Finding an old Subaru Forester roof rack

[d_douglas]

I am on the hunt for a cheap Subaru Forester roof rack for our trashed 2005 Forester. This thing has a bit of time left with us, and so I don’t want to go to Subaru and pay $400 for it:

I am actually just looking for crossbars on which I could mount a bike rack and our big carrier box for a road trip (we are selling the car we normally use for this)

1) wrecking yard
2) Craigslist wanted ad
3) where else?

On topic to bikes, weren’t there old school roof racks that were a universal fit? As in, they clamped onto the frame and you cranked them down onto the roof?

Thanks for any ideas. I am determined not to go to Subaru. A plug in hybrid RAV 4 is not in the cards this year, but our holiday is!!

[Bentley]

In my area littered with all kinds of crossbars and hitch racks. Second would be EBay or a junkyard

[Veloo]

Kijiji
Facebook
Pinkbike

[415km]

https://www.rerack.com/

[schwa86]

I had a 2003 forester that has since died. There used to be Thule bars that specifically fit the forester roof bars with no extra fittings required. I got mine from REI they were trying to clear them out. Just flagging in case this is an option.

[Bruce K]

If you are looking for Thule square bars - PM me

We have a pile of stuff (crossbars and tests) used on Euro rails over several generations/models of Volvos

I might be able to help you out

BK

[binxnyrwarrsoul]

If you are looking for the factory rack, I have a 2007 Forester with the factory rack. I replaced it with direct to the rails Thule racks. Not sure about shipping to Canada, though.

[d_douglas]

Reviving this thread, as I still haven’t found a solution. There is a similar Forester in our hood with a rack, so I left a note to ask if they’d rent it to me for our vacation. Sweet older lady replied, and said she’d be happy to loan them, but cannot find the keys to unlock it :)

Here is our car (same colour and everything).
https://www.autoblog.com/buy/2004-Subaru-Forester/photos/#slide-102

Is there an aftermarket rack to look out for on Craigslist? Are there other car brands with racks that might work as well?

Thanks for the offers to sell from the USA. Shipping might be a killer for sure!

[cmbicycles]

Hard to tell from pictures in the link, but would crossbars from an Outback work? I guess you have checked ebay, but there is this site too https://www.car-part.com/mobile/index.htm it's a listing site for junkyards.

[loxx0050]

Are you planning on buying another Subaru Forrester? Maybe a solution is to get a universal hitch kit that can be transferred to a newer Forrester. Then get a hitch rack you'd like. When you ditch the Forrester then you could port everything to the new one.

Assuming the universal kit will fit on the new vehicle.

[xnetter]

I am on the hunt for a cheap Subaru Forester roof rack for our trashed 2005 Forester. This thing has a bit of time left with us, and so I don’t want to go to Subaru and pay $400 for it:

I am actually just looking for crossbars on which I could mount a bike rack and our big carrier box for a road trip (we are selling the car we normally use for this)

1) wrecking yard
2) Craigslist wanted ad
3) where else?

On topic to bikes, weren’t there old school roof racks that were a universal fit? As in, they clamped onto the frame and you cranked them down onto the roof?

Thanks for any ideas. I am determined not to go to Subaru. A plug in hybrid RAV 4 is not in the cards this year, but our holiday is!!

I have a 2005 Forester too! Too funny. 200k kms and still chuggin'.

I have the keys to my rails, perhaps they would also unlock that lady's? LMK if you want to try them :-P

I also second the reco to jump to a hitch rack solution. Did that a couple years back and it's the business, esp. if you also want to run a roof box.

KJ

[d_douglas]

I have a 2005 Forester too! Too funny. 200k kms and still chuggin'.

I have the keys to my rails, perhaps they would also unlock that lady's? LMK if you want to try them :-P

I also second the reco to jump to a hitch rack solution. Did that a couple years back and it's the business, esp. if you also want to run a roof box.

KJ

Ha! Hi Kieran. Well, do you want to make some ice cream money for renting your rack to me for 10 days this summer? Seriously, at this point, that is all I need. I dont see keeping this car much longer (245000 km). It runs fine, but I see the end coming, much to my wife's chagrin.

I guess the alternative is to see if your keys would work on that lady's car. She was super sweet and felt bad that she couldnt find the keys as she was happy to loan the rack to us...

[schwa86]

I don’t know if this is helpful, but I once bought a Thule roof box with missing key. All the lock cores were coded with little numbers. I was able to get the key from Thule in under a week. https://www.thule.com/en-us/thule-support/spare-parts-keys

[cmbicycles]

Does it have an actual key? My 02 outback just uses a t30 torx bit.

Have you looked on ebay? A quick search by "2005 forester crossbars" gives quite a few options.

[d_douglas]

Does it have an actual key? My 02 outback just uses a t30 torx bit.

Have you looked on ebay? A quick search by "2005 forester crossbars" gives quite a few options.

Yes, it used a key system and were oem Subaru parts.