Who has the best ski rack setup. Factory system seems nice but not that excited with the look; kind of tall. Anybody have pic of other systems installed. Only interested in ski carriers-4 pair.
Thanks for the help. Happy Holidays

 

I wanted an OEM look and found a Mont Blanc setup but wasn't sure of how components would fit. Do a google for mont blanc roof racks and you'll find them somewhere. They look identical to Audi. With Thule you know that parts will always be available and new items can be added easily. I orderd my thule at car racks direct which is at www.outdoorsports.com . I found them the most reasonable with free shipping and no sales tax. If you go to Thule.com you can reach them by a link there. With ski racks I think they are size rated with the skis stacked bottom to bottom, so you may want to go bigger if you anticipate putting a pair side by side. I'm probably not telling you anything you don't already know.

Good Luck, Bob

 

I'm in the market for the cross bars & roof box. I like the look of the rola cross bars (factory flush & Thule compatable) but I have had no luck locating a North American dealer. All of the related searches turned up disconnected numbers. If I have any luck w/the AU contact #s' I'll pass on the info.

 

I copied and pasted my post from an earlier thread.

The Audi OEM rack is an overpriced Thule rack that you can buy from other sources.

If you go to the Thule Europe web site, http://www.thule.com/, you will find the rack I am referring to--in fact, it's the rack on the main page of their website. You will also find it on my '03 AR. I got it in Wilton, CT.

You want the 755 footpack and the 861 Aero bars. I've got them, along with a fairing, and the 726 ski attachment, and the thing looks like the 'OEM' rack, and it was over $150 cheaper. It also mounts in under 5 minutes.

Order your rack here: http://www.outdoorsports.com/osc/crd/default.asp If you can't find it on their site, call them and they will help you. Excellent service!

The new Thule Aero bars are part of their new pickup truck line, the XSporter, and the attachments for the pickup racks will be available in December (that's what the brochure said last month) and will fit the Aero bars! Find out about them on the Thule USA site at http://www.thuleracks.com/thule/default.asp.

I did a lot of research on the racks. The other option I considered were the Aero-like bars from Saris. Those are also good racks, but their attachments are not made with the same quality as the Thule parts. The Saris ski racks do fold backwards, which is a neat feature--if you have them on the rack, but don't have skis in them, you can roll them back to cut down a bit on the wind noise/resistance.<ul><li><a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/allroad/msgs/64282.phtml">https://forums.audiworld.com/allroad/msgs/64282.phtml</a</li></ul>