CJ and Coolsurf

Thank You for your input. I will try it tonight when my wife gets home. I really appreciate both of you responding. I convinced my wife to downsize from a Minivan but we still need to put some bags on top when we travel to northern Ontario in the summer. We both love it but we have an 1100 mile trip (one way) ahead of us next week and I need to figure this out. I will post some pictures when I make some progress on this whole project. We need the back of the HHR for our Irish Setter and one grown daughter so that is why I need the roof. Thanks again for you help.

John

 

CJ & Coolsurf

The caps came off just like you said they would exposing the torx bolt heads.
I have one side rail off and will spend tomorrow fitting the new Chevy Venture cross rails. Thanks again and I will post some picts of the entire process.

Happy Birthday Coolsurf and thanks so much for your help. I told my wife she would have to drive my truck tomorrow to work so I can spend the day on the HHR.

John

 

you are very welcome

 

I promised I would share some picts of the Cross rails and why I needed them. Please understand the only way I could convince my wife to downsize from a Mini Van was to guarantee that I could put a roof rack on the HHR and I realize how it looks a bit out of place on top, but it looks better than one of those big boxes. I kind of like how it reinforces the truck theme.

Thanks to CJ and Coolsurf I was able to remove the factory rail end caps and install the venture cross rails but they would not work. The Factory Rails on the HHR are at such and angle that they position the cross rails to far up in the air.

So I went back to purchasing a set of Thule 450 Crossroads with LB50 Load Bars. I could attach them right next to the factory rail feet for a very secure fit. The Thule Basket attaches directly to the cross rails. As I said before we downsized from a mini van after 18 years and we love the HHR but we still travel to northern Ontario in the summer and we still have an Irish Setter and one grown daughter traveling with us so the basket in a necessity. We leave next Thursday and I will take some pictures of it loaded down. Thanks to everyone for their help.

 

Looks great, John! The Canuck flag looks great over the HHR logo.

Sounds like you'd better get a sway bar on before the trip though...

 

Looks real good John. Is that a 690 - Thule M.O.A.B. Basket or another? I am faced with the same problem of carrying cargo on the roof.

 

Yes it is the Thule 690. I bought it from "Rack Attack" for $296 and free shipping. They had it in stock.

 

The rack looks great, my home made cross bars are working out also, it only holds 2 surfboards right now. Hoping soon to have picture, if I can figure how to download them to this forum.

 

Send me an email with the pics and I can host them for you for a little while :)

 

Thanks endeavorc:

I will take some and let you know.