How would these rate against trad. roof bars. I have just takenon a second dog &am studying logistics for camping. Want to put my Khyam vis-a-vis on roof to use rearseats for camping kit. Dogs in rear behind grill. Lone traveller so seat free. What is loading limits & stability of these. Thanks
------------- Cryptian
Life is not a rehearsal--It's the real thing !
Also watch the weight you put on them as they are directly on your roof. We have the Handi rack and used it last weekend to transport very long wood! Much prefer it to fixed roofbars but it's horses for courses, depends on your needs.
We have one (handirack) its fine, OH puts his sea kayak on it, main reason we had it was planning on swapping the car, and roof racks are expensive, and dont fit any car like the handirack does.
I've been looking up these inflatable roof racks and have come across the Northcore soft roof rack. Has anyone ever used these? I'm looking at getting a kayak for my other half and will need a roof rack.
------------- Get me my dust pan and brush, we're going camping!
Bear in mind that you can't use the Handirack if your car has side curtain airbags or if your roof has much of a 'dome' to it. You need to sit in the front seat with a piece of string between the tops of the front doors to see where the strap will go. On my car, the strap would touch my head. I'm fairly tall, so it may not be a problem for others.
We use the HandiHoldall on normal roofbars. If you buy the package, you get the HandiHoldall, roof bar fitting kit and one HandiDuffel, which is a tough nylon bag that fits inside the HandiHoldall. Two of these will fit inside the HandHoldall.
Whilst the HandiHoldall is not totally waterproof (we've had a little water get in through the zip), If you use HandiDuffels then the contents will stay dry. Another advantage of the Duffels is that you can pack them off the car and you've only got two items to load into the roofbag. Works fine for us as we only use the bag for soft, light, bulky items such as sleeping bag, quilt, towels, carpet etc.
Was okay the first time we used when we went to Scotland. Need to make sure the anchor tapes are secure - can be prone to 'snapping' on the car as you drive at speed. Making a lovely whistling noise.....
Drawback we found with them is that the securing ropes go inside the car.....and we found that on a very rainy day the rain travelled down the strap and into the car.
Second time we used it, not sure what we did different. But on our way down to Dorset - in the pouring rain (again) I heard a couple of pinging noises, thought it was the wagon we were overtaking....back in the first lane and I felt an almighty tug on the car. Hard shoulder exit just in time as we lost the entire load off the top of the car. Not good!!
Luckily we had made it to the hard shoulder as I shudder to think of the results of us not having made it. Mind you the beeps we got from passing traffic was not exactly friendly. I sat in the car, shaking and crying with fear. We retrieved the contents of the rack, manged to squash it into the remaining space of the car (hubby had to sit on a laod of stuff) went to the next services and sorted it out.
Needless to say we have not used it since.
Not sure if we overloaded it, or if the bungy type straps ahd twisted and then frayed/snapped with the wind resistance.
We also bought a rack-in-a-bag system. Have used it for one camping trip and also to transport sons life to Uni last September.
As said before, it does make some strange and annoying noises at speed but these can usually be altered by sticking your hand out and adjusting the sponge strap supports whilst driving (not for the faint hearted!)
I would like to know what your insurance company makes of these fittings. They don't attach to manufacturers recommended points. They don't apply weight load to the normal roof rack loading points.
On the surface seems a good idea, but with probably a compromise or two too far.
I have a set of handi rack roof bars and have found lots of problems so beware,
The bars will mark/scratch your roof as they move about while driving.
When it rains the straps get soaked and the water runs into the car and drips .
The weight of what ever you carry on them is transmited directly onto the roof of the car and not to the designed load points, this can lead to a dented roof.
I carried kayaks on mine and no matter how well they were fasened on you could always see them wobble about while driving.
Definatly not as safe to use as fixed bars (in my opinion)
Apart from that they are great, wouldn't be without mine
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Topic: Inflatable Roof Racks
