A few months ago I was loaned a Roomster S, 15" wheels, whilst my vRS was having its cambelt changed. I was impressed, it went in my garage OK, but I remember that there wasn't a lot of clearance between the tip of the aerial and the Henderson "up and over" door. I didn't measure it, but was happy that when the time to change came, it would fit!

I have signed up for a Roomster 3, 1.9TDI, and it is on the ship somewhere on route. Reading the brochure for the umpteenth time, I suddenly twigged that the Roomster 3 has 16" wheels, therefore the car will be 0.5" taller? I put a question mark because the tyre profile might nullify some of this increase, or it could even make it worse!

The aerial has a fixed rake as far as I know, you probably cannot cut a bit off without affecting its performance, so wonder if anyone knows the distance from the ground to the aerial tip. There will not be a problem driving in as the stub appears flexible on my vRS, but reversing out could cause some damage! It would also be a pain in the neck having to disconnect it every time it goes in and out.

I make the distance from the ground to the nearest parts of the door as 1875mm.

All the dimensions that I can find only quote ground to roof on the 15" wheels, they seem to ignore the aerial protusion which in my case appears to be a critical figure!

i would imagine that the height will be about the same, as the roomster 3 with 16" wheels runs on low profile tyres!

i think they are a 45 profile

Thanks for the reply, I did wonder if that might be the case! Since spotting the different wheel size I've measured everything in sight and come to the conclusion that not even the "S" model would go in, but it did! I know that it was a Sept registered demonstrator, so the height of the body hasn't been changed. We will find out for real inside a couple of weeks!

my roomster 3 goes in the garage no problem

I would go in mine but for the Maxi in there already! One reason I got the Roomie is that dimension-wise width and length its about the same as the Fabia Estate but has a more practical inside and more room in there as well... the Octy was too big for the garage!

You can always unscrew the aerial and fold it down flat

Remember the antenna on the 3 is likely to be at the front of the car rather than the rear due to the sunroof probably making it slightly lower

Yes, that's a valid point, hadn't thought about that! It is unfortunate that no-one at all had one in stock, or in the used vehicle plot. I might have twigged about the wheel size and done a bit more measuring. I am quite happy that the "S", or maybe it could have been a "2", went under the door without touching it, and this loan vehicle definitely had 15" wheels. Hopefully with the combination of low profile tyres, and possibly a front mounted aerial, the "3" will just fit! Thanks to all for your suggestions.

My aerial on my 3 is at the back.

Edited 1 March, 200917 yr by mdk1
pic added.

You know i have that the wrong way round. Mine is at the front on my Scout which means the 3 antenna will be higher at the back

Hi

It only takes a couple of seconds to unscrew and lower the aerial before putting the roomster in the garage but you need to remember to raise it again because the boot lid will catch it when opening. With a roomster 1,2 or scout and front mounted aerial you could leave it in the lowered position.

Nice picture Mike, mine on the way is exactly the same colour as yours, first time we have been able to see it on a real vehicle! It hasn't got the roofrails though, I guess you had those as an extra. Is there any chance please of asking you to measure how far the tip of the aerial is off the ground please. I keep trying to work out the calculation from the dimensions in the brochure, but I can see similar to my vRS, your aerial is not on the highest part of the curve of the roof. As long as it is less than 1880mm, there won't be a problem! As in the early part of the thread, I have had a demonstrator through the "up and over" door but it had 15" wheels. I remember there was little spare clearance, but the doubts are nagging me now when I twigged the level "3" has 16" wheels!

I've got the 1.9 tdi level 3 and its not easy to give an exact measurement to the tip of the aerial but the height of the clearance from floor to opened garage door is 1900mm and I have to lower the aerial to clear it

Approx 2030mm, I've just measured it!

Edited 2 March, 200917 yr by The PM

Can I first of all collectivelly thank everyone who helped with this query.

We have solved how we managed to get a September 08 registered Roomster into the garage without twanging the aerial! One of the family took a photograph and the aerial was FRONT mounted! It was just a general demonstrator, definitely not a Scout.

