Looked through the history, and did not see a dedicated thread for this. Please point me in the right direction if there is one.

Looking for the best ski rack for the defender. Leaning with Thule on the roof. Wanted to hear people's thoughts/experience/recommendations on this.

Given the height of the truck is accessing skis on the roof a pain? are there better options for mounting something on back tire?

 

https://landroverforums.com/forum/20...e7/#post767629

Good luck with the search. I ended up making my own. 😃

 

Good rack. You're going to need one that slides. Roof be high.

Few pictures while I'm trying to figure out the best placement of same.



Here's to a great winter ahead.

 

I have Thule racks on my other cars and they are great and all, but I went with the Kuat Grip 6 for the Defender and love how it slides out easily. The Defender is really tall and it’s harder to climb up and reach over for skis/boards on the far side of the rack without that. So far I like it, but haven’t used it up in the mountains yet (praying for snow!)

 

I'll be using the OEM cross bars with a Thule roof box. I'll also bring a 2 foot aluminum ladder to reach it. With having to boot-up at the car last ski season, I found that the 2 foot step ladder was perfect for sitting on to change in and out of ski boots. And I could use it to reach the roof box. Better than opening the rear passenger door and standing on the rear seat.

 

Like the above pics show, you want the Thule pull top. It’s the perfect solution for too tall SUV’s. No need for a ladder with this ingenious rack.

 

You just sold me on the color matched tire cover.

Great looking. Excited for the season ahead. The bars work a lot easier than the rack for the skis.

 

Perfect! Thank you i am sold on the sliding rack.

Thanks everyone else for the tips - Keeping a step ladder for booting up/ getting skis doesnt sound like a bad idea either.

See you out there!

 

Does it require any special fittings to attach to the rails?

 

It’s a standard Thule fitting, so you can either use their speedlink fasteners or go low profile with t-nuts in the Thule crossbar slots. I don’t have the oem rack, but there should be t-nuts that fit in those bars as they are Thule bars as well.