Thule Rack Review for Hummer H3

It took me a while to find the right roof-top gear to install on my 2006 Hummer H3.  I began searching the Internet only to find very little on racks for a Hummer H3 other than the OEM bars.  Those where not what I wanted, I needed something more substantial so that I could eventually place a safari basket atop the rack.  

When I was younger my Dad had a Thule bike rack installed on our 1985 Audi 5000S Turbo.  (Now that was a sweet car.)  From that point on I'd always leaned towards the Thule Rack System.  I know there are a few vendors out there that do the same job, most notably Yakima, however, I went ahead and decided on the Thule Roof-top Rack System.  My only reservation was that fact that I couldn’t find any pictures of the rack on a H3.  I wasn’t sure if it was going to stick out too high and look stupid or if it would add to the character of the truck.

Here is the set-up for the rack:

• 430 Tracker II Foot Pack

• LB58 Load Bars 

• TK12 Tracker Kit 

I ordered the set online from Amazon.  They had the best price and shipping was free.  I ordered it in pieces and installed it in pieces.

The first to come were the 430 Tracker II Foot Pack.  These are just the base units that attach to the existing tracks on the H3.  These are basically a permanent install.  Permanent in the sense that you don’t’ have to take these off if you want to take off the rack.  They will just look like nubs on the rails of you roof by themselves.   I installed them on the existing rail and tightened down the flat, square nut with the provided Allen wrench in the position I wanted the crossbars to be parallel to each other.

The “Towers” and Load Bars where next on the list.  I ordered 58” Load Bars (LB58) and “Towers” (TK12 Tracker Kit).  I slid the load bar into the square hole on one of the towers. I did that three more times since there are 4 tower and 2 load bars.  I did not tighten the clamp for the load bar so that I could adjust it when it was on the roof.  I placed the load bar with two towers up on the roof into the preinstalled Foot Pack.  They snapped in and then I made sure the load bars were centered on the roof.  I repeated this for the other set to finish the platform.

I added a fairing to cut down on wind noise.  That hooks up to the leading load bar pretty simply.  You just have to put the fairing together before you hook it up to the roof.  Once I placed that up on the roof with the rack, it added to the look of the H3.  I was quite happy with the look.  It didn’t sit too high on the roof, in fact it gave the H3 some height while adding to it’s square body profile.

For protection I added 4 core locks to the towers.  Since they are easy to take off, it would be easy for anyone to take them off so now they are locked on.  

All-in-all, functional and cool looking;  Well-engineered and ready to use.  I’m glad these worked out perfectly.