New Car & Thule Roof Rack

[Br04dy]

Hi,

So I took ownership in January 2018 of a XC90 R Design MY2017, first registered January 2017 .

I'd previously owned a Audi Q3 but had been lucky enough to have a baby daughter with my wife recently, with the baby "travel system" we take around plus the dog we needed something bigger hence the new car. After test driving a few comparable cars we settled on the Volvo XC90.

I paid £42,500 as a cash buyer from Mashalls in Bishop Stortford, this included xenium pack, winter pack, family pack, 2 years free servicing and a full tank of diesel. The dealership were great to work with and I really got to know the car on the 500 mile journey back to Aberdeen

I've already fitted a set of mud flaps which I saw recommended on the forum from ebay and have since fitted a Thule WingBar. I previously had a Thule SquareBar on the Audi Q3 and had modified a larger square bar to fit. The recommended WingBar for the XC90 is just 127cm long, which I was a little surprised at considering the car is 200.8cm wide (including mirrors). The next size and largest WingBar is 150cm, I believed I could get this to fit with some minor modifications without it having a dangerous overhang.

When I tried to fit the WingBar unmodified it was sitting correctly on one roof rail but over hanging the other ever so slightly:



https://imgur.com/EuiU0tX

https://imgur.com/q5NqSjN

I estimated this overhang to be 10cm approx, so decided to cut 55mm into each bottom channel so the WingBar could sit on each roof rail:



https://imgur.com/ACEOrAQ

The WingBar now sits central and the outside edges don't overhang the car doors:



https://imgur.com/zoXZoef

I'm now able to fit my double snowboard roof rack mount and have room for my large roof box in time for going away to France, albeit I could have stayed in Scotland and had a pretty decent ski holiday .

In hindsight I could have probably just shaved off 35mm off each end of the lower channel, I don't think the extra 20mm extra I have done will severly weaken it, the WingBar is quite a complex cross section (compared to the square bar) and I'm sure the bending modulus is quite high.

Due to me making the underside channel longer I bought an additional genuine rubber filler strip (Thule part number 52105) for £4.99 from ebay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-T...53.m2749.l2649

Thule part numbers for the kit I fitted are:

Thule WingBar 963
Thule Rapid System 753
Kit 4058

As a back to back comparison I can say I don't hear or notice the WingBar when fitted compared to the old hum I used to get from square bar, so I'm very happy.

I had hoped to get a way with just a pair of snow socks for the front wheels for the drive to resort in France, but have since opted for a full set of winter wheels due to the on going Beast from the East. I'll add to the post once I've had a chance to test them out.

Thanks for looking