Roof Racks

[rougeetnoir]

I recently purchased the Seasucker Monkey Bars cross bar set for my i3S in order to carry a canoe. While the weather has been too iffy recently to try this out, I wanted to mention that the Seasucker is extremely well made and confidence inspiring. It is also made in the US. The cross bars are quite stout and unscrew in the middle for easy storage in a smallish box. In looking the set over my only complaint is that the company does not seem to offer a set of cleats for these bar to keep the canoe from shifting from side to side. The bars are 33mm and thus Yakima bars (for which such cleats are available), will only only fit wound with a number of layers of rubber tape at the points which the mounts clamp onto the bars.

I don't know about carrying a bike or a basket on the set up but for a canoe or kayak which would be tied down to the car via the undercarriage at front and rear these bars seem pretty safe. Also good for carrying lumber. The suction cups will adjust to go on the outer portions of the roof where there is support from the pillars.

I will report later how this all works out for shortish trips with my 36 lb 16 foot canoe in a few weeks.

 

[Anonymous]

These might work:

https://maloneautoracks.com/Big-Foot-Pro-TM-Canoe-Carrier.html

https://www.amazon.com/Malone-Universal-Canoe-Carrier-Stern/dp/B002616HD0/ref=sr_1_11?dchild=1&keywords=malone+canoe+clamps&qid=1619365498&sr=8-11

 

[agzand]

Have people had any issue with carbon roof delaminating due to suction cups? I understand this is the only option for i3, but I am worried about damaging the roof.

 

[brinton7]

I recently purchased the Seasucker Monkey Bars cross bar set for my i3S in order to carry a canoe. While the weather has been too iffy recently to try this out, I wanted to mention that the Seasucker is extremely well made and confidence inspiring. It is also made in the US. The cross bars are quite stout and unscrew in the middle for easy storage in a smallish box. In looking the set over my only complaint is that the company does not seem to offer a set of cleats for these bar to keep the canoe from shifting from side to side. The bars are 33mm and thus Yakima bars (for which such cleats are available), will only only fit wound with a number of layers of rubber tape at the points which the mounts clamp onto the bars.

I don't know about carrying a bike or a basket on the set up but for a canoe or kayak which would be tied down to the car via the undercarriage at front and rear these bars seem pretty safe. Also good for carrying lumber. The suction cups will adjust to go on the outer portions of the roof where there is support from the pillars.

I will report later how this all works out for shortish trips with my 36 lb 16 foot canoe in a few weeks.

Any updates? Are the suction cups reliable? Have a Surco roof basket that I bought from 4wheelonline last year, and I'm thinking of using it on my i3.

 

[rougeetnoir]

I have not yet tried the canoe, but I did find that Yakima cross bar cleats work just fine on the Seasicker bars. I should know about the bars with canoe in another week and will post.

 

[GoldiE46]

I have not yet tried the canoe, but I did find that Yakima cross bar cleats work just fine on the Seasicker bars. I should know about the bars with canoe in another week and will post.

any updates with photos?

 

[Devlin13]

Always wanted to use our i3 (aka Sparky) as our outdoor adventure car. We considered a rear hitch, but we have bikes, skis, a cargo box, kayaks, and paddle board. So that means a roof rack. But, we needed to be mindful of the sunroof on our i3. So when SeaSucker had a 20% off sale on everything this spring, we took the plunge and purchased Monkey Bars for $420. We also wanted an universal rack solution to avoid having buy a (specific) rack for each current (and future) car. Here’s my install solution for mounting bike racks.

First, we decided to replace our 20 year old bike racks with frame mount racks instead of fork mounts. This is because 1) of modern thru axles and 2) to maximize storage in Sparky. We decided on BMW’s bike rack via Amazon. They’re made by Thule and are essentially their rebranded ProRide XT rack. Via Amazon they were $135 w/Prime (vs Thule’s ProRide XT for $230 @ REI). And, there're the newest version of the Thule, with a locking clamp and updated clamp shape.

https://www.amazon.com/BMW-82-71-2-166-924-Touring-Bicycle-Holder/dp/B004UHUXQU/ref=sr_1_2_mod_primary_new?keywords=bmw+bike+rack&qid=1653957003&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sr=8-2

Next, the BMW rack are designed their T-track rack so I had to find a round bar mount solution. They're $20 a piece. These Thule square bar adapter worked perfectly:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0791RW7N8?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_1Y7G0B26G8ZJEY3GXE0Y

Ok. Now the install. Normally, you want to have the rack mounted corners or edges of the roof. BUT, that’s not case case w/the i3 w/a sunroof. Unlike normal sunroofs, the i3 mounts it’s sunroof along the center track instead of along the outside edges. You can see the glass mounting points from the inside when you open the sunroof halfway. This means mounting the suction cups on the corners are actually furthest from the sunroof’s mounting structure, thus are at its weakest points and prone to excessive and worrisome up and down wobbling.

Position 1: Another person on another thread had their Monkey Bars customized with smaller 4.5” suctions. This allows half of the front suctions to sit on the metal sheet between the windshield and the sunroof. Great idea. However, instead of custom ordering the change, I simply purchased the standard monkey bars on sale and then 2x 4.5” replacement suction cups and caps for $22 (on sale). This brought the mokey bars to $450, vs. $600+ if you custom order them through Seasucker.

Postion 2: Building on the idea above, if you opt to stick with the original 6” suckers you can instead mount the front bars at the rear of the sunroof, with one suction on the sunroof and the other on the rear metal roof panel. I also positioned the towers about 3-4 inches away from the sunroof glass mounts/tracks. This allowed an adequate spread between the two towers, not too much distance from the glass' mount/pivot points, and provided roughly equal distance from the outside edge to tower, between the towers, and to the other outside edge. Also, it’s important to mount the rear suction as close to the edge at possible. This will minimize flexing from the metal when under weight. The sheet metal is really really thin. Lastly, the disadvantage of this position is the rear bar is no longer level to the front bar and is now about 2-3 inches lower. For cargo boxes and water crafts, it will angle the bulk of the mass upwards and will cause air lift problems when at speed. For bike racks, it won't matter much. But, this may cause the rear hatch to not fully open if your bike rack is too long.

Finally, I got a Yakima cable lock to secure the rack to the car. The bike rack itself are lockable to the monkey bars.

https://www.amazon.com/Yakima-Trunk-Mount-Security-Strap/dp/B003EMADH6/ref=asc_df_B003EMADH6/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312126224579&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=118541876283542881&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9033151&hvtargid=pla-569211083426&psc=1

Hope this helps. I'll post an update when the 4.5" suction cups arrives.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-3req4cBKQ8cxkAg7z9hf2T1gbaU9_rY?usp=sharing

 

[BRex]

We just put on a set of seasucker monkey bars and a bmw box. Really happy with the results. Been driving it around for about a week. About to take a long weekend family trip.