How many Thule cycles carriers can you fit on the roof rails?

Family of 4.

Will 4 full size bikes / carriers fit?

Also open to suggestions of other manufacturers of rails / carriers 🙂

Thanks!!

We have six on our two Tourneos

I have 4 on the roof of a civic ep4

3 and a roof box on my mates audi

What weight rating has the roof got? What weight rating has the roof bars got? What car do you have? How heavy are the bikes?

If the weight of the bikes are less than the lower weight of the roof rating or roofbars AND the roof is wide enough, then yes, go for it.

Car width can be adapted to fit more bikes if you stack them head to toe (but watch the bars as they may end up hitting each other).

Most Thule bars appear to have a load rating of 70 or 75Kg…I’ve got a set of Yuro bars (from Nordrive) – https://www.micksgarage.com/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=6070015&modelid=6738 – and they are rated for 90Kg…the roofbars on the car are rated for 75Kg, but I know both are plenty strong enough to carry bikes.

Make sure you get T track bars and fixings as these give you more usable width than the ones with clamps under the bars.

4 easily, subject to roof weight limits as said.

Most Thule carriers can have the loading side reversed (not the work of a moment however), so you can alternate forwards/backwards facing and still have the opening on the right side.

Make sure you get T track bars and fixings as these give you more usable width than the ones with clamps under the bars.

This, for that reason.

(We have clamps under the bars, which as also less secure)

T track FTW. Reckon I could get 6 on if needed.

but I know both are plenty strong enough to carry bikes.

I think it’s more an issue of what happens if you need to swerve out the way of something.

The car roof itself will take the weight of the whole car and then some.

Swerving out the way of a car on the motorway with 6.5% of the cars weight 6ft above your head might be the difference between a “does no one check their blind spots when merging anymore” rant on STW and a trip into the central reservation or worse.

Roof can, but roofbars likely won’t…

Don’t get the wingbar edge bars if you’re planning on putting 4 up there and the bars are quite short (i.e. don’t extend beyond feet).. 3 would be doable on my 1 series but 4.. not a chance!

As above – on the proride 598 you can switch the loading side so you can access the controls from the side of the car. It’s a really quick straightforward job on the 598 – not sure about other models

Roof can, but roofbars likely won’t…

Someone making progress had managed to flip his Merc estate inside the 40mph limit in our village, I remember thinking the roof rails looked remarkably intact, they’d ground down to almost nothing at the front, but hadn’t collapsed!

I could fit 4 on my BMW 1 series. On a Passat Estate with slightly wider than normal aero bars I managed to squeeze three bikes and a skinny roof box for a drive to the south of France – if it was just bikes I probably could have got 5-6 on there. Spinning the bars by 90 degrees makes fitting them close together much easier.