Thule Hull-a-Port on VW with VW OEM Bars

I have a 2011 VW GTI. I purchased the VW OEM load bars for it (Same bars for golf/rabbit/jetta 2004+). I also purchased the Thule Hull-a-port pro. The screws that come with the Hull-a-port don’t fit. The bars look alot like the Thule rapid bars, which require the XAdapt 3 kit w/80mm bolts.



Anyone using this configuration? I think this will work, but Thule won’t make a recommendation for OEM racks.

VWs and racks
Congrats on your GTI, nice car. I leased one once but eventually got rear ended and pushed under another car. I had one car on my hood and another one in the trunk area. Nothing got damaged but the car was totalled. I loved that car.



VW doesn’t even have their own rack for the 2012 Jetta! My dealer didn’t know that though and promised me my rack would transfer which it did not. So they ate half the cost of a Yakima rack, which I like better anyway.



When I had the 09 Rabbit I had to order the adaptor kit from Thule. Thule, fortunately sent one this time with groves all the way up instead of just an inch up because when I changed cars/racks I needed the extra room to tighten their nuts/bolts. Thule customer service on the phone isn’t real friendly sometimes. Not sure why. Maybe they don’t want to get sued. Maybe they could use some customer service training or maybe their business is so good they don’t care?



Once I needed an extra bolt, found something at Lowe’s that worked until I could find the right one, you could always check them out.










I am pretty confident
that the OEM rack bars are actually Thule Rapid Traverse (RB53) bars. I have the 80mm bolts (XAdapt 3 kit) coming in today and I pick up the kayak on Saturday, so we shall see.



Thule support is next to useless. They basically will not say anything about OEM racks. (I’m guessing for legal reasons?) even though they manufacture many of the OEM racks. Getting them on the phone is difficult. The support line isn’t even open on Monday’s… I’m almost tempted to trade my Hull-a-port pro for Yakima BowDown, which Yakima is willing to say will fit my OEM bars!

sounds good but did you read the reviews
I hear you. I looked that up on the Yakima site but was not impressed with the reviews.



However I did see a product called Showboat for loading from the rear that did look intriguing.



I am often alone and have not figured out how to handle my kayak since I gave up loading one from the back to the top of an already scraped up Dodge Van. I got pretty good at that.



Now I usually ask for or tip kids for help. It was one thing to scratch up the Dodge, but I sure don’t want to mess up my Jetta.



Making matters worse, I no longer have a Pungo, I have a Ride 135 which weighs more.



Yes the customer service at Thule seems very lacking! I have Thule J bars on a round Yakima Rack my VW dealer put on. Since VW was paying for half of it, I didn’t have much input.



Always read reviews and then decide for yourself. That is my motto anyway.




nice wheels!

Took my kayak home today.
Looks like the Hull-a-Port Pro with the XAdapt 3 (80mm bolts) works just fine on OEM VW load bars (at least for th 04+ bars that go on the '11 GTI.



The hard part is keeping the speed down. Even with the kayak on top, the GTI just wants to go fast.

GTIs do like to go fast - Enjoy it
Great car. Have fun.

That’s been my experience
I emailed a fit question and received a reply in broken English that was off point. It’s safer to eyeball the components before buying if you can.