years or more...I always remove them from my vehicles when not needed, mostly to reduce wind noise and increase fuel mileage.
As a side benefit (that I never really considered), all of my Thule stuff is still in pristine condition.

I've also had the end caps pop off quite a few of my bars, all have been silicone adhered in place.

Am I the only one that never leaves the bars mounted unless being used?
BTW, I also remove my bars and store them inside my vehicle when I'm tripping, no use tempting would be opportunist thieves.

 

[Guest]

It was only nine years old, but the rear cross bar on my truck cap had become deformed, making some attachments difficult to fit. Some idiot had loaded boats on the bars by sliding them up from behind the truck. After a few hundred slides, hardware protruding above the gunwales had gouged the rubber coating, and then rust got busy. The bar was corroding inside the rubber, blistering and expanding the height and width of the bar.

Successfully removing the bar took me a couple hours.

Now if I can just get that idiot to stop gouging the new bar with my dang boats...

That idiot really gets around, he (or she) has been loading canoe by sliding them on my Thule racks from the back for the last 20 years. The flange washers atop the gunwale gouge out a little scrap of the plastic covering each time, and my Thule bars are very well scraped up.

I've had Thule bars and accessories for the last 30 years or more...I always remove them from my vehicles when not needed, mostly to reduce wind noise and increase fuel mileage.
As a side benefit (that I never really considered), all of my Thule stuff is still in pristine condition.


Am I the only one that never leaves the bars mounted unless being used?
BTW, I also remove my bars and store them inside my vehicle when I'm tripping, no use tempting would be opportunist thieves.

Same here, for all the same reasons. Our Thule bars were on a CR-V for 12 years and moved onto the truck’s Leer cap. Both vehicles used the Tracker II towers that clip on and off a short attachment bar bolted into rooftop receivers. The crossbars are 78” rectangular Thules, wide enough to rack two canoes side-by-side gunwales down between stops.

P4171848 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Those crossbars stick out to the edge of the sideview mirrors and can be head clonkers, especially if you are as tall as Chip, or catch low branches on narrow dirt roads. I take them off, ten seconds time per bar, after every trip.

And, like Stripperguy, before every trip; even though they towers have locks I take the crossbars off after I unload boats at a launch and put (diagonally) them in the truck bed. No sense advertising “I’m off paddling and won’t be back for a while”, and even with the locking cores the gunwale brackets or load stops could easily be removed.

Plus those vehicles are (were) my everyday drivers; I don’t need to drive around 365 days a year with long crossbars on the roof, and doing so when boatless on winter salt covered roads is asking for rust issues.

For my purposes towers & crossbars that are easily installed and removed is paramount.

Chip, how do your Thule towers attach to your cap? They look identical to the Tracker II towers, and if your cap is a Leer it may have the attachment points to bolt on the foot bar. Leer still carries those Tracker II towers and attachment adaptors, and I may have a set of four in a box of Thule parts; we had two CR-V’s, and I only reused the Tracker II parts from one for the Tacoma roof racks and removed the others when the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] CR-V died.

FWIW the Thule Load stops still fit and slide/adjust easily on my battle scarred Thule bars.

P9180013 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I glue a little exercise flooring on them for some cushion.

P9180028 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I really like that the (cushioned) load stops can be put on the crossbar /I_____I\ for slab sided hulls, or
I\_______/I for canoes with more tumblehome.

 

[RickR]

I'm an idiot also. But how else does one load a canoe onto a high rack solo? Just part of life I guess.

 

[gumpus]

I've gotten good service from Thule products. At same time they piss me off charging like $20 for end caps and they can't give you an extra...and you may well break one on initial installation. About $50 retail for a single bar and the ends are totally unfinished and the jagged edges will make you bleed. Given the price it would seem that a dip in some rustproofing might be expected.

Maybe you rear end loaders could use some of the clear tubing that I use for gunwale protectors to wrap around your bar(s). It's much tougher than foam pipe insulation and it comes in many diameters. I think it's used for plumbing and you can find it at any good hardware store. If you're willing to take your bars off again you could install a length of clear tubing without even slitting it.



My favorite rack was a Thule with attachments that fit into channels in the roof of a Ford Escape or Explorer. It just clicked on and came off with the push of a button, less than one minute on or off. I generally leave my rack on all the time except sometimes for a few months in winter or if the vehicle is going on a multi-day trip.

 

[Chip]

The bar has been replaced. Fortunately, my kid moved out and left in the garage bars for a vehicle he no longer owns, so I liberated one of those. I cut a 2x4 to sit on top of the bar, and padded it with carpet, and it is very easy to slide a canoe onto it. The down side is that I no longer can attach the load stops, which I really like for longer, high-speed trips that inevitably include strong cross winds. I guess I can just lift up the canoe once it is loaded and remove the 2x4, but then I'm stuck carrying around the 2x4--not that big of a deal.



Mike, near as I can figure, I have towers that are THTB60 per Leer, or TB60 per Thule. I have never removed the racks prior to replacing the bar. They are incredibly easy to remove, like one minute per bar. I'm a little concerned how easily they come off, because I frequently hang my cap from a pulley system that connects to the bars. But, I guess if I can't hang the cap like that, I have no business strapping a canoe on the bars and driving around at 70mph.

