Custom roof racks Toyota Estima

This was an interesting job. The customer hires out vans for travellers kitted out with a roof top tent. The Estima is a grey import so there are no roof racks readily available in Australia that will go into the roofrack mounting points that are on the vehicle. Even if they were this would not give sufficient strength to support the weight of two people sleeping in the roof top tent. Additionally the vehicle has a big 'moon roof' in the centre of the roof.

The solution we came up with was to use 30mm sections of heavy duty Rhino track attached with rivets to spread the load at the strongest points of the roof. This was then fitted with Rhino heavy duty track mount legs and cross bars.

Tow Bar Fitting in Sydney - Subaru Forester

Subaru Forester tow bar fitting, 1997 to 2008

(For details of the new 2008 Forester please see below)

This is one of our most popular fittings. A tow bar for Subaru Forester. The one fitted today is a quick release hitch style although a cheaper slightly lighter duty is also available with a bolt on goose neck. I will give a step by step guide as this is a bar well within the capabilities of the DIY fitter. Just one note of warning, if you have access to a rattle gun for undoing bolts don't use it on the bolts going into the chassis rails. These are often over torqued at the factory and you will find them difficult to refit if you rattle them off. If you remove them gently and slowly by hand with a socket you'll be fine.

1. Remove and discard the bumper support in the centre of the bumper (pic).
2. Drop the muffler from the 3 rear most rubber mounts.
   
3. Remove the shipping hook and muffler mount from passenger side (pic). Remove the rubber mount from its bracket.
   
4. Remove 3 nuts securing the charcoal box where fitted and let it hang (pic).
5. Remove shipping hook (discard) and charcoal support from drivers side.
6. Lift tow bar into position and fit with 3 bolts on passenger side and the 2 rear most bolts on drivers side.
7. On the forward most hole on drivers side use the long bolt and spacer tube supplied to refit the charcoal box bracket. Then refit the charcoal box.
   
8. Bolt the the rubber muffler mount from step 3 to the tow bar arm in the hole provided for it and refit the muffler (pic).
   
9. Fit the tongue on standard tow bar or hitch on quick release and your bar is pretty much done.

The wiring is a doddle as Subaru have kindly included a socket which can be found tucked in the rear corner of the boot (pic). You can get a loom that plugs into here for about $50 but you will find most fitters will just use a universal loom and make their connections here where everything is provided in one place.

See our towbar finder for the current fitted prices

Please call the store on (02) 9817 1475 to confirm prices and schedule an install

Subaru Forester towbar 2008 onwards

The towbar for the new Subaru Forester is a little bit more involved because it requires the removal of the bumper and a notch cutting in it to accomodate the hitch box. You are left with nice neat unit with towbar frame hidden up behind the bumper.

The bar shown is a Hayman Reese unit which has a rating of 1400kg. . The fitting time is about 2.5hrs.

See our tow bar finder for current fitted prices

Please call the store on (02) 9817 1475 to confirm current pricing and schedule a install.

09 Hilux Custom roof rack

Special rack for a new Toyota Hilux. The vehicle came fitted with a front sports bar only slightly higher than the roof line and a rear sports bar much higher. So the solution for this one was a Rhino Sportz bar fixed to the roof and the second bar attached with spacer blocks to the front sports bar. The rear sports bar was cut down to make the height across all 3 level. Alternatively we could have attached a another bar to the rear sports bar which would not have done much in terms of function but would add symmetry to the set up. Cost for this set up including install was about $400.

Cars are getting bigger to save the environment

At the lights tonight I pulled up alongside a Toyota Yaris sedan. I haven't really paid any attention to these cars before but it struck me how big it was. Now the Yaris was a replacement for the ity bitty Echo and I was looking at this car that was easily the size of what I would associate a Corolla. But hang on Corollas have now grown to the size of Camrys and Camrys are now competing pretty much head on with Commodores and Falcons. Then you get the softroader/off roader categories. The Rav4 traditionally for girlies and hairdressers is now the size of a Kluger, Kluger: Prado, Prado well that hasn't been changed for a while so it hasn't grown yet and 100series would have to borrow some of the adjacent lane if it were to grow any more. So what is happening? This isn't just a Toyota thing, look at the latest Rover Freelander, again traditionally also a contender for the hairdressers' dollars is now huge. The ubiquitous Forester has also been hit with the big stick and there are many more as well.

Here's my theory.... now the car manufactures have looked at the market over the last few years and the over-riding criteria has been how to be environmentally friendly (ie drive a smaller car) without compromising on the driving experience. This may have changed post financial collapse, but would have been true 3-4 years ago when the cars we would be buying now, if we could get finance, were being developed. So Fred the Camry driver walks into the dealership and can 'down size' to a Corolla thereby doing his bit for the environment and doesn't have to compromise because 'hey, this car feels just as big as my old Camry'. And while a big 4X4 Prado is now getting to be socially unacceptable even in Mosman a softroad Kluger is just fine. Afterall it is a massive 25mm shorter than the Prado even if it is 6cm wider.

