I used the support section of the Thule website to see if they had any way to use one of their ski / snowboard carriers on the MINI's factory rack. After a few days of waiting, the answer came back that they didn't have anything that would do the trick.

I live near a place called the rack warehouse that does a lot of online ordering for racks. I've visited them before to see what they could do, but wasn't thrilled with the customer service I got. But I did find out that there is a Thule Aero bar that is similar to the MINI's factory bars, but the channels in them are a different size (3/4" instead of 1&quot. There's an adapter kit available to put a ski/board carrier on the Thule Aero bars, so I figured I'd buy the carrier and then see what I could do. The adapter kit is simply a bolt with a 3/4" square head, so if I could find a bolt with a 1" square head I should be good to go.

I bought the carrier from someplace else (as the Rack Warehouse was closed) and went home. Inside the box in the parts bag were some of these:

and carriage bolts. The carriage bolts fit into the little square hole in the metal piece. And the metal piece just happens to be 1" long (in the long dimension). So, I slid the metal plate into the channel in the MINI load bar with the carriage bolt going through the plate and everything looked good. I just ignored the plastic clamps that were in the box that are supposed to wrap around the Thule bars. The carriage bolts and metal plates are meant to be used the way I'm using them, just with the plastic clamps instead of a channeled bar.

Anyway, the installation went easily. I haven't load tested it yet, but it seems stable enough. I'm using the Thule flat top 6 pair ski carrier (part #725). It fills out the MINI's load bars nicely. With no lifter in place, I can barely fit a snowboard bindings down on the rack. It looks like this will work out much better than the MINI factory snowboard carrier. A wide snowboard will barely fit in the factory carrier and the little plastic covers over the locks didn't last more than a week.

 

I've been using the thule carrier on the MINI rack for a while now, and it seems to be doing the job. There's a little play between the carrier and the load bar, I think the metal plate may be just a little on the weak side when used the way I'm using it. I may play around with "modifying" the plastic clamps that came with the carrier to see if I can get the upper, triangular part that is supposed to sit above the load bar into place - it might provide a little front to back support which seems to be lacking without it.

I'm also going to see if tightening up the bolts that hold the carrier to the load bar has caused the little metal plate to bend. If so, finding someone who can fabricate a sturdier plate may be an easy solution.

So, while it does indeed work out of the box, it's not 100% - of course I should check out the fit of the Thule carrier on a Thule bar before for comparison, maybe they all have a little front to back play in them.

It's a definite improvement to the factory snowboard carrier.

 

VelVet, so you are happy with the OEM rack? I notice you have a sunroof, not too much noise from the factory rack?

 

>>VelVet, so you are happy with the OEM rack? I notice you have a sunroof, not too much noise from the factory rack?

I am happy with the factory rack. It's much better then the alternatives. It was a little whistle-y with no attachments on it. The whistling went down with the factory snowboard carrier attached. With the monster thule board/ski carrier on there, there's no whistling or other noticable wind noise. Time will tell what the situtation will be for carrying bikes.

The factory rack is so easy to remove / install that you only need to have it on for the days you're carrying something (if the noise bothers you that much).

It's definitely sturdier than the Yakima rack I had on my Golf, and that was a fully blessed application. I'd be scared of a "limited fit" application like Yakima has for the MINI.

If you need a roof rack, go with the factory one.

 

Bump.

 

I am in need of some advice. I just purchased a new Mini ski/ snowboard holder (model OEM 82720420683) and it is great except for a high pitch sound that occurs every time that I travel between 45 and 55 mph. The tone is not just the regular wind noise but sounds like a loud high-pitched whistle. If I wrap a blanket around the front and rear holder the sound goes away.
Any ideas on how to fix this are appreciated.