# Which Thule or Yakima bike trays will fit an Audi TT OEM Roof Rack?



## andylyco (Apr 21, 2003)

*Updated pictures and a cool bracket below!!*
We picked up an OEM rack on ebay, and I'd like to figure out which aftermarket trays will work with the OEM cross bars. I tried the Thule web site, but they don't list which bike trays are compatible with an OEM rack.
I'm thinking a fork mount with tray for the rear wheel will work the best with the short roof on a TT, and I'd also like to rig up a way to mount the bike backwards so we can get our hatch open.
Thanks for any info!
Some other Vortex threads with TT roof rack information:
Differences btw Thule and OEM rack
Pics & more info on Thule 757 rack on a TT
Yakima _roof_ rack mounted on the hatch!!

http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif 




_Modified by andylyco at 4:24 PM 5-25-2007_


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## termite (Dec 14, 2001)

*Re: Which Thule or Yakima bike trays will fit an Audi TT OEM Roof Rack? (andylyco)*

all of the thule trays will work w/ the oem rack. you need to buy thule's 'xadapt1' to use the trays though. if you simply mount them backwards, the trays, such as the velovise, will allow you to use the hatch...
http://www.thuleracks.com/thul...dapt1


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## exboy99 (May 14, 2002)

*Re: Which Thule or Yakima bike trays will fit an Audi TT OEM Roof Rack? (andylyco)*

if I'm not mistaken the OEM audi racks are Votex racks
and have a channel in the top of em.... the crap that fits
has likea square bolt head fitting that slides into the channel
at the end... the end of the rack closes the channel.
so one it's in the channel you lock it down with either a 
Bolt or a bolt/lever type thingy.
I have two bike trays that I am sure will fit the TT if I can
get OEM racks.... some just went on ebay for 450... was that you?








I was pissed when those racks got away from me.
anyways. the other thing to worry about is rear window clearance.
I think the rear of the bike tray will strike the glass, so be careful
when you open the rear to get your gear out.
you want pics of the gear I have so you can see how
these Thule products are made to fit? I can provide that.
my racks/trays are in the GEAR CLOSET.
in my GTI I didnt' have the rear window glass problem with
bikes, but surfboards did hit the hatch and that sucked pretty bad
once.... and I never made that mistake again.


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## andylyco (Apr 21, 2003)

*Re: Which Thule or Yakima bike trays will fit an Audi TT OEM Roof Rack? (exboy99)*

Thanks for the tips, fellas! The rack should arrive this week sometime. I'll take some close-up pictures and post them for our future reference. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif


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## andylyco (Apr 21, 2003)

*Re: Which Thule or Yakima bike trays will fit an Audi TT OEM Roof Rack? (andylyco)*

Ok here are some close-ups of the OEM TT roof rack, for our future reference. We're still looking for a set of used bike trays that will fit; I'll post again when we get them all installed. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif 
*From the end:*








*Mounting bolt, and cut-out for the little hinged cover:*








*Pretty close to the roof antenna- probably no trays mounted in the middle:*








*Antenna just higher than the rack:*








*Installed and tightened down:*








There is a decent amount of wind noise at speed, but that came as no surprise. Also, after driving around for a few days, when I removed the rack the bolts felt loose. I will probably put a drop of loc-tite on the mounting bolt threads before we strap on the bikes. Finally, I used the painters tape so I could get a stencil of the rack footprint. I'm going to cut some clear Lamin-X or 3m vinyl laminate to stick to the roof to prevent any clear-coat damage from the normal vibrations and debris that will inevitably get under the feet.










