# Thule Cross Bars for 2020 Cross Sport



## dead0narrivel (Aug 7, 2005)

So I have a cross sport on order and am waiting to take delivery. I’m trying to have a few things prepared for it’s arrival, one thing mainly being cross bars. I’m not a huge fan of the OEM style ones but Thule doesn’t have a fitment guide for the Cross Sport yet. I have heard rumors of Q7 racks fitting but have no confirmation. 

Does anyone have Thule Bars (non OEM VW) and what size did you get for them?


If no one has taken the plunge on them, would they please be able to relay the width of the roof rails around the area where the racks would sit. I can image the rails aren’t some proprietary styling that I could find another foot that would work with them, but I need to know the width as a starting point. Any help is much appreciated.


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## mustardketchup (May 28, 2019)

I think it would be the same size as regular Atlas, if so i just ordered the Wingbar Evo 135 / 53, will do an install on my regular Atlas once they arrive and will share pics on the forum. Good luck! 


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## mhjett (Oct 16, 2000)

Not sure what you have against the OEM bars, but I think they're made by Thule anyway. 

I have them on mine, got them for $228. They fit and look fantastic. No complaints. 

Atlas roof bars by mhjett, on Flickr


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## BsickPassat (May 10, 2010)

dead0narrivel said:


> So I have a cross sport on order and am waiting to take delivery. I’m trying to have a few things prepared for it’s arrival, one thing mainly being cross bars. I’m not a huge fan of the OEM style ones but Thule doesn’t have a fitment guide for the Cross Sport yet. I have heard rumors of Q7 racks fitting but have no confirmation.
> 
> Does anyone have Thule Bars (non OEM VW) and what size did you get for them?
> 
> ...


You can try buying a Q7 fit kit from Thule to see if they line up with the flush rails.


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## BsickPassat (May 10, 2010)

mhjett said:


> Not sure what you have against the OEM bars, but I think they're made by Thule anyway.
> 
> I have them on mine, got them for $228. They fit and look fantastic. No complaints.


The problem with the factory bars is the T-slot rubber strip. If you want to use the T-slot, you either need to: remove the rubber strip altogether or hack it up afterwards and order more strips.

Thule Wingbar Evo doesn't require removal of the rubber strip to use T-slots.


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## ice4life (Nov 6, 2017)

BsickPassat said:


> mhjett said:
> 
> 
> > Not sure what you have against the OEM bars, but I think they're made by Thule anyway.
> ...


Having had both of these cross bars, I'm confused. The wingbar Evo still had the same rubber strip setup. And you can always put the rubber strips in around the attachments by cutting them. What am I missing here?


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## gthoffman (Oct 27, 2014)

ice4life said:


> Having had both of these cross bars, I'm confused. The wingbar Evo still had the same rubber strip setup. And you can always put the rubber strips in around the attachments by cutting them. What am I missing here?


The newer Wingbar Evos have two pieces of rubber, parallel along the long edges of the top of the t-bar opening and you just separate them from each other as you slide something in the t-slots. Hopefully that makes sense... but you don’t need to trim the rubber each time you slide something in the channels.


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## BsickPassat (May 10, 2010)

ice4life said:


> Having had both of these cross bars, I'm confused. The wingbar Evo still had the same rubber strip setup. And you can always put the rubber strips in around the attachments by cutting them. What am I missing here?


You might want to take a closer look at your wingbar evo's.



Start at 6:50


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## dead0narrivel (Aug 7, 2005)

mhjett said:


> Not sure what you have against the OEM bars, but I think they're made by Thule anyway.
> 
> I have them on mine, got them for $228. They fit and look fantastic. No complaints.


Nothing against anyone that likes them, but to me personally they sit up a bit high and look bulky. The cross sport has the flush rails and lowered roof line and is just sleeker than the normal Atlas. Was hoping to grab a more low profile set, most likely in black to match the black trim on the R-Line CS. In pure gray the black accents will really look nice. The OEM bars are just bulkier imo


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## dead0narrivel (Aug 7, 2005)

mustardketchup said:


> I think it would be the same size as regular Atlas, if so i just ordered the Wingbar Evo 135 / 53, will do an install on my regular Atlas once they arrive and will share pics on the forum. Good luck!


Roof lines are different and the Cross Sport has the flush mount rails, not the low profile but still raised rails that the Atlas has. I am not sure if the cross sport is narrower on the roof between the rails, as I am still waiting on confirmation that mine was built.


