Roof Racks, Roof Boxes, Sharkfins

McFlyfi

Member
:
2013 Cx-5 Touring/Bose/Tech
One of my biggest concerns was having the Sharkfin interfere with a roof box. I occasionally need to add my Thule Evolution 18 to carry all my family's "stuff".

So soon after arriving home, I tired it out.

I have a Thule set up that I have literally had for decades. I usually have just bought new "feet" with each vehicle to move the system to the new vehicle. My Ford Focus wagon did not have a Thule solution at the time, so I bought their feet that attach to factory roof rails.
rackfoot.JPG

The feet have a rubber strap (with steel cables embedded) that wraps around the roof rails. Works her just fine.

The worry was that the roof box wouldn't clear the Sharkfin, but as you can see, it does with about 1 to 1 1/2 inches to spare.
rearfin.JPG


The next worry is "How do I open the rear lid with the box in place?"
As you can see, the box can be mounted far enough forward to allow full opening of the rear hatch.
rearhatch.JPG


Finally, here is what it looks like with the box installed:
frontbox.JPG

rearbox.JPG


So with this type of "foot", there is no problem not only clearing the fin vertically, but it is possible to mount the box far enough forward to have the rear hatch open fully.
Keep in mind that this type of foot rests on top of the roof rails, and adds not only the thickness of the bars themselves, but some measure of the mount as well. I doubt that the factory crossbars (being mounted inside the roof rails) would accommodate a roof box.
 
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Looks great!









Goodbye mpg's.








What model Thule Mount is that? The one that attaches to the rails.
 
Looks good.

I have a set of Thule crossbars that I think my dad bought in the early 90's. I do the same thing, just buy the feet and keep switching everything over.
 
How easy is it to remove those crossbars? I am considering this setup for kayak duties, but i dont want to leave the crossbars in place permanently.
 
How easy is it to remove those crossbars? I am considering this setup for kayak duties, but i dont want to leave the crossbars in place permanently.

Very quickly- less time than the normal, hard clip feet. 5 minutes maybe?
The attachment is a steel cable reinforced rubber strap. You loop the strap under the rail, hook it into the foot, and tighten it down with the supplied Allen wrench. The Allen wrench is actually part of the rack- look at the first picture. The oval bit that says "THULE" on it pulls out, this is the handle of the Allen wrench. There's one on each foot.
 
Well I have 2 kayaks and 2 Mtn bikes on top of mine, like said earlier this system takes less than 5 minutes to install.

P1020057.jpg
 
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