One of my Thule towers broke where the bar passes through the tower.
It was a tower for the rear bar. I discovered this during tie-down of two boats. Me and the boats were due at the put in with little time to spare. I grabbed the bar and gave it a shake. Seemed stable fore, aft, and down, and I decided to proceed with the trip, which went okay.
Hats off, again, to g-flex. I was amazed that g-flex bonded the cracked tower together. The cracked pieces were sprung apart, it took a vice to encourage them back into line, and I was just gluing thin edges back together. I didn’t expect it to hold together and just glued it on a “let’s see“ basis.
With the crack closed, I was able to add some fiberglass over the crack, and the repair looks solid.
I’ve been out twice more, using the repaired rack on local trips. I’d kind of like to keep the repaired tower in use and see if it would hold over the long term, but that seems risky and I’ve ordered replacements from eBay.
The rant: Thule and Yakima don’t sell anything cheap. At first I didn’t mind, thinking this stuff will last the rest of my life. And, it might have. But the car didn’t last, so I needed new clips to fit the replacement vehicle. And, Yakima had come out with improved towers, and the clips for the new car were only compatible with their new towers, so fork over several hundred dollars for new towers. There was nothing wrong with the old towers, Yakima was just obsoleting my towers. Ka-ching (clips) and several ka-chings for the tower replacements. And what do we do with the old clips and towers? You can try selling them, but they’d only be useful to somebody with the same vehicle they came off, a limited market if you keep vehicles a long time.
Thule caused my current rant, but it was Yakima back then. They seem to operate on similar “product evolution strategies.” When I moved into pick-up trucks, I used a home-made rack system that I have to say were my best racks ever, which I used about ten years before getting a cap on the truck. The cap came with Thule towers that fit into a track on the cap. I sold that truck, but kept the towers which mounted into some track pieces McCray gifted and I mounted to my new van. All was good until the tower cracked.
I was not surprised to learn Thule no longer sells those towers.
I faxed a photo of the tower to Jarret, at Rack Warehouse, and he identified my tower as a Trackerfoot 430. There were no identifying marks on the tower so I couldn’t search for replacement towers, because I didn’t know for what I should search. Thank you, Rack Warehouse for having a phone number (if Thule has phone support, I couldn’t find the number), and thanks, Jarret, for being so helpful.
Thanks, CT for a providing a place to rant. Not much point, but I feel better.
It was a tower for the rear bar. I discovered this during tie-down of two boats. Me and the boats were due at the put in with little time to spare. I grabbed the bar and gave it a shake. Seemed stable fore, aft, and down, and I decided to proceed with the trip, which went okay.
Hats off, again, to g-flex. I was amazed that g-flex bonded the cracked tower together. The cracked pieces were sprung apart, it took a vice to encourage them back into line, and I was just gluing thin edges back together. I didn’t expect it to hold together and just glued it on a “let’s see“ basis.
With the crack closed, I was able to add some fiberglass over the crack, and the repair looks solid.
I’ve been out twice more, using the repaired rack on local trips. I’d kind of like to keep the repaired tower in use and see if it would hold over the long term, but that seems risky and I’ve ordered replacements from eBay.
The rant: Thule and Yakima don’t sell anything cheap. At first I didn’t mind, thinking this stuff will last the rest of my life. And, it might have. But the car didn’t last, so I needed new clips to fit the replacement vehicle. And, Yakima had come out with improved towers, and the clips for the new car were only compatible with their new towers, so fork over several hundred dollars for new towers. There was nothing wrong with the old towers, Yakima was just obsoleting my towers. Ka-ching (clips) and several ka-chings for the tower replacements. And what do we do with the old clips and towers? You can try selling them, but they’d only be useful to somebody with the same vehicle they came off, a limited market if you keep vehicles a long time.
Thule caused my current rant, but it was Yakima back then. They seem to operate on similar “product evolution strategies.” When I moved into pick-up trucks, I used a home-made rack system that I have to say were my best racks ever, which I used about ten years before getting a cap on the truck. The cap came with Thule towers that fit into a track on the cap. I sold that truck, but kept the towers which mounted into some track pieces McCray gifted and I mounted to my new van. All was good until the tower cracked.
I was not surprised to learn Thule no longer sells those towers.
I faxed a photo of the tower to Jarret, at Rack Warehouse, and he identified my tower as a Trackerfoot 430. There were no identifying marks on the tower so I couldn’t search for replacement towers, because I didn’t know for what I should search. Thank you, Rack Warehouse for having a phone number (if Thule has phone support, I couldn’t find the number), and thanks, Jarret, for being so helpful.
Thanks, CT for a providing a place to rant. Not much point, but I feel better.
