Decent Roof bars sensible price

[stuart bowes]

Just thought I'd share details of the roof bars I just fitted

I did have a bit of a hunt around and found these at a pretty sensible price for ally bars, nice rounded style and not side-protruding

I bought them here and happy to say they fit very easily, (15mins on first try, probably 10mins or less next time) they come with locks not an optional extra, they are solid as well which I did wonder about, being telescopic, but that's not a concern. and rated to the car's maximum 100kg (a few a saw were only 75kg) not that I'd be too happy putting that much up there in all honesty

the telescopic parts are tight fitted not wobbly and anyway there are 4x alan-key bolts on each to lock it in position when you're at the desired width



happy as larry

[old onions]

Having seen the havoc caused by my friend (who was just up ahead at the time) losing 4 kayaks from his roof on the M4 just after the Severn Bridge, I would prefer to stick with a tried and tested supplier.

I know that Thule are expensive , but peace of mind is important to me.

His were Halfords "own brand" items . A bolt sheared under load and the whole rack and it's load just flew off at 60+ mph. Absolute carnage, and could have been very serious indeed. Luckily despite the evading action taken by everyone following , there were no collisions, but we had to await the Police before retrieving the kayaks from the 2 outer lanes.

[Willow place]

Lidl's Roof bars are Strong ,look very much like the ones of Stuart Bowes car .

[stuart bowes]

Generally I agree with the sentiment - you get what you pay for, but these being damn near £100 (after discount) for the set they're not exactly cheap toot, some times the difference between brands is literally just a little sticky label. other times it's cheap nasty crap, I will agree. the more pricey ones do have a more 'aerofoil' profile to them but I didn't buy into that making any noticeable difference. if you're worried about mpg either take them off, or have a load on there in which case it's totally irelevant

anyway.. any cheaper for the stylish alloy ones and I would be questioning the quality to be fair. less money and really you should probably go for the square section steel things that poke out from both sides because at least you know they're strong, even if they are ugly

The first thing I did was fit them, grab them and shake the living crap out of them to essentially try and pull them off the roof, I was convinced the volvo-fitted roof rails would fail before these things did so that was that

what I liked really was rather than just 'clamping' to your rails from both sides and relying on friction, which might loosen over time, these actually have a metal (rubber coated) strap that wraps around the bar. and then that's latched in place, internally, with a locking cap over the top. I'm really struggling to imagine any crazy scenario where that system could fail. unless you overload it maybe

obviously a load is only as good as the u-bolt fixings / ratchet straps / common sense you use to keep it on the roof.. I think we all know that's a given. for instance, strapping down to the car's own roof rails as well as these roof bars... I got 4 pretty strong ratchet straps I like to do things overkill

[stuart bowes]

Originally Posted by Willow place

Lidl's Roof bars are Strong ,look very much like the ones of Stuart Bowes car .

interested to see a link for that if you have one, I tried a few searches and came up with a few forums with people talking about sets of roof rails for £30-40 .. see that's where I would lean more towards old onion's way of thinking

maybe I'd be wrong but that just doesn't seem likely to be reliable. for a sparky or a window cleaner or something, just putting a ladder up there and going round urban places at 30mph all the time, yeah maybe I suppose

I'd probably be tempted to add some cable ties to each foot just in case

[Willow place]

The only Link I have is , I use them !! I have used them well over their weight limit at 60 mph for 2 hours with nothing loose, they are made in Italy and have a genuine website .

[Georgeandkira]

"...add some cable ties to each foot..." ?

Bolts, rubber covered metal bands, 50 to 80 mph wind resistance.....ZIP TIES FOR ADDED SAFETY?
Euro spec zip ties sure must be stronger than ours.

Coincidently, the last of the very few "lost cargo" mishaps I've witnessed was two-seater kayaks flying off an SUV on the New York Throughway. I slowed to let one of them skitter across my lane to the shoulder.

[stuart bowes]

well no I meant for the cheapy racks that just clamp on to each side of the bar, i don't need them on mine (plus, like I say it's always worth strapping down to the car's own rails as well anyway)

but still cable ties are ridiculously strong! well mine are anyway, I couldnt comment on US spec 'zip ties' lol it's surprising what you can do with a few of them in an emergency

[stuart bowes]

a little copy/paste..

Miniature Cable Ties have a tensile strength of 18 lbs.
Intermediate Cable Ties have a 40 lb. tensile strength.
Standard Cable Ties have a 50 lb. tensile strength.
Light Heavy Duty Cable Ties have a tensile strength of 120 lbs.
Heavy Duty Cable Ties have a tensile strength of 175 lbs.
Extra Heavy Duty Cable Ties have a tensile strength of 250 lbs.

a couple of good cable ties together and you can lift 100kg which is more than I weigh.. besides which it would only be to give you a few extra seconds to pull over before you sh!t your roof load all over the road

[stuart bowes]

Originally Posted by Georgeandkira

..Coincidently, the last of the very few "lost cargo" mishaps I've witnessed was two-seater kayaks..

interesting that, are people covering up the holes in the kayaks when they put them up there, I would definitely do that because god only knows how much drag would build up. probably wrap them with a tarp or something, and hole side down if possible rather than on the side.. I would say put a spray deck on it but that would probably just flap and come off in the wind

we dont have that issue our kayak/canoe is inflatable so it goes in the boot. pretty good as well tbh, it's rigid as anything when blown up. mainly for the kids to mess about in really.. was going to make a proper canoe, but time / effort / storage / saw the inflatable option and thought that'll do instead