Fitting and Accessorizing a Roof Basket for a 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk  

Question:

Expert Reply:

There's a few things to consider for the fit to your 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk, but its fairly easy to make sure you have a good fit.

The roof crossbars are the primary fit factor. A little research shows that the Trailhawk is about 70 inches wide, so the Rola Roof Basket, part # TH859XT will come across as a little small, but you can verify the specific width of your roof (Which is what will create the illusion) by measuring the distance between your roof rails.

The crossbars themselves make up the actual fit with one measurement. First, the physical size of the crossbars do not matter on this rack, it is designed to fit all sizes.

The important measure is the crossbar spread. The spread, is the actual distance that the centerpoint of the two bars are apart. The Thule # TH859XT basket fits crossbars that are between 20 inches and 37 inches apart. You'll confirm this measurement on your vehicle by measuring from the center of the front bar to the center of the rear bar. It looks like your factory bars are adjustable, so you'll be able to move to a measure within the range.

I really like the design of the Trailhawk trim, and think that for look purposes, it's worth noting that as long as this spread is maintained, and you don't go over where your rear hatch meets your roof, you'll be able to position the roof basket with any of those four spreads where it looks the best to you on your Trailhawk.

Your roof is rated for 150 pounds of capacity, and you'll want to verify that with your owner's manual. This capacity will include the roof rack, the basket plus any cargo or accessories you attach to the basket.

You can add a 20 inch extension to this basket if you need more room with part # TH859XT. It will be installed exactly the same and it maintains its 150 pound capacity.

Speaking of accessories, there is a net available that is fit to the basket as part # CS54FR. This 48 by 36 inch net is a stretchable letting it fit a variety of cargo shapes.

There's not a Thule branded item for attaching a shovel to your vehicle, but Yakima's Brackets, part # Y07078 are sized for their similarly shaped baskets and could work. You can also carry an axe with these, because being prepared is always good.

I've attached a link to all of our off road lights so you can pick what you specifically want. You'll want to look for ones that can attach to round bars or could be fitted with a bracket to fit around the 1 inch bars that make up the frame of the Thule basket. If you don't plan on moving the Thule basket, the spaces on either side of the fairing look like a great spot to put lights.

Likely, a snowboard won't be able to mount directly into the basket. You could slide the back part of the board under the rear bar of the basket and strap it down with bungee cords, however, I don't recommend this.

Instead, I'd recommend moving the basket to one side or the other when you want to carry the snowboard and use something like the RhinoRack 1 Board/2Ski/4 pole carrier, part # RR572. This will let you carry a single board beside the roof rack and give you a much easier, secure time carrying the board. This carrier is 9-3/4 inches wide, but you may not have the space for this carrier next to the basket, so you may not be able to use it with the basket installed.

expert reply by: Jacob W

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Eric

10/19/2017

Really appreciate the help here on my 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk. I agree the basket might look a little small, so now I'm thinking about getting C18115-117 . With that basket, I was also thinking: C18201 to hold everything down and Y07078 for the shovel. I'm also going to need a pair of roof racks. Did you have any recommendations there? I'm not trying to spend a lot on these, but let me know if I need to buy a specific type of racks for this basket.

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Jacob W.

10/20/2017

For a roof rack on your 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk without the E-Group package, I recommend a Thule SquareBar Kit consisting of: Thule Square Load Bars, 53 inches part # TH712400 Thule Rapid Podium Roof-Rack Foot Pack, part # TH460R Thule Roof Rack Fit Kit, part # THKIT3142 This will give you a good base for the Curt Roof Basket, part # C18115-117.

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