Thule T2 Mods for Fat Tires?

[cocksmith]

I am waiting on my Moonlander from Planet Taiwan, once it lands I will be picking it up with my Thule T2, I emailed Thule asking if they will offer a fat friendly Wheel Cup in the future and they said NO.

Does anybody have this rack with a fat bike and modify it? love some input before I go to town with the Heat Gun

[anthony.delorenzo]

I modified my T2 by replacing it with a North Shore Rack.

If I was looking at modifying it I would probably have someone fabricate a metal piece that would bolt on to replace the plastic crap.

[Shark]

Heat gun will probably be the easiest. You will need a longer wheel strap on the back a s well

[mangoman]

I've been researching racks for my Fatback, too, and thought about modding an existing setup (Yakima). But...I found the spacer kit for 1upUSA's racks and pulled the trigger on one (going on the roof):

Fat Tire Spacer Kit

[Guitar Ted]

I am waiting on my Moonlander from Planet Taiwan, once it lands I will be picking it up with my Thule T2, I emailed Thule asking if they will offer a fat friendly Wheel Cup in the future and they said NO.

Does anybody have this rack with a fat bike and modify it? love some input before I go to town with the Heat Gun

You won't need to mod your rack, especially if it is a newer version with the longer clamp arm they designed for 29"ers a couple years ago.

Here's a photo of two Mukluks, one with BFL's. You'll need a toe strap, or similar to strap down the rear wheel, and let enough air out of the front tire that it snaps into the tray. Piece of cake.

[cocksmith]

You won't need to mod your rack, especially if it is a newer version with the longer clamp arm they designed for 29"ers a couple years ago.

Here's a photo of two Mukluks, one with BFL's. You'll need a toe strap, or similar to strap down the rear wheel, and let enough air out of the front tire that it snaps into the tray. Piece of cake.

Nice!! Guess I will just wait for touch down and see what happens Thank you for all the insight.

[apbtlvr]

I've been researching racks for my Fatback, too, and thought about modding an existing setup (Yakima). But...I found the spacer kit for 1upUSA's racks and pulled the trigger on one (going on the roof):

Fat Tire Spacer Kit

I ordered mine just last week. I was going to go with the Thule Helium but changed my mind after trying my greenback on one. It's got a lot of nice features but the bars are just spaced too close to each other and I was not comfortable with how the bike would stay on. Oh, and forget about keeping frame bags on while mounted. The only difference here is that I went with the quick hitch single rack verus a roof mount. Lots of positive feedback on the 1up products out there and the spacers do make 'em fat friendly.

Ultimately it comes down to the driving; I want to concentrate on the road in front of me, not what my bike is doing behind.

[mangoman]

I ordered mine just last week. I was going to go with the Thule Helium but changed my mind after trying my greenback on one. It's got a lot of nice features but the bars are just spaced too close to each other and I was not comfortable with how the bike would stay on. Oh, and forget about keeping frame bags on while mounted. The only difference here is that I went with the quick hitch single rack verus a roof mount. Lots of positive feedback on the 1up products out there and the spacers do make 'em fat friendly.

Ultimately it comes down to the driving; I want to concentrate on the road in front of me, not what my bike is doing behind.

Why am I going to the roof? Distracted drivers. I don't care if you hit my old Suby. Really. It's why I have insurance. But hit my ti' Fatback...the bike that I painstakingly pieced together, with parts from far away places?



I drive a lot. 100+ miles a day. And I've seen more rear-enders this year than I've seen in ten years of commuting. Can't prove that they're all cell-phone related, but, with as many drivers as I see on a daily basis with their #$@% smartphones planted in front of their faces at 70+mph...?

Yeah. I'm puttin' Baby on the roof.

EDIT: Sorry to hijack your post, OP. Just offering some food for thought.

[wadester]

My riding buddy has a T2, and recently got a Pugsley. He asked me to make a fatty wheel tray - and I've been working on it. I made a quickie prototype out of cereal boxes, measured it, "rationalized" the measurements in a CAD drawing, and now have a printed template for sheetmetal. Between other projects and Christmas, I haven't had time to stick the template to a sheet of metal and cut/bend a first real prototype.