_Modified by andylyco at 6:12 PM 3-23-2007_


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## ShockwaveCS (Jun 22, 2006)

*Re: Which Thule or Yakima bike trays will fit an Audi TT OEM Roof Rack? (andylyco)*

damn giood idea


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## andylyco (Apr 21, 2003)

*Re: Which Thule or Yakima bike trays will fit an Audi TT OEM Roof Rack? (ShockwaveCS)*

Update! WE purchased 1 brand new Thule bike tray, but I'm not sure it's going to work very well. Last night we found a pair of used Yakima bike trays and a set of snowboard holders on Craigslist, so we picked them up. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif 
I'm going to have to fabricate some clips to hold the Yakima trays to the oval shaped OEM rack. I'll take some pics over the next week or so and post 'em here!
Tim C. sent me some good shots of a great idea so I/he can open our hatches with bikes on the car:
_"As you can see the bracket I developed pulls the rack forward and out of the path of the hatch. It has the added benefit of being pretty quiet as well. Probably because the wind pressure build up is in front of you and not directly over your head. Plus they look sick on the car. Let me know what you think ... I’ll have to measure the specs, but it’s pretty straight forward._
I don't remember seeing any pictures of this homemade bracket before! Fantastic job Tim!































http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif 


_Modified by andylyco at 5:41 PM 5-18-2007_


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## exboy99 (May 14, 2002)

*Re: Which Thule or Yakima bike trays will fit an Audi TT OEM Roof Rack? (andylyco)*

andy
I'll take pics of my bike trays
and my snowboard rack to show
you how you can mount that stuff up.
I got a BIG bag of hardware when i bought
my racks for my MKIII and the votex stuff
is all the same.... stand by for photos
by saturday.
pm me and let me know how much you got
bled for the racks... i saw good sets of OEM racks
go for like 500 bux! 
I'm still looking... and will probably have to pay 5 bills


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## exboy99 (May 14, 2002)

*Re: Which Thule or Yakima bike trays will fit an Audi TT OEM Roof Rack? (exboy99)*

ok.... here's some pics to help you see what I got
and how my stuff attaches to VOTEX racks.... the Audi / VW racks
first a bonus pic








































































basically the bike trays have a groove like the top of the roof rack bars
in that slot you can slide/adjust the attachement plate.... that plate
gets attached to the roof bar using the square head bolts.... 
I realize now I shoulda snapped a pic of the bottom of the bike tray
so you can see that side.
hope the pics help
cheers


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## andylyco (Apr 21, 2003)

*Re: Which Thule or Yakima bike trays will fit an Audi TT OEM Roof Rack? (exboy99)*


_Quote, originally posted by *exboy99* »_basically the bike trays have a groove like the top of the roof rack bars - in that slot you can slide/adjust the attachement plate.... that plate gets attached to the roof bar using the square head bolts.... hope the pics help cheers

Those pics are great- thanks a lot for contributing to this thread! With hindsight, I should have sourced those square bolts for this rack. However, we found a factory Subaru Yakima rack on craigslist for CHEAP, and with the "mighty mini mounts" adapter kit that Yakima sells, we should be able to attach our bikes to any rack on any car.
*Here is a pic of the adapters:*








*With the bike trays slid forward as far as possible, the hatch opens completely with room to spare!*








*2 mountain bikes attached:*








*From the front - plenty of room for 2 bikes:*








*In the daytime:*








*Happy Wife, Happy Life!*








Briar just got to work, and she said it sounded like there was LESS noise with the bike racks attached than with just the cross bars. Is this possible? We're going mtn biking (where the pros train- Bootleg Canyon, Boulder City, NV!!!) tomorrow, so I'll post my thoughts on the wind noise, etc, after the weekend. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif 
_Edit- here is what we paid:
OEM rack on Ebay: $364 shipped
2 bike racks and a ski/snowboard rack on Craigslist: $100
Yakima adapters at Sports Chalet in Vegas: $40 w/ tax
Total: $504!!! Not too bad! _










_Modified by andylyco at 4:26 PM 5-25-2007_


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## timmyc (May 1, 2003)

*Re: Which Thule or Yakima bike trays will fit an Audi TT OEM Roof Rack? (andylyco)*

Be super careful with those square adapter bolts. I'm telling ya'. I was running those adapter bolts on my bug and after about 12-18mos they put stress cracks on the bar. Finally one day they broke. I got out of my car and to my surprise my bike was sitting at a nice 45 degree angle. Sweet. I ended up drilling a hole through the rack and using a longer bolt and fat washer and then bolted the whole thing back together. The problem was the square part of the head is not wide enough and the aluminum bar is too thin to support that kinda load. The fact that you are running the entire bike on the car instead of bolting the fork in will for sure put even more stress on the bar than I had. This problem by the way is fairly common. I personally know at least four including my self that eventually failed. My friend Vasilli got to watch his $5000 Santa Cruz bounce down the freeway and almost cause a multi car pile up. This is why I designed those plates. They have four points of lock down instead of just two. (front and back). Good luck.


