I had hoped that my old Freelander Roof Bars would fit my new Yeti but unfortunately the Yeti rails circumference is huge. I need to get a new set but the options only seem to be Skoda themselves, horribly expensive, or Thule. Have people tried the Thule ones and if so are your happy with them?

There seems to be a little confusion on some "build your own websites" over whether you need bars at 120cm or 127cm. What is the experience of people here?

Are there other options? I contacted Mont Blanc but they do not have them for a Yeti at this stage.

Edited 20 July, 201015 yr by EdmundBlackadder

I had hoped that my old Freelander Roof Bars would fit my new Yeti but unfortunately the Yeti rails circumference is huge. I need to get a new set but the options only seem to be Skoda themselves, horribly expensive, or Thule. Have people tried the Thule ones and if so are your happy with them?

There seems to be a little confusion on some "build your own websites" over whether you need bars at 120cm or 127cm. What is the experience of people here?

Are there other options? I contacted Mont Blanc but they do not have them for a Yeti at this stage.

Funny enough I have just ordered Thule roof bars and a roof 'bag' for my Yeti from fasteronline.co.uk. , as we have booked a last minute cottage for a few days near Pickering North Yorks, during the upcoming school summer holidays.

And of course our dogs take up most of the boot!

Thule 775 Rapid Crossroad Railing Foot Pack XWIDE (THU775) = £52.99

Thule 861 Rapid System T Track Bars (THU861) = £53.99

Cheapest roofbars I could find online

Edited 20 July, 201015 yr by BigHusky

BigHusky - My reasoning is similar, a cottage in The Lakes, dog in the boot etc. You have gone for 120cm bars, are they long enough? Have you driven with the Aero bars yet? I am wondering whether I can justify the extra for the Aero bars over the standard ones. If they are much quieter then they are worth the extra £25.

Hi

Have a look at this thread:

Roof Bars

The Lidl ones were 120cm in length and whilst they look nice and neat with no overhang for ease of use I reckon 127cm would be better.

Thanks

S

SimonVespa - Thanks for that link. That certainly answers one of the questions.

Have you driven with the Aero bars yet? I am wondering whether I can justify the extra for the Aero bars over the standard ones. If they are much quieter then they are worth the extra £25.

I have 100cm Thule aero bars on the A2 and wanted to transplant them to the Yeti when I heard you need 127cm ones... OH well.

Are they worth the difference? Well the difference is not as much in the bar but in how the things clamp to the the bars. With the standard bars you clasp things around the bar with ugly bolts pointing at your roof. Should you have a sunroof I'd be very wary in opening the sunroof with these bolts pointing down as the Yeti has an up-and-over sunroof. With the aerobars the stuff you attach has little T-shaped brackets that slide into the aero bar. Thus nothing will be sticking down below the cross bar. A far neater solution that would also I suspect lead to less wind noise - not from the bars themselves but from the lack of bolts and nuts protruding.

The aero bars can sing though when they get wet! Just like a wine glass at certain speeds, with the right amount of moisture and the wind from a certain direction they can start to whistle due to the gap pointing up. I suspect if you seal this open area with some tape after installing your bike rack, roof box etc this singing will stop. But to be honest it does not bother me much. The closed normal bars might sing less when they get wet since they don't have this opening at the top to slide things into.

Edit: fatfinger

Edited 20 July, 201015 yr by 900000

Hi,

I literally ordered them this morning so expect to get the bars and roof bag before the weekend. When I get the bars fixed I'll post a photo!

I imagine either the kids or 200+ songs on the SD card will hopefully drown out any noise lol. But if it really is intrusive I'll try some tape. Thanks for that tip 900000

I once bought Automaxi bars for a car I had, I forget which one now. They whistled horribly above 50mph and so I emailed them to ask if I was doing anything wrong. They came back and simply said, "yes we know the problem with that model of bars, it can be rather annoying". Thankfully they offered a full refund.

I have had the square bars on a Vectra before and they didn't make any particular noise really. I think you have to be realistic with these on the noise front. If you are putting bars and a roof box on your car then there is clearly going to be some impact but it is the really annoying whistle that is the problem, not general bluster. As you say, 2 kids in the back and music on should drown out most of the wind noise.