XC90 - Good buy or not?

[MOCP0101]

Originally Posted by Quacker

I've been blissfully ignorant of roof rails and cross bars, so forgive me for asking what makes the low profile rails less suitable for your use, whatever that is, and apparently less secure? I'm at a complete loss as to why any of this should be so.

I'm a pretty serious canoeist and kayaker, and spend every weekend with boats loaded on my car. Some of them are 16-17ft long.

It's a bit of a personal obsession but I feel that low profile bars where the cross-bars or roof rack have to clamp on, just have less margin for error. If for some reason they work loose (and mine are under load every weekend - and no I don't check them anywhere near often enough), they are just going to come off under load.

Sadly boats coming off roof racks and rails systems is a pretty regular thing (not for me but in general). Two or three 16 foot boats on your roof is a huge aerodynamic load. It's not uncommon for us to drive 600 miles like that.

With my current raised roof rails and Thule aero bars, the bar is held on by a rubber enclosed steel strap. Even when you loosen it right off for removal, you still have to manually pry it apart to take it off, so if it worked loose it isn't going anywhere by itself. Also with a raised roof rail you can pass a strap around the main rail so if the cross bar somehow works loose you have added security in the main roof rail.

Also as we travel around quite a lot throughout the year, it is pretty common to have to leave boats on cars overnight outside inns and hostels. Using cables and bike locks you can lock things to the roof rails, but only if they are raised. Low profile bars don't seem to have any scope for this. It's not uncommon to have to leave 2K-3K worth of boats overnight.

One of the attractions of the XC90 is the rated 100Kg max roof load which is shared by only a few vehicles. Most only claim about 75Kg. With a canoe weighing 30Kg typically it means three boats instead of just two.

[Quacker]

Thanks for the explanation which makes complete sense.

I have the low roof rails on the XC90 Inscription but raised ones on the Land Cruiser. I have never used them and probably never will. Not because I don't carry big loads but because I have trailers plus a pickup truck with ladder rack. I do fancy a roof box at weak moments for when a crowd of us go on holiday though.