£60 well Spent

[fisherman]

Inevitably when we travel down to the house we have an uneven shaped load on the roof rack. Up until now we have covered it with one of those blue tarpaulins that you can by at the DIY store. During the drive the tarpaulin flaps and frets, wears holes in itself threatening to fill like a balloon and loosens the secondary over straps. Basically it is a general worry and we went through a new tarpaulin each trip.

For the last trip we purchased an old fashioned 540gsm proofed cotton canvas tarpaulin from the internet. What a difference it made it did not flap even at 70mph. The secondary straps stayed tight and it was a general lack of worry. It’s a bit greasy to touch and its like folding cardboard but the peace of mind is well worth the £60 we paid for it. Also in the long run we will also hopefully save money not having to replace it each trip.

[bubbles]

Surprised you didn't use one of your nets, Fisherman.

[Théière]

Maybe they had a ladder in it?

[fisherman]

I hade thought about it but my nets need to hold the whoppers (I say) I catch and would have been far too heavy :-)

[PaulT]

I find a roof box is the best way of transporting items on the roof.

Bought ours secondhand off of eBay - cost £100.

At the time a certain party asked 'what do you want that for'. However, only once have we made the trip without it. Going down it contains bits and pieces for the house and going back wine.

It is a Thule so there is a knob inside for each of the 'grips', just turn and they clamp on to the bar. Could not handle having to fiddle with ubolts etc.

Paul

[powerdesal]

[quote user="PaulT"]

I find a roof box is the best way of transporting items on the roof.

Bought ours secondhand off of eBay - cost £100.

At the time a certain party asked 'what do you want that for'. However, only once have we made the trip without it. Going down it contains bits and pieces for the house and going back wine.

It is a Thule so there is a knob inside for each of the 'grips', just turn and they clamp on to the bar. Could not handle having to fiddle with ubolts etc.

Paul

[/quote]

At 1 kg / litre + the weight of the glass I suspect you won't get many bottles of wine in a top box before hitting the load limit.

[sid]

Topbox; great for light, bulky stuff.

I worry about the shearing forces if you have to brake sharply with a heavy load up there. Roof load limit on my car for example (it has in-built rails) is 80kg including the weight of the rack; that's quite a lot... too much in my view! 70-odd litres of wine? Nah, in the boot, please.

[Russethouse]

We have a top box and load the car heaviest stuff at the bottom, better for fuel consumtion surely ?

[cooperlola]

I remember in the early 60s, setting off from Leeds for Italy with the four of us in our Ford Anglia and the luggage on the roof rack.  We were going for three weeks - parents and two kids - so I'll let your imaginations run riot as to how tightly everything was packed in and how much stuff we had.

Just after we had set off, my father's none-too-professional efforts at loading the thing gave up the ghost and the entire contents of several suitcases emptied themselves onto the road behind us.  Our holidays were always somewhat fraught but this one was rather more so than most after the start it got!

[cooperlola]

[quote user="Russethouse"]We have a top box and load the car heaviest stuff at the bottom, better for fuel consumtion surely ?[/quote]Certainly the handling can't be improved by raising the centre of gravity like that, one would imagine.

[Chancer]

[quote user="Russethouse"]We have a top box and load the car heaviest stuff at the bottom, better for fuel consumtion surely ?[/quote]

The disposition of the load centre of gravity will have no effect on fuel economy, stability? - certainly, as has been pointed out.

Removing the top box and any roof rack or roof rail cross bars will reduce fuel consumption.

My vehicle allways averages 65mpg on a run to/from the UK, I have a monstrous box trailer that is far to big for the towing vehicle, outboud to the UK unladen and with both roller doors open it managed 38mpg, the return journey heavily laden and closed it was down to 28mpg despite never going above 50mph.

How things have changed, when I was young I couldnt dream of a car returning 28mpg, not with the way I drove anyhow!!!

[La Guerriere]

Why is it that the amount of stuff taken always grows to fit the transport available? I don't think I've ever been over with spare space for years ... some sort of Parkinson's Law applies methinks.

[cooperlola]

[quote user="La Guerriere"]Why is it that the amount of stuff taken always grows to fit the transport available? I don't think I've ever been over with spare space for years ... some sort of Parkinson's Law applies methinks.[/quote][:D]

I used to be able to squeeze all I needed into my Micra with about 1 square centimeter left over somewhere under the passenger seat.  Now I've got a Note, it's about the same.[:)]

[just john]

I seem to be the converse of that inasmuch as mine is guaranteed to exceed whatever truck I have, from a kangoo to large estates to Trafic Van, though at least it's only one way, fuel consumption is always noticeable less on the return trip![:)]

[idun]

As we couldn't afford to change our car in the early 1980's we bought the very first Thule ski boxes that came out. Everyone said I was mad. In all the european countries we went through we had people staring at it and for a few years we didn't see another one.Ofcourse carefully packed it would take much more than skis and boots and sometimes no skis or boots at all. Personally I am a great roof box fan. It is locked and no one can see what is inside, if anything ofcourse. 

Before the ski box we had had just a roof rack,  and would load that, but I was never happy stopping and 'anyone' having fairly easy access to our stuff. When these things came down in price I bought rectangular boxes too, which are more convenient for cases etc.

 

 

[fisherman]

Roof boxes are great for relatively small pack-able things. Not much good for flat pack kitchens etc.

The catches don’t seem to be very good but they may have improved since ours was made. A couple of years ago the lid of our roof box on our motor home flew open on the motorway as we were heading up to catch the ferry. The French lorry drivers were very good swerving around our stuff strewn over the motorway. Fortunately we managed to collect everything, the worst damage being just a few scuff marks. - I put a strap around the box now just in case.

[ViVienne]

we bought a 2nd hand roof box too, and it's true we always manage to pack every single spare inch of space, after 10 years of owning the house I thought we would be just chucking in a bag and going.....it's never happened yet

[idun]

Our ski roof box was well made with good locks and despite of the use it had, was in good condition when we sold it just before we left France. I hope that our rectangular one is OK, I think it opens at the back, so I hope that it will never fly open.

No no flat packs in a roof box.