A2 Thule Load Carrier

[deheld]

Yesterday I attached my Thule Load Carrier to the roof of my A2. And I was amazed how easy everything went.
I bought the 750 footpack, the 761 Bar and the 1195 adjustement kit.
The kit is needed to fit the foots to the roof of the A2. The kit consists of adjustors that click in the foots and rubberpads for under the foots in the kit.

The foots can be adjusted on the bars and in the kit are the correct settings for the front and rear bar.

Just put the thing on the roof and tighten the knobs on the bar.
The foots have rubberpads and the adjustors are plasti-coated to avoid damage to the roof.

This is one of the foots on the roof:

And this is the A2 with it's load carrier in place.

The carrier weighs about 6 /7 kilo's, so that leaves 33 kilo's to carry. The aluminium Aero bars (861) are probably lighter but they are also more expensive.
All in all I am very pleased with it, now all I need to find is a ski carrier.

I am planning to build a closet in my house and I plan to use the load carrier to transport the wooden beams on the roof.


Dennis de Held

Amulet Red 1.4 Tdi

 

[swiv]

Hi Dennis,

Wasn't this combination of Thule components almost as expensive as 'the original' from Audi?
Of course, it looks very similar. And the Audi bars _are_ made of aluminium...

But, what interests me most: what system has Thule come up with to prevent you from over-tightening the feet?
Audi provides a 'special' tool (screwdriver/wrench-like) that has an indicator to show the amount of torque you exert on the fastening mechanism. It's all very low-tech, but it must be there for a reason.
Does the Thule have this tool too, or would you, in theory, be able to create dents in your roof by screwing it too far?
Anything in the manual?

Cheers,

Edo

--
(2003 Silver 1.4 Tdi Exclusive(SE), 95bhp/235Nm chiptuned by ABT, black interior, sport seats, heated mirrors, TomTom3 PDA Satnav, JVC KD-SH909RB cd-receiver, Infinity Kappa 63.1 + Vifa on-dash tweeters, 12" Subwoofer on 300w Amp)

 

[deheld]

Edo,

I forgot to mention that I bought the bars and foots secondhanded, on "Marktplaats". They came with a renault Scenic adjustor kit that I sold again. All in all, the load carrier costed me about 50 Euro's. The new bars from Audi are quoted 180.-, but you're right, thats the same a new Thule set would cost.

Since my A2 is a company lease car I'm not very keen on buying something that only fits an Audi, the Thules' I can easily use on any other car in the future. Or not, but I bet that the Audi A2 ones are a lot harder to sell secondhand.

There's no tool for tightening, the manual states a torque of 4nm. But that's very hard to feel. But the width is not adjusted when tightening the thing. When you tighten it you pull the adjustors upwards in the foot. Theoratically you could damage the car with this, but I think that you've destroyed the tightening mechanism in the foot long before that.

Dennis de Held

Amulet Red 1.4 Tdi

 

[swiv]

[8)] I bought my own 'Audi Original' roofrack through Marktplaats! (last year, even before the delivery of the car!). Cost me 75 euro's. And right before I bought that one, I sold the roofrack for my Clio II.
Anything can be sold through Marktplaats (for English readers: that's a 'free' version of Ebay, without the actual bidding. Like putting an ad in a local paper).
Well, maybe you're right. An A2 is something else than a Clio. Smaller market.

About the tightening: I'm not too worried about it either. I was merely asking for the sake of other interested forum readers
Thanks for the feedback, Dennis.

Edo

--
(2003 Silver 1.4 Tdi Exclusive(SE), 95bhp/235Nm chiptuned by ABT, black interior, sport seats, heated mirrors, TomTom3 PDA Satnav, JVC KD-SH909RB cd-receiver, Infinity Kappa 63.1 + Vifa on-dash tweeters, 12" Subwoofer on 300w Amp)

 

[Johann]

I have the same system and it was nearly as expensive as the Audi units BUT if you buy from one Thule dealer all the locks will be changed to work from one key. Thus now all four sides of the racks AND the 2 locks on my cycle carriers have the exact same key... Which Audi can never ever match...

All in all my Thule racks with aluminium bars and 2 Thule tour racks where £255.


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