Ski rack?

This is the rack that Tesla Provides, that will probably work best.

Both Thule and Yakima (and others) sell vertical hitch mount ski racks like Tesla shows on their site. They are usually add-ons to hitch mounted bike racks. This is one of the biggest reasons I'll still (begrudgingly) drive an ICE SUV every weekend and the reason that I'd buy a non-FWD MX in a heartbeat. While the racks work, they have a ton of downsides versus your traditional roof-mount ski rack or cargo box. Specifically:
- They are a pain to load. The skis fall down and don't stay in place when you open the rack to put the next pair on.
- They are super expensive as you typically need to buy the bike rack, and then the ski rack add-on.
- Your skis get FILTHY with road grime. Not good for your bases
- Makes accessing the cargo area difficult. Every ski day I sit on my cargo area while I put on my boots...and the skis are on the roof. Not happening here.
- And the Tesla-specific issue...you won't be able to use the majority of Superchargers without potentially unloading your skis/taking your rack off. Most back-in Supercharger cables are too short to reach.

I love my MS. I'm replacing it with a MX. But I still need to keep an ICE SUV since the FWDs cause the MX to loose a lot of utility...

It's called the 6 seat model X. I still need to fabricate some sort of brace to go between the middle row seats to hold the skis.

Supercharger was never on my radar...I was planning for Thule 665C Transporter Combi Hitch-Mount Cargo Box: Amazon.ca: Sports Outdoors. Not anymore I guess any suggestions.

Yea 6 seats would probably work best.

aesculus said:

It's called the 6 seat model X. I still need to fabricate some sort of brace to go between the middle row seats to hold the skis.

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I'd totally go 6 seat...BUT...I have 3 kids. So 7 seats works best for us. The 5 of us ski every weekend. This is my biggest disappointment in the MX design. I could slap a roof rack on a Corolla and go skiing with my family of 5 but the MX makes it ridiculously less convenient despite being a SUV.

MiddKid said:

I'd totally go 6 seat...BUT...I have 3 kids. So 7 seats works best for us. The 5 of us ski every weekend. This is my biggest disappointment in the MX design. I could slap a roof rack on a Corolla and go skiing with my family of 5 but the MX makes it ridiculously less convenient despite being a SUV.

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I suppose you could just fold down one of the back row seats and put the adults skis at slight angle into the middle gap of the second row. If you can you might want to take your longest skis and try it out before you order.

Not as nice as having them out of the car of course when passengers have to sit around them. Perhaps a ski bag would help a bit.

Maybe one of these would just block one falcon wing door?

Ski Rack | SeaSucker

goneskiian said:

Maybe one of these would just block one falcon wing door?

Ski Rack | SeaSucker

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Thats the one I have bought and tested on my S. It works great and is super easy to mount. They also have bike racks and kayak racks sup rack etc. And they are really nice to work with

felixtb said:

Thats the one I have bought and tested on my S. It works great and is super easy to mount. They also have bike racks and kayak racks sup rack etc. And they are really nice to work with

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Great to hear! Thanks for chiming in. It's always good to get the opinion from an actual owner of a product. Especially for something like this.

Cheers!

goneskiian said:

Great to hear! Thanks for chiming in. It's always good to get the opinion from an actual owner of a product. Especially for something like this.

Cheers!

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I'd still be interested in having someone prove that there are sensors on the top of the roof. We know there are sensors in the door that impact the FaWD opening angles, but are they right on top where the rack would mount? If not, I'd be nervous about accidental openings (I have 3 kids) and the subsequent damage to the X and skis. It's not easy to find a picture of the FaWDs open without the roof piece in a completely vertical position.

Any owners willing to put a thin piece of cardboard up there on the roof and see if the FaWDs open?

MiddKid said:

I'd still be interested in having someone prove that there are sensors on the top of the roof. We know there are sensors in the door that impact the FaWD opening angles, but are they right on top where the rack would mount? If not, I'd be nervous about accidental openings (I have 3 kids) and the subsequent damage to the X and skis. It's not easy to find a picture of the FaWDs open without the roof piece in a completely vertical position.

Any owners willing to put a thin piece of cardboard up there on the roof and see if the FaWDs open?

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Good point. I think we've all just assumed putting something up there would disable that side.

ohmman said:

Obviously all of these discussions are ridiculous as far as having to jump through hoops to do something simple like roof mounting skis. However, I'll pitch in my insane idea to meet the rest of the insane ideas. Maybe an owner can try to bungee or otherwise tether a door from the inside such that it resists opening "enough" to make the door stop trying. Kind of like when my tailgate on my MS is going down and I realize I don't want it to, so I just stop it with my hand. That might be a way to avoid having the kids (or you) open one of the doors accidentally.

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Should be as easy as a "Disable" button on the touch screen. Shouldn't it?

Do you think it would be possible for the Falcon Wing doors to be programmed so that they 'pop' open and inch to clear the latch and then only swing out the lower portion of the door?

I know that there would need to be more clearance and people would have to duck to get in, but might it work?

ohmman said:

It should. However, some things we can control.. and some we can't. I certainly hope that's in the works, though.



I don't think that first hinge articulates outward very much. I think it's mostly an inward facing hinge, based on the way the roof/door panels collapse in on themselves when hugging the body and opening. There are no pictures I've seen that imply there's much outward play, so I'm not sure this would work. Before seeing them in action, I assumed they'd be more flexible but I can see why that's not really possible as I look at the body of the car. There would have to be clearance/gaps between the door and roof in order to allow that direction of movement. So no, sadly I don't think that would work (though I like where were you going).

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i would thing that there is some space above the door and below the rack (and even more to anything that in in the rack), that could be used for the initial upward movement. I'll review some of the videos in more detail.