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2019 - Thule WingBar Evo Cross Bars and Roof Top Tent clamping

('19+) 
21K views 30 replies 12 participants last post by  SWForester 
#1 ·
Installed the Thule WingBar Evo cross bar set up and Smittybuilt Overlander 2783 Roof Top Tent on my 2019 Sport.

Thule cross bars installed with no issues. Good video on YouTube by Etrailer showing install of exact cross bars set up on exact model vehicle. (pic 1 + 2)

Encountered issues with the universal mounting hardware supplied by Smittybuilt for my cross bar set up. I was unable to sandwich clamp using the steel flat bar due to the location of where the tent rails landed on the cross bars. The rails and clamp bolts were directly over the Thule Evo Raised Rail Base Clamps. This would not allow for a proper sandwich type clamp method. (pic 3, 4, 5 )

Decided to utilize the T-slots within the Thule WingBar Evo cross bars extrusion. Made four aluminium base plates ( 3/8" x 4" x 5") that fasten to the cross bars. Each plate has two holes for 6mm T-bolts which attach the plate to the cross bars. There are also two 8mm holes in each plate for the bolts which attach the tent rails to the the plates. (pic 6 + 7 )

The tent rails are made from an aluminium extrusion that has an internal shape. Mounting hardware supplied comes with flat plates that fit inside the tent rail extrusion. These flat plates hold and trap the heads of the 8mm bolt used to attach the tent rails on your particular vehicle.

The new base plates sit between the cross bars and the tent rails. (pic 8, 9 + 10)
After the trial run, if all is good, I will finish machine an outside profile and have them black anodized.
Set up now seems to be solid. Hope it don't blow off at 80 MPH.

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#2 ·
Tent appears to be decent quality for the price. Have not slept in it yet, but I can tell you the mattress is not good. Will need to find additional padding to remedy that problem. Looks pretty cool when deployed.

I was waiting to post pics of my vehicle until I put on some REAL tires worthy of this forum, but none the less, here it is with the tent packed up and deployed with and without rain fly.
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#4 ·
And here is my rooftop tent TEPUI Kukenam 3 sky installed on same THULE WingBar Evo. Bar length is 118cm (47in).
I did not have time to customize the mounting hardware provided by Tepui, so I just bought two longer 10.5 cm (4in) bolts and used them to go below the rear left Evo Raised Rail Foot.
This way the entire tent was skewed to the left by an inch or so (not perfectly centred on the roof), which was barely visible and did not affect the later set up or driving at all.
Tested it last weekend for 800 km (500 miles) at an average speed of 115km/h (70m/h) - No issues.

Pic 1. Overall view
Pic 2. Front view
Pic 3. Rear view
Pic 4 Original bolts and mounting
Pic 5,6 Extended bolts and mounting below the Thule Raised Rail Foot.

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Pic 2
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Pic 3
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Pic 6
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#26 · (Edited)
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!

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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.
 
#14 ·
My Smittybuilt tent weighs 116 pounds.
Even the wind drag from the tent had little to no impact on driving and mpg.
I keep it under 76 MPH because any faster the vehicle gets a little "Wonky" from the turbulence. Especially in the draft of a trailer truck. Don't want the tent to blow off the roof. It is only held on to the extrusion with four 6mm blots.
 
#19 ·
Hi,

Is your Evo Wingbar 47" or 53"? I purchased a 53" wingbar from Thule and the front crossbars fit fine but the rear seems to have issues with fitment due to the roof rails tapering narrower in the rear and the thule towers/foot do not adjust to the size.
 
#25 ·
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.
 
#28 ·
@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 ?
 
#30 ·
@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.
 
#31 ·
@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.
 
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