Hello all,

I'm looking to get some roof bars for my Estate, I seem to recall they are around the £125 mark from Skoda, but a quick check on eBay shows lots of options that are much cheaper, particularly a manufacturer called "Thule", who have a quite impressive website.

Can anyone recommend any of these bars, or the Thule products?

Regards,

Richard.

Thule are A1. My preferred choice

:iagree:

Re: Thule, I see you can get the squarish black bars or the aero bars. I can see someone recommended the aero bars in a previous thread because of noise, but I'm still tempted by the black bars, purely on price. Are the aeros really worth the extra money?

Re: Thule, I see you can get the squarish black bars or the aero bars. I can see someone recommended the aero bars in a previous thread because of noise, but I'm still tempted by the black bars, purely on price. Are the aeros really worth the extra money?

Depends what you're using them for, on my Scout I only intend to use them with a roof box and as a result most of the length of the roof bar sits inside a recess on the bottom of the box and therefore is out of the airflow, so little difference in this application.

IMHO Aero bars do look better, is they're going to be left on and probably are quieter and more fuel efficient.

I paid £87 including delivery from The Roof Box Company for Thule square bars and fittings. As others have said, Thule are top quality and most of the car manufacturers own-branded products are in fact made by them, including Skoda's AFAIK.

THule make the Skoda ones...

Depends what you're using them for, on my Scout I only intend to use them with a roof box and as a result most of the length of the roof bar sits inside a recess on the bottom of the box and therefore is out of the airflow, so little difference in this application.

IMHO Aero bars do look better, is they're going to be left on and probably are quieter and more fuel efficient.

I paid £87 including delivery from The Roof Box Company for Thule square bars and fittings. As others have said, Thule are top quality and most of the car manufacturers own-branded products are in fact made by them, including Skoda's AFAIK.

I'm looking to carry a SOT-kayak (10'). I'm not overly concerned with how they look, I'm only likely to be travelling short distances with the kayak so fuel consumption isn't a huge concern either. I do plan on fitting/removing them before/after use, I won't have them on the car the vast majority of the time. I've seen them for approx £84 on eBay, looks like I'll go for those then!

What's the advantage to having lockable bars? I take it the bars could be easily removed (along with the kayak/roofbox/etc) otherwise?

I've seen them for approx £84 on eBay, looks like I'll go for those then!

What's the advantage to having lockable bars? I take it the bars could be easily removed (along with the kayak/roofbox/etc) otherwise?

If the ebay one's are Thule, sounds good, but if not pay the extra 3 quid and get genuine (lockable) Thule one's instead!!!!

They are very easy to attach/remove. Locks just mean they can't be unbolted without being unlocked.

Thule roof bars last well enough that they'll likely be the last you'll ever buy and with different fitting kits you can move them between cars too, so a few quid extra to get higher spec ones won't make a huge difference divided by the time they last.

If the fitting of the bars is tool free (Many of them use plastic cams to tension the locking bolts) you'll need to locking ones unless you're planning on taking the bars off every time the car is parked out of your view. There's still a bit of a whistle on the aero bars (They're still quieter than square ones), but you can quieten them down a lot by moving the bars forwards or backwards on the roof of the car.

I've got some Skoda/Thule/Lockable bars from my previous Oct Mk1 Estate. Don't know if they'd fit yours. But I could do with shifting if your interested. They're probably not the newest condition in the world but they work fine.

I got fleeced for £180 when buying from the main dealer.

Pm if interested , I could at least send you a picture.

:confused:Thule have 2 types of feet listed for the estate 415 + 757 and don't have any listed for the scout (09 FL ) are the roof bars the same profile/size as I already have some bars I could get away with just buying some feet. cheers - Stuart.

Both will fit the car the difference depends on the type of bars - 757's are for the rapid fit bars (with adjuster on the end of the bar) and 415 are for the traditional system (standard balck bars no adjuster on the end of the bars).

:thumbup:Thanks for that I will price up the 415 feet, do you know if the car roof bar profile has changed from the thule catalogue specs to the ones fitted on the latest Scout ? cheers - Stuart.

AFAIK all Octavia II Roof Rails have the same profile...

Re: Thule, I see you can get the squarish black bars or the aero bars. I can see someone recommended the aero bars in a previous thread because of noise, but I'm still tempted by the black bars, purely on price. Are the aeros really worth the extra money?

I have used Thule bars now for a long time, and wouldnt but any others. They re good quality, easy to fit and easily interchangable with different fitting kits to fit different cars.

Some of the cheaper bars I have seen used in the past dont fit aswell, and tend to bow in the middle when they are used to carry load.

As for the Aero bars, im my opinion they are not worth the extra money. For a start you are fitting them to an Estate which already has roof rails which produce some additional wind noise, and I dont find my Octy II estate significantly louder with the standard bars on then with out, and I also heve upright for holding my canoe.

Secondly, I dont see the point in the aero bars as the whole reson for fitting the bars in the first place is to enable you to carry a load on the roof, this will add to the noise and the aerodynamics of the car so why pay extra for Aero bars and then tie a big box to the roof of the car.

My advice is to go for the standard bars, and if you are concerned about the noise and aerodynamics, just take them off when not needed, the Thule bars are very easy to fit, and can be removed and re-fitted in a matter or minutes.

Another vote for Thule Aero here, you can get them on ebay way under rrp, mine stay on all the time with a bike rack (i remove the box when not in use) and I can still get 600 miles from a tank.

I had genuine Skoda aero type bars on my old combi. One thing to take note of is the type of clamps or fittings of what you are attaching to them as the bars are quite wide. For instance my Ladder clamps only just hooked around them and a cycle carrier I have didn't fit at all as it was designed for the square roof bars.