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## timmyc (May 1, 2003)

*Re: Which Thule or Yakima bike trays will fit an Audi TT OEM Roof Rack? (timmyc)*

By the way those "Subey" clamps are nice.


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## andylyco (Apr 21, 2003)

*Re: Which Thule or Yakima bike trays will fit an Audi TT OEM Roof Rack? (timmyc)*

That is a great point, Tim- I was thinking about how much lateral pressure must be put on those square head bolts when you go around turns with a bike on the roof. Our bikes are relatively light, but two 40 lb freeride mtn bikes would probably tear the square bolts right out of the top of the cross bar! 
Has anyone heard of any issues with the clamps I am running? (see pics above) I would imagine that they stand much less of a chance of damaging the cross bars or falling off at speed.

_Quote, originally posted by *timmyc* »_By the way those "Subey" clamps are nice. 

Craigslist!!! I'm going to put some stickers over them...







Don't hate me cuz' I'm frugal!


_Modified by andylyco at 4:32 PM 5-25-2007_


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## timmyc (May 1, 2003)

*Re: Which Thule or Yakima bike trays will fit an Audi TT OEM Roof Rack? (andylyco)*

My Santa Superlight only weighs 24 pds. And that caused a failure. Those Subey clamps aren't going to cause any problems because they use alot of surface area and the whole bar as a structural interface. Might even be stronger than my set up.


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## octalon7 (Feb 17, 2006)

The other option that gives you use of your hatch is the birdautomotive rack. I have one, I like it.


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## exboy99 (May 14, 2002)

*Re: (octalon7)*

the bikes on the roof look great
I'll have to keep a good eye
on that failure point that was reported....
I know that when I have my bike on the roof
of the GTI and have it locked down
I can grab the bike and kinda wiggle it
but I really have to pull.... it's that racking
that is what could cause the failure in
the aluminum channel I guess.... never
thought it'd break but i'll watch out for that.
Andy did you trim the bike trays?


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## andylyco (Apr 21, 2003)

*Re: (exboy99)*


_Quote, originally posted by *exboy99* »_the bikes on the roof look great... Andy did you trim the bike trays? 

Thanks! Briar & I love the look of a bike rack on the TT- it makes it look that much more athletic. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif 
We didn't trim anything- the Yakima rack fit perfectly. The front mounting point on the bike tray is adjustable, so we slid the tray as far forward as it would go. The distance between the TT cross bars is fairly short, only 23 inches, (58.5 cm) so I drilled a new hole towards the back of the bike tray for the rear mounting bolt. I also used a washer to spread the load over more area of the bottom of the bike tray. It is quite sturdy- we cruised at 65 mph with no rattling or vibrating, and even accelerated to about 75-80 to pass once. Having said that, I wouldn't drive that fast all the time with the rack on the car. (and we drive _much_ faster with no rack at all







)
*Here are 2 shots of Bootleg Canyon, just outside Las Vegas in Boulder City. We camped there last night, and were up and on the trails shortly after 7am!!*








*Heading home with 1 flat tire and Briar with a bruised knee:*


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## andylyco (Apr 21, 2003)

*Re: (andylyco)*

Anyone know the torque specs for the bolts to the roof? From what I read, the factory tool used to tighten the bolts shows you how much to tighten them, but I don't have that tool. I'll just use a torque wrench. TIA! http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif


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## johnnyR32 (Aug 31, 2004)

*Re: (andylyco)*

TTs look good with a rack


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