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Old 06-09-2019, 10:52 AM   #1
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Thule rain gutter mounts, installed upside down, but why??

So the PO of my van installed 2 pairs of Thule Artificial Rain Gutter Mounts (model 542) on the side of my PH top. What I am trying to figure out is why one pair appears to be installed upside down. Can anybody think outside of the box and help me out?

Here is a pic of the normal mount:



Here is a pic of the upside down mount:



Here is a picture from Thule of the mount with a foot pad connected to it.



So can anybody tell me why the PO would have possibly install one of the mounts upside down? Since the bolts are offset, it doesn't appear that I can simply turn the mount right-side up, because it doesn't look like it will fit.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

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Old 06-09-2019, 12:30 PM   #2
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First thought: they were careless.

Second thought: can’t you unscrew it and turn it over to solve?

Third thought: do they work upside down? My Yakima ones are basically an “L” shape and would work upside down. Maybe clearance was an issue for the PO and he did it to gain an extra inch or so.
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Old 06-09-2019, 02:45 PM   #3
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For some reason, I would conclude it was done purposely - comparing the two Pic's it looks like the bolt holes are positioned lower than the ones installed right-side-up...suspect your rack still wouldn't be level if you just removed the odd one and turned it around. Looks like you'll need to fill the old holes and redrill to match the rest of the mounts.
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Old 06-09-2019, 03:02 PM   #4
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Here is another pic I didn't include in the original post. There are actually 3 pairs of mounts, but the farthest one to the left is a Yakima mount(Widebody bracket). So, basically I have 3 mounts, none of which seem to line up with each other to make a pair of mounts that I could put bars across and have 2 even bars across the top of the Van. To your point Xentrix, the bolt holes are definitely positioned in a way that simply flipping the upside down Thule mount around would not work as it would lower the overall mount and there is a lip on the PH top and it wouldn't clear that lip. I am almost wondering if they flipped it upside down so they could loop some sort of tie-down cordage under the curved part.



I think in the long run I will be better off just buying tracks to fit across the top and having an adjustable system, I was just hoping to reuse a little of what is on the van now, but it doesn't seem that way.
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Old 06-09-2019, 06:27 PM   #5
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You can sell the wide body brackets! They’re $50 a pair new from Yakima. You’ve got $100 in feet up on there on the used market!
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Old 06-09-2019, 07:20 PM   #6
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Gramps you are absolutely right. I will probably purchase the tracks and get everything setup to my liking and then sell the brackets I don't end up using!
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