Thule ProBar Crossbars Review
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Review of the Thule ProBar Crossbars
Randy: Hey guys. Randy here at Etrailer. Today, we're taking a look at the Thule Probar.Now, these are available in a couple of different lengths and there's really been a trend recently of maximizing the capacity of your roof rack, and getting a lot of accessories up there or gear up there. Especially the off roading and things like that. So, basically, what Thule has done; they've increased the capacity. Usually we're used to like, 165 lbs out of most of the root rack systems.
These are now up to 220. Of course, you have to check your car's owner's manual to make sure your roof can handle that. But, not only have they done that, increasing the capacity so we can get more gear up here, but they've added a lot more adaptability.We're all used to a solid T track up top here, so it gives us a slot to slide our accessories in. The Probar takes us a step further, though. All the way across the back and all the way across the bottom, we also have a T slot, so whether it's just recreational use; we wanna get a couple of bikes up here, or maybe we need to utilize the racks adaptability.
We're going off-roading and we need some good tie down points. We wanna put a basket up here and maybe we want some lights on it.Or, just helping you day to day with your normal work load. These bars have a lot of adaptability and allows us to do a lot of different things with them.Now, that full T slot across the bottom not only helps us with getting additional items attached to our roof rack system, but it helps us with plus sizing our bars. We can really go out to whatever length bar that we want because that T slot's gonna allow our foot pack to go into the correct position regardless.Now, one piece of advice with this; we don't really recommend extending these out past your side view mirrors, just so you have an idea of how far they're sticking outta your vehicle to kind of give you a reference point.Now, here's a really good look at the end of our cross bar, and you can see where all that strength comes from. You can see it's a solid, one piece aluminum cross bar, but each of these different angles going different directions is gonna add to the strength.
It gives us awesome durability.Now, with this cap off, it also gives us a really good opportunity to look at that aerodynamic design.It's got a good taper that comes around the top and the bottom, and with those wind diffusing strips, it really shouldn't be louder than any roof rack system our there.Now, here are the three T slots. We've got the one located here on the top. Here's the one on the back that runs the full length, and here's the one on the bottom. You'll notice the gap here to here is gonna be the same on all three of 'em, so it's gonna work with any accessory. This cavity's just a little bigger to accept that our foot pack.We've talked about how strong the bars are, but with them being aluminum, they're extremely light weight, so getting them on and off the roof really isn't a big deal, and of course, full aluminum construction; we don't have to worry about corrosion.We've talked a lot about the different T slots that we have on these Probars, but they're also gonna work with most of your wrap around accessories.You can see we've got out Thule bike rack mounted up here.
No issues at all getting it attached. The thing you wanna be concerned with is the height, so any of your accessories, as long as they work a cross bar that's an inch and a half think, we won't have any issues in using 'em.Now, for installing the Probar on your vehicle, you wanna ensure you get the right foot pack kit, so for a F150, we're using the evo 00:03:11 for naked roofs. If you've got raised side rails, you'll need the evo 00:03:14 clamps or whatever roof design you have, you wanna get the right foot pack for that job. Now, the easiest way to do this is by using our fit guide. Just put in your year, make model. Go to roof rack. Go to Thule, and it's gonna give you every partner where you're gonna need, and it's gonna be a confirmed fit for your vehicle so you know the parts you get are gonna be the right parts and they're gonna work for ya.Now, with the evo 00:03:36 foot pack, we can use just about any of the Thule evo 00:03:39 style cross bars, so whether we're using the new arrow wings, the Probar, even the square bars that have the slot in 'em, we just need to squeeze this over towards the center. By doing that, it pushes up on our keeper right here.So, we squeeze that. That allows that to open. Then, we'll slide it on whatever bar we get.Now, to get our foot pack positioned appropriately, you can see we've marked the center of our bar, here. And we need to use our instructions to determine where we want our foot pack to go. This