Subaru Forester Owners Forum banner
21 - 31 of 31 Posts
This is really interesting. I'm surprised at the description of fitment issues with any Tepui -- since Thule owns them, I would expect they would make it work.

I also note on one of the sites, 47" cross bars are recommended, and yet, on Amazon the Thule responder as "manufacturer" to some of the questions, responds explicitly to a question about a 2020 Forester with a Thule part number (TH711300) for the 50" bars -- so that's what I ordered -- we'll see.

I ordered the Petui Explorer Autana 3 with annex.

I am so looking forward to this activity made possible by the Subaru. Thank y'all so much for sharing.
 
I feel the mounting hardware is identical.
Just FYI, TEPUI installation video is here: How To Videos
Bolts are 2.3 inch long, size 13 (European).

Cheers!

View attachment 524162

View attachment 524163

View attachment 524165

Inspirational !

I have the same (!) vehicle, and was inspired to get the same (almost) tent -- the Explorer Autana 3 in my case (I believe it is the same tent, with the addition of the annex), and doggone it if I didn't pay close enough attention to your original post with the mis-fit of the rear mounts.

I too will follow your lead with the longer bolts in rear.

I should ask though, when I wrote Tepui in California they said, "Do NOT mount under the bar feet" and instead said I should mount the tent off-set with the one tent rail on the outside(!) of the vehicle rail.

Have you noticed any issue with the clamp bar having some negative interaction with the bar mount feet ? Does it stay secure at highway speeds ?

Slick photo here of you leveling the Forester. Nice work !

Thank you for being a path leader here !

The only challenge I've had and not seen mentioned here, is the challenge of raising the 130 lb package overhead onto the roof. This is not for the feint of heart. Neither my lovely spouse nor I are particularly strong, and not as young as we used to be, to boot. I ended up purchasing a couple of 2x4x8 and leaning them against roof rail, just inside the two Thule crossbars. I have a Radio Flyer red wagon that carries the tent to the side of the car, then roll the tent off the wagon and onto the boards. I'm able to grab the bottom of the tent, and walk it up the boards. My wife goes under, and one corner at a time, lifts (pushes, really) the corner away from the bars so it clears, and I push that side up. Then she goes to the other side and repeats, and at that point, the far track is on the cross bars. This highlights another weakness of the design: there is just enough friction between the tent tracks and the plastic filler strip on the top of the crossbars, that there is grabbing as I slide the tent across, and I suspect that strip will not be long for this world, and don't know what to do about that. I wonder about lubricating the bar, with wax or something. By the hardest, we were able to get it up there, and back down.
 
@Kevin That looks neat, and would appear to need a sizable garage and sturdy ceiling to mount. Would it work outside - a portable gantry, say, for a vehicle curbside ?

Have a link to the hoist ? This is the first I've ever seen.

I suppose, the lift is fixed, and then the vehicle is driven under it ?
 
@Kevin Thank you for that. I'm going to have to look at that, and see about mounting it to a portable arrangement of some kind. I understand from the description it is targeted at making better use of the vertical space in a garage, and I can relate to that, having two bicycles in my garage suspended from the ceiling in similar fashion.
 
@Joesmoe3 I have the same Thule MultiLift that Kevin pointed out and its been awesome. I've looked at other lift systems that were lower in price and they didn't go up close to the ceiling as the Thule Multilift does. The the install is straight forward, but I did have issues with the studs in my garage being a bit wider than what was specified in the instructions. I had to purchase 1x4s and mounted those to the studs and then mounted the Multilift to the 1x4s. Unfortunately my garage door height does not allow me to drive my car into the garage with my cargo box on top.
 
21 - 31 of 31 Posts
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top