I looked in a new local dealers this morning, all Roomsters had front mounted aerials despite the latest brochure I collected showing them all on the rear of the roof!

So the Level 3 I have paid a deposit on has only just been built and had just been released from the factory. Will it be a front or rear aerial? If it's front it is worth waiting to try it in, if it is rear then no way will it go through a door only 1880mm high. I will have to purchase a shorter replacement aerial, there seem to be plenty on offer with 5mm threads which will just screw into the base and I'll keep the original just in case.

Question: Tried unscewing my present vRS aerial and it only comes so far out and then "freewheels". Is there a secret knack of getting it out please?

If its a glass roof then I think it will be rear mounted.

There are threads on here regarding removing the aerial. I think you have to pull it with some force after unscrewing.

To remove aerial, you should unscrew it from inside...

From here (when the aerial is located on the front)...

There are also some models without glass roof, but their aerial is located at the back

I had the same problem with my roomy 3 tdi, garage roof would catch aeriel on way out, after unscrewing it for several weeks I thought there must be an easier solution, and there is, just unscrew the aeriel,which is not removable, get a small file, and file a small flat on the piece of metal that the fibre glass rod is connected to, in the position that the aeriel clears your garage door, then tighten aeriel up onto the new filed flat, mine is approx half up, its been o/k for the 2.yrs. its been done,no lack of reception, there is one downside though, [which will depend on how far down you have to lay the aeriel.] when you open the boot, it may just catch the aeriel in its new position, and just bend it up fractonally, but for the piece of mind knowing that I`m not going to rip the aeriel off the roof, I`ve found it more than worth it. :thumbup:

Thanks Alan, that's a good idea well worth checking out before I try and pull the existing one out! We had a visit from a friend today who just happened to have a Scout. His aerial is front mounted and he drove in and out of my garage with 1" to spare at the lowest point. If only I had twigged the difference initially, I would have adapted to a model with a front mount. It arrives at the end of next week, so am now forming ideas of how to tackle it.

Ariel to High :thumbup:Why not bend it down a bit Problem solved or get a shorter one

Its not entering the garage that's going to cause a problem, it is very flexible, it's reversing should the end catch in one of the ribs or lips of the door. All the replies on here from Roomster 3 owners tell me that the aerial will be on the rear. Sadly I had tried a front mounted unit in the garage on a Roomster 2 and didn't twig the difference.between the models. Skoda themselves don't appear to know, and the dealer cannot remember. I've trawled through loads of used car lots on the web and seeded out Roomster 3,s and all the pictures of the vehicles on offer show a rear mount, the only exception was an AA test report on a 3 which showed it on the front! It didn't show the roof though, so my guess is that they used an existing photo rather than take their own, and showed the wrong variation!

Hopefully when it arrives, I'll persuade the dealer to remove the existing aerial and break off the retaining barbs. I'll then take it home and stop when the rod catches on the door and mark that point. I've then got two choices, either to chop off the existing with bolt croppers and glue the cap on again with superglue, or pop down to Halfords and buy the nearest fit less than the marked place on the rod.

Another little point has emerged. I gather from previous threads that you can establish, within a week or two, when the car was actually built. I am curious because the deal was clinched on the comment that mine was still at the factory and therefore hadn't stood out in a field for months on end. I am just curious to see if that was reasonably correct!

You can change the standard antenna for a Honda s2000 one which is 2-3 inches shorter. It will cost about £25ish and doesn't effect performance.

Using a Hilti laser measure and a bit of subtraction, the tip of my R3 aerial is 1m911 from floor level.

John

Many thanks for that, I've got 1.88m headroom at worst, 1.95 at best, so it is just the first bit which might cause a problem (the last on the way out though).

We will have to see how it works when I collect it. We do have a Honda dealer only a couple of miles away so Decron's suggestion is of great help as well.

I'll let you know what happens, hopefully it should arrive within the next 10 - 14 days.

I have a Scout and the aerial is mounted at the rear but I suspect that this is because of the panoramic glass roof, so if yours doesn't have the glass roof it'll probably be at the front.

Fred