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Model Y Cargo box safe?

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Hi everyone,
Just took delivery of my Model Y and was planning to put on the Tesla roof racks (which I've got already but unpacked) and have a cargo box on them with about 50 pounds of tools on a daily basis but now I'm worried about thinking the glass will break at some point.
Anyone has insights on whether I should try this?
 
Hi everyone,
Just took delivery of my Model Y and was planning to put on the Tesla roof racks (which I've got already but unpacked) and have a cargo box on them with about 50 pounds of tools on a daily basis but now I'm worried about thinking the glass will break at some point.
Anyone has insights on whether I should try this?
Suggest you look at this thread before doing the install. After reading this I ordered the hitch. Decided not to get a bike rack for the top. Might not be an option for what you use the box for though.
Model Y Roof Rack CRACK
 
I've use a Thule cargo box (604 Ascent 1600, purchased 2012) on my Y a couple times, it's a rather large box and adds a lot of drag, so I only put it on when I needed it and removed it when I was done. The rack bars on the Y seem to be just a tad too far apart for what my box was designed for, but managed to make it work. I had to remove one of the rack bars from the Tesla temporarily to attach the cargo box and then re-install the bar, which was a bit tedious. Drove about 70 miles on the expressway with the box on the car on two separate occasions. First time had a strong tailwind and was getting 365 wh/mi going 80-85 mph. Second time was driving into strong headwind and was getting 390 wh/mi going 70-75 mph. I did scratch the glass roof in a couple places putting the box on or off the car but no cracks or anything serious. I'd recommend trying to fit your tools inside the Y if you can.
 

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Congrats PedroQuijas! I haven’t tried the roof rack on my Y, but this will be the first car I’ve owned in 20+ years that will not have one. I love a roof rack and use them for everything under the sun, but after giving some thought to how scratched up my previous car roofs became from all that action, I decided not to risk it with all that expensive glass on the Y. If you can fit your tools in the trunk you won’t have to worry about it and you’ll get better mileage too!
 
My Y is due in before the end of the month!!
With my previous family-mobile I had a trunk mount bike rack and snowboard attachment and cargo box on the roof.

Instead of putting a hitch and roof rack on the Y and use all my existing gear, I am thinking about going with all hitch mount gear. I would have to buy a new snowboard attachment and new hitch cargo box, but I would NOT have to buy the roof rack (which is $450) and I can sell my roof existing roof attachments.

I would expect the trunk mount accessories to impact range less.
 
***Follow the instructions AND USE A TORQUE WRENCH — you shouldn’t have any problems!*** The OEM Tesla Model3/Y roof cross bars are a nice piece of kit; well made, quiet and multi-functional. Use a Torque Wrench. Good luck.
 
***Follow the instructions AND USE A TORQUE WRENCH — you shouldn’t have any problems!*** The OEM Tesla Model3/Y roof cross bars are a nice piece of kit; well made, quiet and multi-functional. Use a Torque Wrench. Good luck.
Which instructions? The initial installations gave a higher torque spec causing the damaged glass, so if you can post the correct torque spec, that would be helpful. thanks.

Fred
 
How messed up did the glass get - and was it just from running the box against the glass? I'm a pretty clumsy guy.
Not too bad, I’m not really bothered by at. I didn’t even notice until a few days after I took the box off the car. Pretty sure it was from the mounting grippers of the cargo box. Could see it from inside looking up, but only with certain lighting and viewing angle. Attached a couple pics.
 

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Not too bad, I’m not really bothered by at. I didn’t even notice until a few days after I took the box off the car. Pretty sure it was from the mounting grippers of the cargo box. Could see it from inside looking up, but only with certain lighting and viewing angle. Attached a couple pics.

You can try and use Carpro Ceriglass and their Rayon Glass polishing pad with an orbital to get that out. Lots of videos on YouTube.
 
I installed the Tesla Rack and a week ago went paddling with my 18' kayak. On the way back I took a long cut which was a nice twisty road. The 100# on the roof did move the CG up but did not effect the handling very much. No cracks or anything but I was extra careful loading and unloading the kayak. This is what I got the car for, and skiing.
 
Not too bad, I’m not really bothered by at. I didn’t even notice until a few days after I took the box off the car. Pretty sure it was from the mounting grippers of the cargo box. Could see it from inside looking up, but only with certain lighting and viewing angle. Attached a couple pics.

