Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)
  • Car roof boxes, carrying snowboards, I am now my dad
  • howsyourdad1
    Free Member

    Hi all, doing a very dad like thing today and looking for a roof box for the car to carry stuff, including snowboards.

    does any roof box fit any car? Anyone got any recommended boxes?

    Ta in advance

    petrieboy
    Full Member

    Aside from obvious length limitations (you’ll get a longer box on a Volvo than you will on a mini metro) yeah, pretty universal
    Roofbar foot kits are the bespoke bit. The guys at http://www.roofbox.co.uk are very helpful. I ended up with a kamei huskey which was a lot cheaper than I had expected to pay and is a very solid bit of kit.

    JEngledow
    Free Member

    Roofbox.co.uk +1

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    howsyourdad1
    Free Member

    ok i’ll take a look at their website. in terms of dimensions with the boxes, in general how much is usable space?

    Also how much did you pay for bars and a box ? is there anything else that is needed?

    Thanks in advance

    thebrowndog
    Free Member

    Make sure the box you get opens on both sides – many don’t. roof box.co.uk has a good range and prices. Halfords is also worth a look. Virtually the whole area of the box is usable though they taper towards the front to be a bit aero. You will be surprised by how much they can hold – makes the drive a whole lot more pleasant and safer when the car isn’t loaded to the gunwales.

    eemy
    Free Member

    I picked up a used Thule Alpine 500 on ebay a while ago for £40. You’d get a snowboard or two in one of those.

    althepal
    Full Member

    Had the same thing last year. Two kids plus enough stuff for a weeks holiday with a highchair and pram meant the focus wouldnt have been big enough. Bought a decent 2nd hand set of Ford roofbars and a basic halfords box £100 all in. As someone mentioned above, inside the car was much more pleasant.
    The bars were only supposed to stay on for a coupla weeks in the summer but got a thule bike carrier and they’ve stayed on since. Best thing I’ve done- so much easier and cleaner now!

    deadlydarcy
    Free Member

    As others have said, regarding the capacity, and just picking figures out of the air, if you had say, 2 x 50 litre cases, they wouldn’t necessarily fit into a 100 litre roofbox because of the tapers at either end, especially the front. Most often, they work well for loose stuff that you can squash in around one or two big items. Just make sure the stuff you want to carry in the box isn’t the stuff you’ll need access to while on the move, and IMO, the locks would be easy to break for anyone determined enough, so maybe have a think about what you’re putting in there.

    Excellent load increasing kit all in all – just require a bit of planning to make full use of them.

    And +1 for roofbox.co.uk – they do provide a good service and quick delivery.

    howsyourdad1
    Free Member

    ok thanks so far. why does it matter if they open on both sides? My guess would be you want one side to open, on the other side to the driver’s side, I.e on the pavement?

    Also is a 15kg box manageable on you own? Not the weight so much, more the size…

    deadlydarcy
    Free Member

    ok thanks so far. why does it matter if they open on both sides? My guess would be you want one side to open, on the other side to the driver’s side, I.e on the pavement?

    Dunno about this myself. Being a shortarse, having it open on one side only is fine for me. I’d struggle to reach into the middle of the roof to grab something heavy. 😆

    Yes, it’s manageable on your own, bit of an awkward size so lifting it in through doorways would perhaps require a helping hand. Their fixing systems are all pretty intuitive these days. Just make sure and eye it up before final tightening to make sure it lies parallel to the car.

    garage-dweller
    Full Member

    If moving on my own I leave the bars attached to the bottom of the box and use them to carry it. I put the box on from the rear of the car by sliding the bars and box along the permanent roof rails gently – then I put the feet on the cross/rack bars and clamp them onto the cars roof rails.

    Roof box “borrowed” from my folks who weren’t using it. That was 4 years ago and it is very handy to have to hand!

    As said above security nit reassuring!

    The reason for two sided opening will become apparent if you want to use it in Europe. You can then open it on the drivers/kerb side. If it’s a half width box then you would need to mount drivers side to get the benefit while away. Ours is one sided though and is fine with care about where you unload.

    garage-dweller
    Full Member

    One more thing is if it foots with u bolts round the roof rack bars then I double up some of the nuts and fit the box to the bars before it goes on the roof.

    benp1
    Full Member

    One small but important point – Unless it folds, the larger the box the bigger the thing you need to store!!

    Sales pitch warning…

    I have two boxes at the moment, looking to move one on (no space for two!)

    Its huge (430 litres), will take snowboards no problem, its like a plastic coffin, I could lie down in it (I’m 6’3). Its Peugeot branded but is made by Thule, I’ve been using it on my 5 series

    Its this – http://www.caraccessoriesplus.co.uk/product/peugeot-roof-box-430-litre-maxi.html – Key for the lock is lost so I removed the lock (still have it), never got round to sorting it so just used bungies.

    You can have it for £35 if you pick it up from North London

Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

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