roof racks not rails

[Bigpat Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bigpat]

Hi All

I had a set of Rhinos for my Peugeot 307 which were great with my Thule pod until they got pollaxed by a friend on their Cruiser on the garage door. So now I'm in the market for a new set of racks. So has anyone got any suggestions?

many thanks
Bigpat

[Guest Close Guest]

Might need to elaborate a bit further:
1. What car is it going on?
2. Will you be leaving the roof rails alone and putting on roof racks onto the rails, or putting roof racks directly onto the roof?
3. What are you using the racks for? Is it just for the pod? how big is the pod? What is the distance between the roof racks required by the pod?
4. Do you need a platform or a tray? If so, how big?
5. How much weight are you going to carry on the roof? How heavy is the pod?

[Silver petrol manual Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Silver petrol manual]

What are the point of rails anyway? Putting bars on them looks like they are too high, and you have to take them off if you want a decent rack!

[Madkore Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Madkore]

I like my rails as around town there is no wind noise/resistance, and then when I go away it is easy to attach the crossbars and my basket.

[rhs58 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rhs58]

Main use for the roof rails is good handholds when shampooing the roof!
And quick and easy to attach bars and platform basket.

[Bigpat Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bigpat]

Hi All

Been on the road with work and haven't had a chance to reply so here goes.
1. What car is it going on? - December 2007 120 GXL
2. Will you be leaving the roof rails alone and putting on roof racks onto the rails, or putting roof racks directly onto the roof? - undecided at this moment, the easiest way would be to attach to the existing rails, but night consider replacing the rails with racks
3. What are you using the racks for? Is it just for the pod? how big is the pod? What is the distance between the roof racks required by the pod? - As the Pod was attached to my earlier set of racks when they were crashed into the garage door there's not much left of the pod :-( So the racks will be for carrying long or bulky loads. At the moment we are not looking to replace the Pod as there is a tonne of room in the back of the Prado.
4. Do you need a platform or a tray? If so, how big? - Not looking for a platform at this stage
5. How much weight are you going to carry on the roof? How heavy is the pod? - Relatively light loads.

Thanks again
Bigpat.

[Guest Close Guest]

Well I guess it comes down to how long and how bulky.

For carrying really long items, you are better off replacing the rails with a 3-bar roof rack. This also increase your carrying capacity from 80kg to 100kg. Note that the carrying capacity includes the weight of the racks.

For carrying bulky items (depends what you call bulky), you may need a platform or a tray. Rhino-rack have many choices but my preference is the Pioneer platform. Being over 1.9m long, it is also good for long items.

But if you don't need racks for something too long or too bulky, then the neatest racks that can go on the rails is from Rola http://www.rola.com.au/roof-racks.aspx#RBXL. They go between the rails and give it a low profile finish and aerodynamic as well. The next one is the Rhino Sportz (Rola also has one similar). And then comes the HD bars for which I think only Rhino does them to suit the factory rails.

If you are after the 3-bar HD racks that attaches directly to the roof, get them from Toyota as this is the only item I found sold by Toyota that is cheaper than a retail shop. I got mine for $282 for the set after a 10% discount.

Also see Lorenzo's post which links to an ebay copy of the Rhino alloy tray.

[samo Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close samo]

it depend what you want to put on the roof, i have the h.d toyota crossbars as well as a 1800mm x 1010mm rhino tray, and i have put 3 1/2 wine barrels up ther, i bets thats more then 100kgs lol and i did hit 100kmh . cheers samo

[ghorne68 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close ghorne68]

Hey Bigpat,
I have a set of 3 Rhino Racks HD Bars Black. So far I've only used them to transport a couple of lengths of pvc stormwater if you are interested in buying them?
Greg