Thule and my dealer, EMS, have been good to me. I had a set of aero feet for my Subaru that had one bolt where the head of the bolt seemed to have a crack going from the center to the outside. I brought it into EMS, they called Thule and Thule wanted a picture sent to them. I got the email for the rep, sent it to him and two days later I found out that Thule was going to send me a whole new fit kit, not just a replacement bolt. Their reasoning was that if one bolt was bad, potentially others could be as well. They weren't, but it was nice to have back up parts. Now this was on a fairly new kit, it was probably on the car for 2-3 months before I noticed it. As for rusting, I've never had their hardware rust on me. I have had the tubes on my hull-a-port pros drip rust on my car. Not happy about that, but oh well. I live in the rust belt and remove all but the base rack from the car in the winter and don't have issues with the rack rusting.
Hmmm Between The Rack Warehouse and Rutabaga never any problem with parts. As for durability, I still have the rack and parts from mine bought in 1998. Been meaning to get a new set of bars since the wife bent them on a tree 2 years ago, but still using the bent set. Have replaced foot kits with vehicles, but the Tracker II attachments and racks are now 12 years. Keep your Yakima, I’ll keep my Thule. I can take my rack off or put it back on in 20 seconds, haven’t found a Yakima that will do that! WW
echo that The rack warehouse has shipped me numerous replacement parts. The last shipment was on them!
I call B.S. on the claims that yakima products are significantly better than thule, or vice-versa. I’ve owned both (and yes, I’ve had thule mounts on yakima crossbars).
Thule reputation Had a problem with a saddle at one time and Thule more than stood behind their product and more than honored their warranty. Bolts and nuts will get rusty with age, especially in SW Florida, but I also have stainless steel hardware on my power boat that shows signs of rust. Ace Hardware and West Marine should both be able to supply SAE and Metric nuts and bolts. My Thule stuff was purchased in 1998 at REI.
Agree I had their J-cradles and, aside from the fact that they did not fit my boats well, aside from the fact that the foams were too small so that bare metal rubbed against hull,
the plastic hardware pieces were crap. Could never tighten adequately to prevent the cradles from moving.
I had a somewhat similar Yakima experience. When my racks were off my car, one of the little transluscent rubbery pads on which the towers rise was lost. I needed it that morning or I couldn’t mount the racks and paddle. I went to my dealer, REI, and found the only way to get another pad was to buy another set of clips for the car. That’s right, a major dealer had no replacement pads available separately. I had to shell out for the entire set of clips to get the pads.
When I contacted Yakima about the problem, they said, “Oh, we designed them that way so that they would be easy for owners to replace.” Why would an owner ever need to replace one? Because they fall off too easily. Why not have dealers stock them…?
dealers All the rack companies dealers are independant, they have no factory dealers. They carry what they want to pay for. The company can’t require an independant dealer to carry anything.
Thule Areo bars are all aluminum and stainless and don’t rust one bit. That’s the way it is with any rack, if it’s metal it will rust and it cost less… when I bought mine yakama didn’t even offer aluminum racks…
What? WHAT!? Did you just say that a “name brand” rack is… OVERPRICED???
And CRAP???
Hmmmmmmmm, sounds familiar… Doesn’t it? Now who was it that has been saying that for about 12 years here on p.net? Let me think… Can’t put my finger on it…
The topic of rusting is normally in regard to fasteners, and I don't know if I'd want to put my faith in aluminum nuts and bolts. They would need to be greatly over-sized to be as strong as steel, which is probably why I've never seen such a thing. Aluminum crossbars I understand, but it does nothing to address the real problem, and in my opinion, making cross bars out of aluminum seems like a waste of money since the steel ones are coated and don't rust much in the first place, and even if they do there's no harm done (they still can be removed from their mounts).
More on rusted parts I wouldn’t have bothered to mention this, but since the rust and aluminum topic came up and there have been lots of comments in past discussions about rusted bolts, here’s something to consider.
Putting a little grease on the threads and slip surfaces of nuts and bolts works wonders. This makes perfect sense of course, but by way of example, when I’ve greased the threads of bolts on automotive suspension parts (after the need to resort to drastic and destuctive methods when taking the rusted connections apart the first time), subsequent disassembly many years later has always been a breeze, in spite of all the road salt those parts are exposed to. I usually grease any kind of threaded connections that will be out in the weather, and I’ve yet to have one seize up. Same goes for roof-rack hardware, and my rack is usually on all winter long and gets coated with road salt.
I’m surprised when people are surprised that their metal parts get rusty. Yeah, it’s metal. It sits outside all day every day. It’s gonna rust.
The suggestion for stainless bolts is good, but if you think these things are expensive now, they’re not going to get any cheaper with stainless.
As for the OP’s lost fit kit tightening bolt, I’d follow Marshal’s suggestion. Speaking from experience, your local shop will probably have some spares in a bin and will just give it to you because they won’t know what to charge for it anyway.
Available on website If you go to this link, http://www.thule.com/en/US/Support/Product%20Support.aspx, it will take you to a screen where you can order spare parts. They seem to be reasonably priced (surprise!) and from my experience in retail, thule has been very quick to ship.
That said, our store had a spare parts box with just such stuff included. You may want to check your local Thule retailer first.
dude the aluminum crossbars don’t rust and have all stainless hardware. I use simple foam blocks for my glass Valley 99% of the time. I also have the J racks but they are metal and I remove them when not in use. I agree stainless would be best but steel racks are going to rust in no time flat around here and Thule makes the best bars and mounting system for my car and bolt straight to the railing with stainless hardware.
Especially so for dissimilar metals Does the image of sweat dripping onto a bike headset bring fond memories of “conversion” to one-piece headtube/steerer assemblies?
Salty water is tough on metals, and if you are threading (or clamping or otherwise fitting together) one type of metal to another type of metal, definitely grease the threads before use. Regardless what brand or what application.