Wire mesh baskets

Todays feature product is wire mesh baskets. These come in a range of sizes including half sizes that can be used alongside another load like a bike or kayak for example. Specs. Today we fitted a small Thule basket to a Corolla wagon. Thule and Rhino baskets are pretty comparable in terms of quality and price. Rhino have the greatest range of sizes although Thule have the 3 most popular sizes of small, medium and large but not half baskets. Rola are now sourcing their baskets from China. The quality has dropped but the prices haven't so we are now favouring Thule and Rhino for this product. We usually use a Rhino u-bolt kit for simplicity on all baskets. The mesh basket is a very popular unit for pure functionality. it does not have the style of an alloy basket but it is a cost effect way of getting a strong platform on your roof . Also Rhino now have a platform basket which has no sides to it.
The roof racks shown in the picture that we used for mounting the basket to the Corolla are Rhino 2500 series multi fit racks $289 (May09). This a 2 part kit with legs and cross bars that fit a wide range of vehicles and an additional bracket kit that is vehicle specific to fit a range of vehicles. You can aslo get the budget option which is just as strong but comes with square cross bars for $239 (May09).

Quick release tow hitch VW Jetta

Biggish job today. Hayman Reese quick release mini-hitch. This has a 40mm square reciever on the vehicle with a removable tow ball mount and a rating 1400kg max trailer. The tow bar is made in sections with separate side arms being inserted into the chassis rails. The cross member spanning the rear panel of the vehicle bolts on to the side arms. The Jetta has a multiplex wiring system which means the tail lights and brake lights share the same wires. VW sell a special loom for this vehicle which like the Golf is sold for big dollars and requires re-coding of the ECU. We use an electronic control model made by Lumen in Australia which allows you to operate the trailer lights while protecting the vehicle electronics from any faults caused by dodgy trailer wiring.

Total fitting time is 3 to 4 hours because of the wiring and you have to make a window thro the bumper skin for the hitch to pass thro. This involves measuring, remeasuring, procrastinating for a bit, remeasuring then cutting.
See our tow bar selector for current fitted price

Tow bar Mazda 3

With the Mazda 3 being the one the best selling cars in Australia we get to fit lots of towbars to them. Mostly this is so that the owners can attach a bike carrier. There are several Hayman Reese towbars applicable to the various body styles and model years of Mazda 3. However, externally they all look very similar as the majority of the hardware is hidden up behind the bumper. Tow bars for Mazda 3s are what is known as a tongue style or standard towbar. This means that the ball is attached by an 'S' shaped lug to the rest of the towbar. The lug can be removed when not in use by undoing two bolts. This may be necessary on the some models because due to the position of the number plate there is a risk of falling foul of traffic laws by obscuring the vehicles rego.

Using a spanner to remove the towbar lug

See our tow bar finder for current pricing.  You will need to know the month/year of manufacture of your vehicle which will be shown on the VIN plate. There are different bars for hatch, sedan and SP models. If you are in Sydney and want a professional install please give us a call to schedule a fitting.We will need your car for a couple of hours.
Steve Shop1auto

Mont Blanc - Scott, bike carrier

Today we had a look at the Mont Blanc Scott which is a new product to Australia. Scott my fitter attached the unit (his name sake) to a square profile roof rack. He tells me it went on easy and looked like a good unit. The older Mont Blanc bike carrier we had was a budget unit at $150 and to be fair it had the look and feel of a budget unit. The new Scott has the look and feel of a quality bike carrier but we are able to offer it at least to start with for $150. It is key locking and I think it is going to be successful. I don't think it is up there with the Rhino Barracuda or the Thule ProRide which are both exceptional bike holders but it is around $70 cheaper so offers excellent value. The Scott (the bike carrier not my fitter) will go onto any euro/square profile cross bars or any aero bars with a T-slot in the top face (except for Rola sports where the T-slot is too small). This includes Rhino Rack, Thule, Prorack Whisper and Rola APX racks.

Hyundai iload roof racks

Today Scott fitted a 3 bar, heavy duty Rhino track mount roof rack to a new Hyundai iload. The guys at Rhino have done a really good job with this one. The tracks are purpose made for the vehicle so they fit flush into the channels on the roof and look really neat. Rhino list their standard track mount leg for this vehicle but we have found the pigmy leg works just fine saving a crucial few centimetres on vehicle height. The Rhino track system is a fairly expensive way of fitting racks to the vehicle. We charged about $875 including a couple of hours for assembling all the bits and installing to the roof. It is however by far the best method allowing the cross bars to be positoned along the track and giving a whopping 125kg load rating spread over 3 cross bars. It can also be supplied with the same track and leg but using an aerodynamic cross bar which looks a bit more sporty (good option on the imax) and saves another centimetre which could make the difference on an underground carpark.

I like what Hyundai have done with the iload. It looks stylish and is not a slab of a vehicle like the HiAce. They seem well put together and being a Hyundai offer excellent bang for your bucks. I have been thinking about getting a van and I will certainly look at these.

Steve

Welcome

Welcome to the Shop1auto blog. We will be using this blog to give some insight into the world of auto accessories. Not really sure how its going to go so we thought we would just dive on in and get blogging. So I guess this first one is just to get some words on the page so we can have a looksee at what we are dealing with. Hopefully our blog will grow into something that provides a useful but informal resource for people who are looking for solutions to get more use out of their cars, utes etc. with tow bars, roof racks, bike carriers and the like.

Steve