pnewport

I hope I'm doing this correctly, the reply I mean. The Edge is what has the roof load limit of 100#, not the rack. I talked to both Thule and Yakima direct. After almost trading my Edge several times, and always finding a different problem or something less than desirable about the other car, I came up with something Thule says will work just fine. It's a bit of a pain but should make loading easy and make it almost impossible (Murphy's Law?) to damage the vista roof. We are putting a trailer hitch (2") receiver on the back of the Edge, with a Thule T-post in it which will go up to the needed height to support the back of my kayaks. There will still be two cross bars on the car. We are using the 480 towers. The T-post will have carriers on it as well, and will guide the kayaks onto the middle and front carriers. If we position the kayaks correctly, this should take up to 1/3 of the weight off the roof. We, obviously, will not be able to open the back of the Edge but since we likely will only be using this when towing the Edge behind our RV, I am willing to put up with the inconvenience. Thule gave me all of the part numbers if anyone needs them. I'm going to have all of this installed, the first time, by a Thule dealer and we're going to put the kayaks up there and figure out how to secure the bow and stern lines before we leave in case they have to add something for us. I told Ford that I can't understand how a car can have a good rollover safety rating and can't carry more than 100# (110# actually). on the roof. They didn't have an answer. According to a local EMT, all cars have to be able to support the weight of the car by the roof--but only with the windows up! Good luck.

I hope I'm posting properly and appropriately. Have 2008 Edge with vista moonroof. I have read most, if not all, of the posts on this subject but I have yet to find where anyone has put kayaks on top of any of the rack applications. I see where most of the tower applications have a 100 pound weight limit but Thule has the 400xt Aero Foot Package, fit kit 2191, LB58 58" load bars, 544-4pk lock cores, with a (recommended?) bar spread of 29". They list a maximum weight of 165 pounds. It states that you can choose longer load bars. I also saw where Rackn-something in California installed what looks like rails bolted to the roof of an Edge over the door support area but it as apparently just a few days ago and appears to be posted by the vendor? I apologize, in advance, if I am wrong about this. My husband and I are seniors and will eventually need assistance getting these 12' kayaks (2) on top of the Edge so the Thule Hullavator and another system by another mfg. that uses a ratcheting system seem like what we need. I see where someone installed a Hullavator on a week-old Edge, on the factory rails, and it was not satisfactory. Has anyone done, or have first-hand knowledge of, carrying 130 pounds of kayaks on an Edge with the vista roof? We would only need to do this when towing the car behind our RV as we have a truck and can use that for local stuff if necessary. I am on the verge of getting rid of my beautiful Edge if I can't work something out. I don't want to damage the car or my kayaks. Thank you for all the great postings and pictures about what many of you have done. It has answered a lot of my questions, it's just that most of you seem to be carrying bikes or boxes and nothing as heavy as what I'm talking about. I don't care if the moonroof opens. Also, I'm wondering about something I could put over the glass to protect it or if I might just make damage more probable. Just trying to cover all the bases before 1) buying the 12' kayaks and 2) trading cars. Thank you in advance for any additional information you can give me or that I might have missed.

The Thule tower system says, somewhere, that the load limit is 165 pounds, whereas the Yakima is 100 pounds. Also, it was said on this forum that the Edge's limit is 100 pounds, I guess per the limit for the Ford racks on Edges without the vista roof. I had to join this forum and then find all this again so I'm going from memory here, a little. I'm wondering if the 100# is Ford's limit or Yakama's limit? I love my 2008 Edge but I want to be able to put two 70 pound kayaks on top. I spent all day yesterday driving the only other car I want, which is a Subaru, but to tow behind my little motor home the Subaru has to be manual transmission whereas the Edge can be towed with the automatic. Has anyone put a system on the Edge, with Vista roof, and carried that much weight on top per Thule? I can use a kayak trailer except when we're on trips and using the motor home but I also don't want to ruin the car or lose the kayaks! I am really procrastinating here because I don't want to sell my Edge! Thanks for any updates.