Thule WingBar Edge Roof Rack System

Review by Paul Gallaher

Recently, we purchased a new vehicle and decided with dogs, bikes and skis, we needed to increase our options for carrying gear. Putting the dogs on the roof was not an option, but we decided luggage and skis would do nicely in a rooftop box. Thule was gracious enough to let us test one, but first, we needed to add a roof rack system to attach the box to the car. Thule has several options, and we settled upon the Thule WingBar Edge Roof Rack system for a 2024 Subaru Outback Wilderness Edition.

Design

First, this roof rack system is built to:

• Supportively carry many attached items including bike racks, kayak racks, canoe racks, cargo boxes, roof baskets and fishing rod carriers.
• Fit specific vehicles. There are two parts of this rack system; the custom-length roof bars (2) and the the Raised Rail foot (comes in a 4-pack)
• Be quieter at highway speeds
• Strongly carry up to 165 lb loads
• Quickly be installed by the consumer

Installation

This system arrived in two boxes. One for the crossbars, and another for the Raised Rail Feet

There is also a rubber grip strip that installs in two parts on the roof bars. These are there to help secure certain accessories to the bars. For me, this was the one difficult part of installation as I was uncertain if I should slide these strips on from the end of the bar or just try to push them on and fit them with my fingertips. After searching YouTube for some installation instructions, I decided it was much easier to do the latter instead of trying to slide them from the end. After about 30 minutes, I had them mounted on the crossbars.

The rest of the installation was pretty straightforward, although it took a lot of twisting of the wrist with the included tool to install the feet. One thing to note, there are both front and rear feet. Refer to the installation guide before you rush into installing them on your vehicle.

Performance

This roof rack system is indeed versatile. For now however, we really only wanted to install it on the car to carry a Thule Motion 3 XL Low roof box to carry skis and duffel bags of clothing and gear (and to give our dogs more room inside the car). We quickly discovered this system does this job very well as the roof box mounts securely to this roof rack system. The Thule Motion 3 XL Low roof box review will be posted in a separate review.

A key reason for us acquiring this WingBar Edge system was that our garage door entrance is low compared to some other garages and this system is known to have a low profile. We were concerned that our car would not fit into the garage with the cargo box on it. We measured everything out ahead of time, and to our delight, it fits! This is important for us as we live in snow country and want to be able to garage our car during snowstorms. Much easier than digging a vehicle out after two feet of snow have drifted into our driveway. Fortunately, the sleek, low clearance of this system keeps the rack and box close to the roof of the car and within the opening of the garage door.

Due to the custom fit of this system, it has a very streamlined crossbars that “blend” into the feet when they are mounted. This system looks professional and great on the car.

Even though the system is “low-profile”, the factory power moonroof is able to fully retract or tilt up with the rack system and cargo box mounted to the car.

Since this system is designed for aerodynamics, we hear very little wind noise at highway speeds with just the rack system on the car.

Final thoughts: The WingBar Edge system works great for us. It securely carries our roof box and looks great doing it! This system currently retails for around $610 in the United States.

Paul Gallaher

Paul grew up in Minnesota where he learned to love the outdoors, riding his bike, fishing and canoeing in the summers and skiing in the winters on Minnesota’s 300 foot-tall “mountains”.

After finishing college, he was commissioned as an officer in the USAF eventually becoming a special operations and reconnaissance instructor navigator flying and serving around the world for twenty-two years.

Living and traveling around the world has given Paul opportunities to explore outdoor passions. He is an advanced scuba diver, a pilot, a sailor and has skied in the United States, Canada, France, Italy, Austria and Switzerland.