Dear esteemed Briskodarians,

 

Looking at getting a bigger roofbox for our increasing camping gear/growing kids etc. I currently have a Karrite Contour 380 which comes in at arond 1500mm long x 900 x 400.

 

What is the biggest/longest that you have successfully fitted to a Hatch? Any recommendations most welcome.

 

Thanks

 

I use a Farad 450 which is about 1800 long x 780. It opens both sides so you don't need to dodge traffic if you are parked on the street. Had it 6 years and given it plenty of abuse with camping gear and trips to France. Doesn't dent the mpg too much and stays on at "motorway speed".

Not very helpful, but I use a Kemei husky xxl on my octavia estate. It's 2 metres long. I don't think I'd want to use anything longer. 

 

You could possibly use it on the hatch......with a bit of windscreen overhang.  

Edited 16 July, 201312 yr by booke23

Thanks for the replies so far. I'm looking at a 2000mm long box but a bit worried it might overhang too much and be unstable/dangerous etc. Anyone fitted such a big box to a hatch before? Might consider a shorter box of 1800 but then don't know if the small volume increase it offers would be worth the outlay?

It'll certainly fit, but the question is how much will it impede the tail gate from opening. 

 

I assume you don't have roof rails and will be using roof bars that attach to anchor points. This will limit the amount of fore and aft movement you have available to reduce snagging on the tail gate......having said that, if you look at a photo of the hatch and estate with their tail gates open, the hatch tail gate when open forms a larger angle to the roof than the estate tail gate(its almost 90 degrees). So it might be fine.

 

Even if it does snag a bit, maybe you could live with it for occasional use.   

Maybe it helps. I did a 2000km trip in March, delivering a pack of printed on glass photos to Nordkapp in Norway. So a lot of highway speeds in Finland (120km/h) and coastal winds + a snow storm in Norway that shut down most of the roads in the area. The package was 3,4 meters long, 80cm wide and about 15cm high, attached directly to the roof bars with a regular ratchet strap. No vibration, no problems, it didn't even have an idea it was on. So don't be afraid of overhang in the front. It overhung in the front so I could actually see it from my driving position.

You are restricted to 75kg of weight in the box which unless you are packing lightweight, bulky items soon adds up. I can easily pack 75kg of clothes and kids stuff in my Thule Atlantis 780 with space to spare.

Heres mine with a exodus 580L no probs driving at 82mph all the way to south of France with the camping gear.

You are restricted to 75kg of weight in the box which unless you are packing lightweight, bulky items soon adds up. I can easily pack 75kg of clothes and kids stuff in my Thule Atlantis 780 with space to spare.

 

You are restricted to 75kg of weight on the roof in total. This includes the roof box and roof bars. You have to subtract the weight of the box and bars to work out how much weight you can actually put in the box.

 

In my case my (admittedly very large) roof box weighs 15kg and the roof bars are 3kg. This leaves me 57kg of capacity in the box......which is more than enough for the kind of things I put in there.  

Edited 17 July, 201312 yr by booke23