Hello

The time has finally come that I need a roof box. A few times a year now I need to hump more stuff around than I can fit in the car. I’ve decided on the box I want, and plan to use it across both my cars.

I already have roof bars for my Superb III hatchback, but need something for the Fabia. It’s a Combi and has roof rails, so I just need a cheap set of cross bars that will grip the rails and won’t fly off at 70mph on the motorway.

Looking to spend at most £60. Any recommendations please? Thanks.

I bought a pair of used thule areo bars from ebay 120 cm wide and a 757 fitting kit which clamps onto the roof rails these are qiuck realease and only take a few minutes to put on and remove you can also use the 775 foot pack but these use a very thick rubber type strap that also goes around the rail and then clips into the body of the clamp then you use the knob to tighten them up, but I pefer the latter 757 kit much better as they clamp both sides of the rail and tighten from both sides and seem to be more solid, you could buy the cheaper square bars from thule but they are very noisy when you go ubove 40 mph the areo bars are great for normal motorway speeds, you can use the newest evo bars but they are much nore expensive, i kept my bars off my mk2 fabia and used them with the 757 clamps on my mk3 as there was only 10cm dufference in bar length for the MK3 (shorter)

Thanks. Will keep those in mind. I happened to spot that Amazon was doing its own Amazon Basics ones on offer for just over £40, so I grabbed a pair. They are arriving on Monday, so we will see then if they are any good.

Check the load carry capacity. My mate had a cheap set and he over did it with filling a roof box and it didn't end well. Amazing it didn't hit anyone or another car but went a fair distance down the road when he had to brake suddenly.

Alasdair

A quick update. the Amazon Basics roof rails arrived the other day. Very good quality aero rails with T-channel and rubber filler strips for both the top track and the lower foot track.

One problem - There were too sizes available and I bought the cheaper of the two, which turned out to be slightly too big for the car. Even with the clamps set as far in as possible, it wasn't quite enough. They are going back today and the other, smaller, size is arriving on Monday.

But, beyond that I'm pretty confident with these. Build quality seems very good, supports up to 75KG load (which is in line with the roof boxes I'm looking at), has the option for T-track attachment of the roof box or a bike holder (I already own a Thule roof bike holder with T-fitments), easy enough to maneuver and fit on my own and seem to grab the Fabia's rails firmly when done up (was able to test this with the ones going back).

Oh, and the replacements are still £15 inside my budget, so all good there.

Next challenge is going to be the roof box. Went to Halfords yesterday. I'm looking at boxes in the 400L+ range. After looking at what they had, I have decided that I need a box I can open from either side (mainly to make it easier to get it on and off the car and attach it), and ideally one that's easy to fit and undo (so no U-bolts). The Halfords Advanced 470L and Thule box of a similar sizer have these great claw fittings that wrap around the roof bar and are geared so they can't be over tightened. That said, the cheapest option Halfords had at the size I want with all these features is £440! More than I wanted to spend if I'm honest.

There's one on Amazon - the Costway 400L box - which has all these features and is only £250. Anyone have any experience of this one?

You could see if anyone is selling second hand one. Mate got a decent halfords one for £100

Alasdair

The shorter Amazon Basics roof bars arrived about half an hour ago - and they are a perfect fit!

So, with that sorted I'm turning attention to roof boxes.

From Halfords, there's this one (which I can same some money on via a friend's staff discount): https://www.halfords.com/motoring/roof-boxes/halfords-advanced-470l-roof-box---black-338374.html

From Amazon, this slightly smaller one seems to offer very good value for money: https://www.amazon.co.uk/TANGZON-Extra-Large-Roofbox-Opening-Waterproof/dp/B0C77CLCQX?th=1

Both have claws that wrap around the bar, rather than T-bolt or U-Bolt fitments (and they are geared so you can't over-tighten them).

Just to close the loop on this (and in case it's helpful to anyone), I ordered the roof box today. Decided in the end to go a different direction. I ordered the Halfords Advanced 540L Soft Folding Box (with help from a friend's staff discount). So quite big (540L - 140L bigger than the Amazon one I was looking at), but much easier to store, and hooks around the aero bars rather than using U-Bolts. There's also the possibility that I could replace the hooks with T-bolts in due course. But given I only need the roof box 3-4 times a year at most, this seemed like a good balance of size, cost, ease of fitting and ease of storage when not in use. It's also openable on either side.

It folds flat and folds over (and has a storage bag) when not in use.