The photo also shows, in the lower left, the front tower and bar end. At the end of the tube you can see about an inch of an aluminum, rectangular tube that telescopes within the Thule bar. Just inside the tower you can see a pin hanging down. The pin goes through the bar and the tube so the tube doesn't come out. There's a second hole through the bar near the tip. To extend the bar, remove the pin, pull out the tube, and reinsert the pin through the hole at the tip of the bar. My height puts my forehead at the perfect height for bashing on long bars, so I like to telescope the tubes back inside the bars whenever they are not in use.

I'm undecided whether to reinstall the tubes into the replacement bar. These days I do fewer trips with shuttles, and those are the trips where it is most beneficial to be able to carry two or more boats. But, drilling holes in the bars opens the way for water and rust. An alternative is to make two 80" 2x4s to sit on top of the Thule bars, and just plop those on if I need to carry more canoes. But, then I have to carry the 2x4's around. As I write, it dawns on me that I should just drill the Thule bars. If I get another nine years of rusting time, what's the likelihood that I'll still have the truck and still be dragging canoes around in 2030?

 

[Guest]

The down side is that I no longer can attach the load stops, which I really like for longer, high-speed trips that inevitably include strong cross winds.

Chip, you can easily attach “load stops” to those carpeted 2x4’s. I will have to take illustrative photos of this, or you can have a looksee if we ever manage a shop day. I can set you up on a “little boy’s” bench to work on outside the shop, and social distancing swing by every half hour to make pointed suggestions.

The (outdoor) carpeted 2x4 crossbars on the old van’s Quick & Easy racks have gunwale stops, four per boat. I’ll skip the “two canoes load from the rear, two from the front” business, but essentially the rear (loading) crossbar has two gunwale stops per canoe; two canoes = four gunwale stops, trappin both front and back wales from any sideways movement.

Those gunwale stops on each 2x4 crossbar are nothing more than some short 1x1 pieces of (varnished) hardwood, screwed directly through the carpet into the Q&E 2x4’s.

But, the (easily resolved) issue was that I needed a long, easy carpet slide center expanse on the rear crossbar, left unocculded in the center, without gunwale stops in the center of my rear slidey bar.

So the paired gunwale stops at the back crossbar hold just the “outside” gunwales on either side, inwale and outwale, like this
\\_______________//. Lots of rear slide on room in the center of that back crossbar.

One gunwale trapped between those close paired stops the back of the canoe isn’t wind shifting/sliding anywhere.

The front cross bar has the same four total of 1”x1” wood stops for two hulls, but spaced apart against the outwales
/__\__/__\.

The gap fore and aft is so that the canoes are not rubbing together on a 1000 mile road trip.

When I slide the canoes onto the racks from the back crossbar the front stops /__\__/__\ captures them in perfect pre-determined fore/aft position along the roofline, and I just lift the stern of the canoes and set them, outside gunwale edge between the \\ or //. Solid as a rock, can’t side winds shift on the crossbars.

Next time you are up to the shop that would be a lot easier to demonstrate that than describe, but with wood crossbars or extensions it works like a charm. Plenty of rear open center crossbar space when slide-loading canoes, and four gunwale stops per canoe, nothing can move sideways.

I have never removed the racks prior to replacing the bar. They are incredibly easy to remove, like one minute per bar.

Well then what the heck is wrong with taking them off between trips to prevent rust and weathering? One minute per bar?

Between trips, unless I know I am heading back out toot sweet in next day or two, I store our removed crossbars on big J or L hooks, screwed into ceiling joists. These things work great, and have gobs of ceiling clearance, even for 2x4 extensions with 1” wood gunwale stops.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt...8014/202305457

$13worth of L hangers vs buying new Thule bars and towers. Eh, that cost delta seems obvious with racks that come off in minutes.

I'm a little concerned how easily they come off, because I frequently hang my cap from a pulley system that connects to the bars. But, I guess if I can't hang the cap like that, I have no business strapping a canoe on the bars and driving around at 70mph.

If it is any reassurance I hit a patch of black ice on a narrow country road curve after one winter trip. When we started sliding with zero control towards a (thankful) guardrail I turned to Joel and said “Well this isn’t good”.

We binged the front of a CR-V off the guardrail with those Thule Tracker II feet, then spun and binged the rear of the CR-V off the same guardrail, and finally Oh-crap came to stop on a rural lawn. We had two heavy decked canoes on that Tracker II rack, and I was afraid to look at first. Eh, plus I really needed to relieve my bladder.

Nothing on the racks budged, both boat still tightly tied in place, no slack rope. Same racks I use today, confidently (dummy) crash tested.

I have had those Tracker II feet and racks on going across the Great Plains in stupid fierce crosswinds; dang near ripped the truck doors off when we opened them at a rest stop. The two canoes never budged

As I write, it dawns on me that I should just drill the Thule bars. If I get another nine years of rusting time, what's the likelihood that I'll still have the truck and still be dragging canoes around in 2030?

Well Chip, you could glue some protective cover on those rusty Thule crossbars. And then freaking take them off between trips, so you don’t trap moisture between already rusty crossbars and some Tygon tubing ,or lengths of old garden hose.

But “2030”? You’ll be pushing 80 at that point, and maybe ready for something a tad lighter to rack than the OT Tripper, or the giant 20’ WC “One Tonnah”.

I think we need a shop visit sometime soon.