In the meantime, he took off the stock wheel tray and started using straps on both wheels. Works fine. He even took the Pugs on a 275 mile (one way) road trip like this w/o problems.

[onepivot]

You don't really need to let air out of the tire. With the low psi, you simply push the wheel down into the cradle and strap the wheel in with a bunge cord. No worries, I've hauled my Pugs around like this with no issues.

[Radbach]

Nice call GTThought i was going to have to mod a front tray put it fits just fine used a snowboard strap
for the rear just for piece of mind but by the time i got across town to the trail head the rear tire had settled in nicely and was not going any where.I do find that if you tilt the bike
in it makes it so easy to slide the front bar over the tire.

[Sonic Death Monkey]

I am waiting on my Moonlander from Planet Taiwan, once it lands I will be picking it up with my Thule T2, I emailed Thule asking if they will offer a fat friendly Wheel Cup in the future and they said NO.

Does anybody have this rack with a fat bike and modify it? love some input before I go to town with the Heat Gun

With the T2, there are two swing arm lengths. The lower section that attaches to the platform is the part that is either longer or shorter depending on when you bought your rack:
- Older models: lower arm is ~26"
- Newer models (last 2 or 3 years or so): the lower arm is ~28"

The older arm does not fit over a fat bike tire. Therefore if you have this older shorter arm model you have three choices:

1. buy a new rack known to better support fat bikes
2. buy the newer, longer arm from Thule as spare parts.
3. modify your rack

I was able to mod the rack for about $20, making it the cheapest option for those of us with the old arm by a factor of about 3x, compared to the next cheapest option, which is to buy the new longer arm from Thule. If you got the larger 4.7" tires with your Moonlander you will need to adjust the plan accordingly.

You can find pics of my mod here. It takes about 30 minutes to make the change and it can be easily reverted back to the OEM setup save for two small holes that you will have to drill, which don't interfere with anything.

[jsmilez]

I just strap the rear wheel to the tray with some black rubber bungees. the tire's so fat, it's not going anywhere. I modded the front wheel tray with a plumber's torch and some pliers. just bend the sides out a bit at a time. works great.

[anthony.delorenzo]

abc

...bbd

[dl1030]

The east coast family?


T2 (xtr) fits my ML just fine. I use an old tube to tie down the rear tire (cheaper than a lost strap)

[ajrmd2002]

Hi, I had the thought of making a CAD design for the tire mounts, both front and rear on the Thule T2, and then sending them off to be 3D printed by some printing service. Not sure what material to use, but thought a hard plastic would work. Do you have a CAD design?

As for now, like many others, I've been able to use the rack by just resting the bike on top of the too small mounts, using the front swing arm and a budgie on the rear. Been on some very rough 4x4 forest rds w/o any trouble.

[gcappy]

Here is mine again. Yeah yo can fit a 4" tire in the tray without too much problem but any thing bigger will not work without some sort of jury rig. I made bigger trays so the tires fit in them. Here is how.
Modifying a Thule T2 rack for Fatty

[wadester]

I was looking into fatbike rack options, and since I have an older (sportworks) T2 I looked for factory fatdaptors - found this:

/thule-introduces-a-fat-bike-upgrade-kit-for-their-popular-t2-hitch-rack



MSRP $39.95
Available – January 1, 2014 (wah.)

[gcappy]

I was looking into fatbike rack options, and since I have an older (sportworks) T2 I looked for factory fatdaptors - found this:

/thule-introduces-a-fat-bike-upgrade-kit-for-their-popular-t2-hitch-rack



MSRP $39.95
Available – January 1, 2014 (wah.)

OK, this is good news. To bad you can't get them now. I will order two as we will be a two bike fat family soon.

[MrChad]

I just purchased a Kuat NV Core platform rack & my Pugsley fits in it just fine. Even with 18-20PSI in the tires it secured in just fine. I did have to purchase the Kuat strap extender for the back tire but it wasn't a big deal. I can only assume the NV & NV core models will hold most market fat bikes just fine.