etrailer | Detailed Breakdown of the Thule Motion 3 Rooftop Cargo Box

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Full transcript: https://www.etrailer.com/tv-review-th...
Hi, everyone. Aiden here with etrailer. Today we're gonna be taking a look at the Thule Motion 3 Rooftop Box. This is gonna be their large size with 16 cubic feet of sword space. For the looks, you've got a choice between the black or their Titan color, which is this really dark gray behind me. So if you're finding yourself running a little bit of short on room in your vehicle and you need somewhere to put the extra stuff, a roof box could be a good fit for you, let's check it out.

So let's first open this up and take a look at the space you actually get inside. You're gonna get two keys in your kit and you can open the box from either side, but you'll need to unlock it in order to squeeze that latch and open the lid. I really like that latch mechanism. It's very easy to operate, just gotta squeeze it until you see a bit of red. That's when you know the latches are disengaged and push up on the handle and the lid will spring open for you and just support itself.

Now inside you can see right away we've got two pretty large duffel bags in there. And then underneath those we've got two pairs of skis. You could certainly fit more in that space, but that's just something that we have to give you a sense of scale. If you do plan on using this for skis and snowboards, it's important to know the maximum ski length that can support is 180 centimeters. And here's a better look inside.

Like I said, you've got a ton of extra space on the side of this pair of skis and of course on the other side too. Now to get a bit more specific, your internal dimension side to side, you're working with 28-3/16 of an inch. So it's a pretty wide box and height-wise, you're looking pretty good too at 13-15/16 of an inch. And as I close the lid here, you can see it's a pretty tall box throughout. You don't get a ton of taper off towards the front and the rear.

So that maximum usable height is gonna stay true throughout the bulk of the box. So you're gonna get a lot of usable space and not have to sacrifice as much real estate because of that. All throughout the carrier, you're gonna see these straps, three cam buckle straps that are included and tie off to these integrated points at the front, middle, and rear of the cargo box so you can keep your stuff tied down and secured from shifting around too much in transit. Right next to that we've got our clamps, which will tighten down or loosen up with a hand knob here and they do fully remove just by unclipping them from the tracks. And you can better see that jaw mechanism underneath, which will grab around the crossbars. When dropping them back in these tracks do have adjustment to slide them around to meet different crossbar spreads. So just line it up with yours, clip in the clamp and start to tighten it down until you hear a click from the integrated torque device. And when you're ready to close it down, there is a gray strap to the lid that you can use to pull the lid a bit closer to you and grab the handle and close the rest of the way. That handle, again is just really nice because we don't have to get our hands on the glossy finish of the box and smudge it up as quickly. Of course, once it latches, remember to lock and remove the key and you won't be able to remove that unless it is properly latched. So how we saw a bit of red on the latch earlier when we opened it, that should all be gone before we turn the key. And the opening from the other side is gonna be just the exact same as from the driver's side. And the reason you might choose to open one side versus the other is one for just installing those clamps because reaching to the opposite end is a bit of a stretch. And two, if you're close to something like a wall, another car in a parking garage and you've got some larger things in here that you're feeding down to one of your passengers and you don't really have the room next to you on one side, you can go to the other where you do have a bit more room. Just like internal dimensions are important to know what you can actually fit in the box. External dimensions are really important to know for how it actually sits in the vehicle. And for storage in your garage when it's not in use. It's gonna be a pretty long box coming in at 76-15/16 of an inch. Is a pretty wide box to sitting at 35 inches and it's fairly tall, adding about 16-11/16 of an inch. Now what it actually adds the vehicle though from the top of the crossbar to the tallest point of the box is really m