@mrbloons - you saved my bacon today! I was trying out putting my bike on the roof rack using Yakima Fork Chops. It was my first time putting a bike on any roof rack. I thought of your experience and put a towel down on the glass roof. Sure enough, I scraped the bike's front fork against what would have been my roof, but was fortunately just a beach towel.

btw - the roof rack with Fork Chop works great. Putting up the bikes much easier with two people because there are no rails or gutter in which to insert and steady the rear tire. That's what caused me to slip.
 
I had to remove one of the rack bars from the Tesla temporarily to attach the cargo box and then re-install the bar, which was a bit tedious.
@mrbloons I'm interested to know how you removed one of the rack bars to fit your old Thule box. I have a 2017 vintage Thule Force L box and, from measuring the distance between the grabbers, it looks like it would *just* fit once the grabbers are closed, but opening up the grabbers to attach to the cross bar would stretch them beyond the box's limit. Your solution sounds intriguing (if tedious). Were you able to remove the bar from the posts to feed it through the closed grabbers, or did you have to remove/re-attach the posts to make this work?

Sounds like a pain in either case, but perhaps less of a pain than leaving my Model Y behind on our family road trips this summer. Many thanks!
 
I installed the Tesla Rack and a week ago went paddling with my 18' kayak. On the way back I took a long cut which was a nice twisty road. The 100# on the roof did move the CG up but did not effect the handling very much. No cracks or anything but I was extra careful loading and unloading the kayak. This is what I got the car for, and skiing.
Thanks, good to hear this, since my roof rack is also intended for a canoe or kayak, if winter ever ends. Although the canoe is a lot lighter, either 18 (solo) or 40 (tandem) pounds.
 
You can try and use Carpro Ceriglass and their Rayon Glass polishing pad with an orbital to get that out. Lots of videos on YouTube.
Thanks for the suggestion, I will give that a try!

@mrbloons - you saved my bacon today! I was trying out putting my bike on the roof rack using Yakima Fork Chops. It was my first time putting a bike on any roof rack. I thought of your experience and put a towel down on the glass roof. Sure enough, I scraped the bike's front fork against what would have been my roof, but was fortunately just a beach towel.

btw - the roof rack with Fork Chop works great. Putting up the bikes much easier with two people because there are no rails or gutter in which to insert and steady the rear tire. That's what caused me to slip.
Glad to know that my post was able to help you, thanks for letting me know!

@mrbloons I'm interested to know how you removed one of the rack bars to fit your old Thule box. I have a 2017 vintage Thule Force L box and, from measuring the distance between the grabbers, it looks like it would *just* fit once the grabbers are closed, but opening up the grabbers to attach to the cross bar would stretch them beyond the box's limit. Your solution sounds intriguing (if tedious). Were you able to remove the bar from the posts to feed it through the closed grabbers, or did you have to remove/re-attach the posts to make this work?

Sounds like a pain in either case, but perhaps less of a pain than leaving my Model Y behind on our family road trips this summer. Many thanks!
Sounds like you've got the same issue I had! It's been a while but I think what I did was opened up the grippers of the cargo box as wide as they would go, then roughly placed the cargo box over the roof rack which was fully fastened down to the Model Y. I could get one set of grippers to position over the car's rack, but not the other (front or back, but not both, pick 1). I positioned the front grippers over the front bar and then loosened one of the posts of the rear rack from the car, I can't recall if I had to do both sides before I could get the rack bar into the grippers. I did this with the grippers of the cargo box wide open. Then I reattached the rack bar to the post of the car, and then tightened the grippers of the cargo box.

Honestly I don't think I'll do it again, I'll probably either get a different cargo box that I know fits properly or maybe a small, lightweight trailer that I could tow and put the cargo box on behind the Model Y. I saw another post of someone who had done this and claimed an almost negligibly impact to range, which I find very intriguing so I might try it. Does anyone have experience doing that?
 
I saw another post of someone who had done this and claimed an almost negligibly impact to range, which I find very intriguing so I might try it. Does anyone have experience doing that?
Really? I’d love to see the data on that. Aerodynamics is a major factor versus weight. I have a trailer for kayaks and other lightweight gear that I used to use for another car. I haven’t taken it out yet with the Y but was looking forward to testing it out. I also have an old school Thule cargo box with exactly the same problem of the vertical distance between the quickgrips being just slightly too short. I hate to think of getting a new box, but I think that’s reality. Much easier to carry smaller gear in the box than deal with the trailer....