We are now seriously thinking of investing in a roof box, we are fed up of playing car tetris especially when packing away on site and feel it would be much easier.
Ive been looking at either Thule or Exodus and wondered if anyone has any good or bad experiences of them? Also are the aero bars worth the extra money? They seem a heck of a lot pricier so im wondering what the benefits are.
Im presuming they are watertight or would you put stuff in bin bags just in case? Sorry for all the questions but i really have no idea of these things. I am presuming they are easy to fit!
Ours is an old Thule. It's the long ski version so is fitted to one side. We haven't needed for use it for years but we tended to put things in it that didn't matter if they go wet like camping chairs & our heavy duty vinyl holdalls. Never noticed any water ingress. We used aero bars & they were quiter than the square profile ones.
Using a Kamie Husky XXL at the moment, at 510lt it’s as big as you would need, there is the Farad F3 at 680lt, but that box weighs in at 22kg so could impact on the load you carry.
The Kamiei Husky XXL is rated to 75kg, but the car I am using at the moment has a 60kg limit for the roof rails as the car has a moon roof.
By the time I factor in the weight of the roof bars and foot pack, load weight capacity for the Kamie Husky XXL is down to 35kg, to be fair we only put the bulky lightweight stuff in the roof box, and I have managed to stuff it full, and keep to 35kg.
My friend uses a roof box for camping with the kids. Will ask which it is. He takes his off with roof bars attached and puts in the tent living area to store all the clothes. Good idea i thought.
------------- Martin
Born again Camper.
Force 10 Nitro 200+
Vango F10 Xenon UL 2 Tent
Wild Country Zephyros 1
We've had a couple of Kameis - got one, it was great - had more kids - bought a bigger one. German engineering with a long warranty too. Get from roofbox co uk with associated UKCS discount.
I personally wouldn't get any other make now-a-days. Never had a Thule or Exodus, but you see lots about which I think probably means they are reasonable.
We use aero bars. We've had both square and aeros and aeros have been much quieter at speed on the cars we've had. I guess its all aero dynamics.
We have had a Thule Touring M for a couple of years it's always been fine and never had any problems with water ingress. Looking at the Halfords website, the Exodus boxes look nigh on identical in terms of construction with the mountings that make it quick and easy to put the box on and off.
We use square bars, you do get some noise without the box on at speed but you don't seem to with the box on
Yep, I would add that square steel bars are fine for using with a roofbox, no noticeable sound.
On the VW Golf we had the Mount Blanc Classic kit, the bars were particularly heavy duty maybe 2.5mm thick metal.
The Ford Kuga I am using now, has the raised roof rails, so even better than the VW Golf, only needed to get the roof bars with fitting kit, so went for the Thule unit, well impressed as it even comes with a 4nm fixed 5mm torque wrench to ensure that you don’t over tighten the clamps, which helps avoid damaging the roof rails.
Again the bars are about 2.5mm steel in thickness, and are rated to 100kg, overkill to be fair, but what will do more, will do less!
Son is in the trade so got the Thule setup last week £87 which was defo mates rates, and about the same price that I paid for the amount Blanc Classic Roof-rack over ten years ago, which was also mates rates from a friend who owns a local car accessory shop.
I just bought a large roof box from neither of the manufacturers you mentioned... may not be much help, but it worked out significantly cheaper than halfords and I got Thule aerobars for the same price as I'd have had square bars from halfords... get them from roofbox.co.uk and got a free "hoisting kit" for storing it on the roof of the garage - worth checking out if you haven't bought already! Mine comes tomorrow, I can't wait.
I must say, my 30's have been far less exciting than i imagined...
------------- My biggest fear is that when I die, my wife sells all my toys for what I told her I paid for them.
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: Roof Box - Thule Or Exodus?
via mobile 23/6/2019 at 6:14pm