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## BsickPassat (May 10, 2010)

dead0narrivel said:


> Nothing against anyone that likes them, but to me personally they sit up a bit high and look bulky. The cross sport has the flush rails and lowered roof line and is just sleeker than the normal Atlas. Was hoping to grab a more low profile set, most likely in black to match the black trim on the R-Line CS. In pure gray the black accents will really look nice. The OEM bars are just bulkier imo


Do you have the sunroof on your car?

If so, clearance with certain attachments, such as roof boxes may cause it to interfere with the operation of the sunroof.

Speaking of Q7, one of my friends as a Q7 has the Thule Aeroblade Edge 7601 (and available in black)


See this video, has important measurements to consider.
https://www.etrailer.com/Roof-Rack/Audi/Q7/2019/TH7603B-TH7604B.html


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## ice4life (Nov 6, 2017)

gthoffman said:


> The newer Wingbar Evos have two pieces of rubber, parallel along the long edges of the top of the t-bar opening and you just separate them from each other as you slide something in the t-slots. Hopefully that makes sense... but you don’t need to trim the rubber each time you slide something in the channels.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk





BsickPassat said:


> You might want to take a closer look at your wingbar evo's.
> 
> 
> 
> Start at 6:50



Wow that is really cool guys! Thanks for the info. In my defense, I never used any attachments on my evo setup, as I only had it briefly.


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## dead0narrivel (Aug 7, 2005)

BsickPassat said:


> Do you have the sunroof on your car?
> 
> If so, clearance with certain attachments, such as roof boxes may cause it to interfere with the operation of the sunroof.
> 
> Speaking of Q7, one of my friends as a Q7 has the Thule Aeroblade Edge 7601 (and available in black)


The vehicle will have a sunroof. The current mounts for my roof box are less than 1/2" below the rack. I highly doubt there will be any interference with them. That being said, if it is even that close, I just won't use the sunroof while the bin is on, sort of defeats the purpose of the sun roof to look up and see the underside of the roof box anyways.


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## mhjett (Oct 16, 2000)

dead0narrivel said:


> Nothing against anyone that likes them, but to me personally they sit up a bit high and look bulky. The cross sport has the flush rails and lowered roof line and is just sleeker than the normal Atlas. Was hoping to grab a more low profile set, most likely in black to match the black trim on the R-Line CS. In pure gray the black accents will really look nice. The OEM bars are just bulkier imo


No worries, just throwing the OEM idea out there as an option. I actually didn't realize the Cross Sport roof rails are different.

I first started looking into Thule for our Atlas but quickly had enough of their "system" nonsense and when I found the OEM bars for $218 (having great experience with OEM VW bars on prior cars), I pulled the trigger on the easy solution.


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## MK7GtiGuy (Feb 22, 2018)

*Cross sport cross bars*

I picked these up on Amazon, they look and fit great. They do whistle when nothing is on them but I don't normally just leave them on. But for the price they are better than expected!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RNP3C2Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


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## dead0narrivel (Aug 7, 2005)

MK7GtiGuy said:


> I picked these up on Amazon, they look and fit great. They do whistle when nothing is on them but I don't normally just leave them on. But for the price they are better than expected!
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RNP3C2Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Glad those work for you, but personally they would make me a bit nervous. We generally have the bulk of our stuff in the roof box as the 2 pups and the kiddo get just about all of the interior space. Not saying the quality isn't there, but I know exactly where it stands with Thule/Yakima/etc... It would make for an inexplicably difficult trip if the roof box decided to blow off with all of our belongings in it on the highway.


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## lschw1 (Apr 21, 2003)

I have been using Thule square bar racks since my 1983 GTI. It looks like the Atlas has roof rails so if it was me I would get a used set of Thule 450 feet off craigslist ($50-100) and either 50 inch or 58 square bars (if you want to be able to carry 8x4 plywood boards).


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## dead0narrivel (Aug 7, 2005)

lschw1 said:


> I have been using Thule square bar racks since my 1983 GTI. It looks like the Atlas has roof rails so if it was me I would get a used set of Thule 450 feet off craigslist ($50-100) and either 50 inch or 58 square bars (if you want to be able to carry 8x4 plywood boards).


The rails on the cross sport are not the same rails as the normal atlas. The cross sport has flushmount rails similar to the Q7 where the traditional atlas has slightly raised rails (similar to my older B7 Passat).

The point of this thread was that I wasn't sure if someone had purchased Thule rails, like ones for a Q7, since they don't currently have a Thule Cross Sport fitment guide.


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## gti_addict (Nov 22, 2000)

Interested in this also, just picked up my Cross sport and want to get another Thule. Even if you lookup which mounts fit a Q7 they require vehicle specific fit kit in addition to the mounts. 

