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Notice: This as far as I know will only work if you have a ski carrier that you are going to use with your fairing and OEM rack! :wrench:
I'm sure you all know the horror it is to try and put a Thule fairing on our better priced (and VW emblem'd!) OEM racks. Without drilling, there's not much you can do. I've seen people just use the clips the fairing comes with and stretch them around the bar, but that didn't seem sturdy enough for me. Also, since I park at a big college every day, I can see the fairing getting ripped off if all they have to do is push the clips off.
But.. ironically enough, that second method is what led me to my discovery. I had the rack on the car, and had the clips wrapped around the bar, planning on just leaving it like that. However, due to my ski carrier, three of the clips did not sit like the fourth (that doesn't touch the carrier), and therefore the fairing was askew on one side. This could not go unfixed
!
So I loosened up the nuts on my ski carrier, in an effort to push the clips (there is a lip that pops into the T channel on top of the clip) up and into that channel, and sandwich them down between the OEM rack and the ski carrier. Something clicked, and all of a sudden the fairing clips sat perfect under the ski carrier. I tightened it back up, adjusted the fairing so it sat right, and stood back to admire my work. It worked! The fairing clips are in there very snug, no room to play at all. Its... perfect. The only odd thing is that the back side of the clip doesn't actually touch the bar. It just.. chills there.
So there you have it! There is a way to make the fairing work without drilling, you just need to use a ski carrier! Pics will be coming, I'm just way too cold to go back outside right now
I'm sure you all know the horror it is to try and put a Thule fairing on our better priced (and VW emblem'd!) OEM racks. Without drilling, there's not much you can do. I've seen people just use the clips the fairing comes with and stretch them around the bar, but that didn't seem sturdy enough for me. Also, since I park at a big college every day, I can see the fairing getting ripped off if all they have to do is push the clips off.
But.. ironically enough, that second method is what led me to my discovery. I had the rack on the car, and had the clips wrapped around the bar, planning on just leaving it like that. However, due to my ski carrier, three of the clips did not sit like the fourth (that doesn't touch the carrier), and therefore the fairing was askew on one side. This could not go unfixed
!So I loosened up the nuts on my ski carrier, in an effort to push the clips (there is a lip that pops into the T channel on top of the clip) up and into that channel, and sandwich them down between the OEM rack and the ski carrier. Something clicked, and all of a sudden the fairing clips sat perfect under the ski carrier. I tightened it back up, adjusted the fairing so it sat right, and stood back to admire my work. It worked! The fairing clips are in there very snug, no room to play at all. Its... perfect
. The only odd thing is that the back side of the clip doesn't actually touch the bar. It just.. chills there.So there you have it! There is a way to make the fairing work without drilling, you just need to use a ski carrier! Pics will be coming, I'm just way too cold to go back outside right now
