Thule Roof Box on Impreza Wagon

Thinking about getting an Impreza Wagon but only if I can make a Thule or Yakima type box work on the roof to hold my windsurfing sails. I ran into a buddy at the beach who owns the WRX and he said you can't put a box on his car since the hatchback won't open. Seems that this might be for the WRX only? Anyways, I recall seeing roof boxes on the Impreza Wagon before. Is there any trick to doing this?

Reply to
capicella
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Might want to go through Thule's site and pick out what you think you'd get. They're usually pretty good about noting any "fit tips" at the end:

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And it sounds like they have some boxes made with rear hatches in mind:

"The mid-sized Evolution 1600 clears most rear hatch doors while providing valuable cargo capacity and dual-side access."

Steve

Reply to
Steve Jones

Can't you fold those sails and stick them in trunk like everyone else? ;-)

Seriously, the spoiler at the top of the rear hatch gets in the way a lot because of the forward slant of the rear window. I couldn't open the hatch of my GT wagon with my boards of the roof for the same reason. Since a dealership broke off the spoiler in a botched attempt at "customer service", I can now open it no problem.

You could either remove the spoiler and/or move the box forward (bad for your fuel mileage) ebough so the hatch clears the box. Do you keep your boards inside the car?

Florian

Reply to
Florian Feuser

I wasn't investigating getting the WRX version so the spoiler issue is somewhat moot. I want the option to either put the boards up top or inside.

Florian Feuser wrote:

Reply to
capicella

You're right, the problem isn't just the spoiler. While the issue will be pretty much the same with every hatchback or wagon, the impreza wagons have the tailgate hinged way forward which will interfere with anything you put on the roof.

FWIW: my sails all fit into my Legacy Wagon behind the front seats with the rear bench folded. The biggest, a 6.4m KA freestyle which rigs on a

189cm boom, needs to go in somewhat diagonal in order to fit.

I transport my two boards stacked, tail-first and deck up and in their sidewall bags with separate straps for the front and back (one loop over the top one over the bottom board). I then toss a quiver bag with

4 or 5 sails on top and secure it with another set of straps not very tight to avoid crushing the sails. I sometimes throw a boom and some mast halves between the straps and the sails to help distribute the pressure.

A rooftop box sounds nice, but with more than one board on top of that, it would become a pretty awkward stack, IMHO.

florian

f'up to rec.windsurfing

Reply to
Florian Feuser

You could email yakima and thule for Impreza compatibilty - might just be an issue of moving it forward some. Also, check;

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for OEM racks.

Also, try asking/searching at

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and
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both those sites have forums offering used equipment and or vendors specializing in Subaru stuff. You might find a used one there or maybe even on ebay.

good luck

Carl

Reply to
Carl 1 Lucky Texan

Beware putting thule or yakima racks on your car! I wanted to transport bikes on the roof of my impreza wagon, so I bought what yakima recommended - the Q towers, crossbars, etc. It was essentially a replacement roof rack. What they failed to tell me was that the only way you could actually use their rack system was to REMOVE the factory rack. How ridiculous! Even if you are so inclined to remove the factory rack, it leaves holes in you roof where the rack was seated, and rain can get in there.

I did finally manage to get a rack system that worked for the car, though!

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attaches two thule crossbars to the factory crossbars using vice grip mounts. I have two viper bike ports (made by Yakima, but the ones I have can fit on thule racks) installed on the rack. I can still access the hatch with no obstructions, even with bikes on the roof. I can't say anything about whether a box carrier would fit unobstructed, but you can probably lookup the dimensions of the bike ports and box carrier and see if it'd work. You can also check here:
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for a box that can mount directly to subaru factory racks. I believe subaru "factory" rack accessories are actually made by Yakima. Ironic since I eventually had to go with a Thule solution... josh

Reply to
Josh

Yeah, I THINK there are 'towers' that you use to , basically, adapt aftermarket crossbars to the sube roof.

Carl

Reply to
Carl 1 Lucky Texan

The recommended Yakima solution for Impreza wagons is the Lowrider towers. They attach to the lengthwise bars and you use Yak's crossbars instead of the Subaru ones. The only problem you might have with the fork mount bike mounts is if you have a rear spoiler, in which case you might not be able to open the hatch all the way without the spoiler hitting the ends of the trays. If you don't have a spoiler then the bike mounts like the Vipers work fine.

Reply to
Foobaz

My impreza wagon has factory crossbars, not lengthwise bars. Part of the difficulty, I find anyways, when looking up parts is subaru's confusing naming scheme. My car's y/m/m is the 2001 subaru impreza outback sport. Looking this up at yakima's website give the following (semi-valid) choices for my model: Impreza/WRX wagon Outback wagon Outback sport

Which one do I choose? Beats the hell outta me. Well, only the outback wagon option lists the lowrider as a rack solution. The other two list the Q-tower option.

And to answer the spoiler question: my car has a top and bottom rear spoiler and the bike racks fit fine with the solution I explained above. YMMV. j

Reply to
Josh

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