Yes the VW bars are nice but not the same quality as the actual Thule are. I love my Thule Wingbar EVO because you don't need to trim the rubber slot cover, so changing between Snowboard rack and a basket doesn't require different trim or removing them all together.


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## tbwill (Apr 19, 1999)

If you look at the mounting instructions for the Q7 kit, it mounts through the top of the roof rail through removable access points. The closest clamp style mount seems to be the Porsche Cayenne. It looks like a similar cross section profile and lip. The Porsche Macan is similar but the cross section profile of the rail seems to drop off more steeply and the lip looks like it tilts up a bit. The Q8 uses a clamp style mount but the rail profile for it and the Q5 look different than the Cross Sport.


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## ice4life (Nov 6, 2017)

So I noticed the 2021 full size atlas has new cross bars that look just like the cross sport version, but have a different part number. 

When I had my 2018, the cross bars were definitely different. These new ones almost mount on top of the raised side rails, whereas I remember mine wrapped around them. 

The cross sport has the flush side rails so the bars mount slightly different. But, for the 2021 full size, the bars while different, do look identical to the cross sport version. 

The only way I could confirm was by checking the part numbers. 3CM071151 vs 3CN071151A.


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## Killerboots (Apr 5, 2020)

I’ve been checking the Thule site at least once a week for probably a year regarding roof racks on the Cross Sport.

Looks like the time has FINALLY arrived! 

There are two options available, components listed below:

Thule WingBar Evo 135
Thule Evo Flush Rail
Fit Kit 186113
$569.85


Thule SquareBar Evo 135
Thule Evo Flush Rail
Fit Kit 186113
$469.85






Buyer's Guide | Thule | United States







www.thule.com


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## gti_addict (Nov 22, 2000)

Killerboots said:


> I’ve been checking the Thule site at least once a week for probably a year regarding roof racks on the Cross Sport.
> 
> Looks like the time has FINALLY arrived!
> 
> ...



Nice. I gave up looking for a while since 1) we can't really go anywhere 2) back injury had me laid up for 2 months


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## camaroz1985 (Mar 2, 2020)

Are the rails from VW similar to the either of the rails listed on Thule, or different completely?


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## gti_addict (Nov 22, 2000)

camaroz1985 said:


> Are the rails from VW similar to the either of the rails listed on Thule, or different completely?


The rails are similar, the main difference that I've seen is:
1. VW is a bit taller
2. VW has a single piece of rubber on the rails that needs to be trimmed to fit accessories and the Thule has a split piece down the middle that doesn't need to be trimmed, making changing accessories simple. 


I haven't checked the shape of the VW rail itself but the Thule WingBar EVO is aerodynamic to cut down wind noise.
VW rails is made by Thule so it's a quality product and is cheaper in the end, so it's a matter of personal choice.


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## Tim K (Jan 31, 2001)

gti_addict said:


> VW rails is made by Thule so it's a quality product and is cheaper in the end, so it's a matter of personal choice.


I do not believe this is true for the earlier models. People used to claim it about the OEM bars VW sold for the 2018 and 2019 but they only LOOKED like Thule, they were not manufactured by Thule. Unless you order the new ones that say Thule, I doubt they are made by Thule.
THULE Bars: 2021 Volkswagen Atlas Thule® Base Carrier Bars - 3CN071151B - Genuine Volkswagen Accessory
NOT THULE Bars: 2021 Volkswagen Atlas Base Carrier Bars - 3CN071151A - Genuine Volkswagen Accessory

I don't think the Crossport bars are Thule either.... 2021 Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport Base Carrier Bars - 3CM071151 - Genuine Volkswagen Accessory

See below from this thread Roof rack questions -- size, manufacturer?

==============================================================

According to Thule (see email below) they do not manufacture the cross bars. This came out when I ordered extra keys for the VW cross bars and ski rack I purchased from my dealer.
I was able to order extra keys from Thule for the ski rack but not the cross bars. I went to a local locksmith who was able to make the keys for me.
Therefore I believe Thule makes the Ski Rack but not the Cross Bars.
*___*
From: Tyler Kennedy (Thule Support) [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, March 16, 2018 5:35 AM
To: Chris4789Subject: Re: Ticket (#202471926):
Re my order #31249243; I am very frustrated as the backordered keys arrived and they are the wrong ones. The #009 keys I received are a cylinder t...

Tyler Kennedy (Thule)
Mar 16, 13:35 CET
We did not manufacture these bars which is why none of our keys will work in this system
Best Wishes,Tyler KennedyThule Customer Service.

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