is gonna help ensure we get the perfect fit on the roof line.Now, something I really appreciate about the ne evo 00:04:22 design is that one we have this in the right position, you can see, this doesn't move in and out. With a lot of the other naked roof systems that we've had in the past, this would kinda move on ya a little bit. It'd move on ya until you had something to tighten it down or we're able to tension it down. In this case, as soon as we release, it locks right in that position. It can be a big benefit when you need to get everything lined up properly.Now, this strip has also been provided for you. And, that's designed to fill in this gap. Having a gap all the way across allows us to use a lotta different under mount type T slot accessories, and this can easily be cut to give that room to fit in there.If we leave this gap open, it's gonna generate wind noise, so we definitely want to cover up any unused portion, and that's just gonna be something we just pop right in there. I like to get one side in and started and then just push our other side in as we go along.inaudible 00:05:23 likes nice and flat on there and it can be cut to the appropriate length.Once we get over here to the other foot pack, we just wanna trim that off to whatever length we need. You can finish installing that.Now, we've got our cap. That's gonna slide right on our bar. Finishes off that end really nicely.And then, when we're bringing this out, I like to just cut a little bit of a V. That's gonna give you exactly what you need.Now, we've got our bar pre-assembled. Both foot packs are on. We've got our strip in the bottom there. We're gonna get this places up on the roof line of our truck. We wanna open both doors that's gonna allow our clips to go in where we need 'em.We're just gonna pull out on that. Allow it come down and rest.And, since these are custom fit, the notch in that fit kit should be sitting right up and it should match the contour of the truck, so we'll go gonna make sure that we've got the same on each side.While we're getting our clips in place, it's also a good time to get our measurements done. We're gonna measure from front of bar to front of bar and you'll want that to match what's in your fit kit instructions.Now, if you don't already have 'em off, we'll take the end off of our foot pack there. We wanna get rid of this slack, so we wanna bring that up just to where it makes contact, make sure we our positioning still there where we want it. Let's make contact there. So, we'll head over to the other side and do the same thing.Now, we'll go back and forth a couple of times. Until, we hear our tool click. That's gonna give us the three newton meters we need. We'll take our cover. Got the two tabs here. These are gonna go in. We're gonna push down just like that. And the thing I like about this is they click into place, so they're gonna hold theirselves in position, unlike the older ones.We do have a the locked core right here as well. In this case, you can use a dime or a flat blade. Turn that. That's gonna lock that cover on so it can't come off. But, this can also be switched with the Thule one key system so you can pull that cord out and put a key block in.And that's gonna complete our look at the Thule Probar cross bars.
Info for these parts were:
Video Edited:
Jacob T
Video Edited:
Chris R
Installed by:
Kathleen M
Installed by:
Randy B
Video by:
Zach D
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Craig P.
8/24/2021
I used the old, solid black bars (3/4" x 1.5") with the 460 Podium set on my Santa Fe and they worked perfectly. I purchased many sets of carries (kayak and canoe cradles and load stops). When I bought my Palisade I purchased the recommended fit kit for it, and Thule's product info indicated it would work fine for my 460 podiums (the ones with the square receiver on top for use with the old square bars). No matter how tightly I bolted the podiums to the roof rail on the Palisade, I couldn't tighten the bar. It would still slide freely from side to side. I reported this to Thule technical service and got no solution to the problem, just a run-around. I finally purchased these Probars with a new 460R podium set. According to the video above, my old accessories are useable with the probar. However, since the top of the probar is slanted about downward about 30 degrees, the accessories do attach but they now slant about 30 degrees downward, too. Therefore, the probar is NOT compatible with the old bolt-on bike carries, canoe carriers, kayak carriers, etc. I started out buying a new fit kit for my new car, and wound up having to buy a new podium set, these probars, and now a new set of load stops and kayak carriers. At each step I was told that what I already had would still be useable, and now, $1,000 later, it turns out that none of what I had is.