Aug 2013 Italy Road Trip

[roy90]

+1 for france and Italy in August, catching the ferry over to Cherbourg on the 6th and going down via Luxembourg , Germany, Switzerland for the alps, have 1 month to spend touring!! Will keep an eye on this thread for must haves, it's our first proper trip away in the cruiser!

 

[Crispin]

should have just organised a convoy for the trip. Hundreds (well, 10s) of LCs arriving

I'll be taking a roofbox (will have 6 people in LC). When you arrive you can take the box off and lock it to something and forget about it to the rest of the time. It's as secure as being bolted to the top of your car.

 

[warrenpfo]

Roof box it is then.

 

[Gav Peter]

We're just starting our preparations for our road trip into France for a month in the summer hols



Have opted for roofboxes!!!

 

[warrenpfo]

Nice boxes, what brand are they?

I have booked the ferry DFDS leave the 8th at 6:00 and return the 25th at 18:00.

 

[Crispin]

Curious - why ferry? Train is quicker (by a massive amount), costs the same (or cheaper) and the last ferry I was on looked like it had been hired by Yobs-R-Us

 

[warrenpfo]

Simple, price

Train = £224
DFDS ferry = £75

 

[AndyCook]

Depending on where you are in UK - ferries can make life easier

Coming from Aberdeenshire - it makes sense to take Hull-Zeebrugge ferry or Newcastle-Amsterdam

since Aberdeen to Hull is 425miles - approx 8-9hrs drive with breaks

going onto Dover etc would be 645miles 11-12hrs - which is a massive killer to do in the day, and you would maybe need to stay over somewhere before crossing the channel, or as soon as you arrive in France.


so ferry works well for us, as its a easier days drive and saves a couple hundred miles and driving round M25!, then overnight on ferry, and arrive in Europe the following morning.
and using Avios it costs little or nothing!

 

[Gav Peter]

Nice boxes, what brand are they?

Would you believe they are Mercedes boxes Warren!?! They are absolutely awesome!!!

I borrowed my sister in law's box (Ooer missus!!!) earlier in the year for our trip to Bude & it was hopeless; it took me & the bro in law to shut it for the journey home & every time I opened/shut it, it felt like the key was going to snap in the lock, the key being the thing that operated the sliding/locking bar.

On these, there's a handle for the locking bar & the key just locks the handle; the quality is awesome & compared to what I was planning on spending for two similarly sized new ones... Thanks Fleabay

 

[warrenpfo]

Like this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedes-...ccessories_Touring_Travel&hash=item3f260fbeae

if so any indication as to what it should go for?

 

[Gav Peter]

Very similar dude but ours have the handles on the sides & a flat bottom; has the same sort of support bars inside. I paid a bit more than that per box & the sale included a set of the roof bars which I have used to fix the two boxes together with.

I was looking at over £500 from the roof box co for two new long slender boxes so well chuffed with these

 

[warrenpfo]

Thanks, I quite like the look of these.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedes-...ccessories_Touring_Travel&hash=item3cd27e5146

Combined they are 400l or I can just use the one.

 

[Gav Peter]

They look more like the era ours are Warren - sadly I recognise the screws in the base holding them to the roof rail & the ratchet arm that holds them open is the same as ours. The clamps look similar to the ones that came with ours too...

I drilled new holes in ours to fit them to the Rhino bars on Oiley with zebedees (nut with a spring on the back designed for unistrut etc) so you can only take them off from the inside.

They look pretty neat if you can get them for a good price

 

[warrenpfo]

Gav

I have been offer both for £100 but have counter offered £80. What are your thoughts?

UPDATE: Secured for £80 with collection on Saturday.

 

[silvercruiser]

Bargain

 

[warrenpfo]

I hope so

 

[grantw]

Nice work on the offer

At least you get to inspect them before you hand over the cash so you will only be out a bit of fuel if they are not upto standard.

 

[Gav Peter]

Sorry dude, been out of office today but I suspect at that price you can't go to wrong!!! Nice job Warrenski!!!

 

[warrenpfo]

So I collected the roof boxes yesterday and must say they are very well made and in great condition.

All the hardware is stainless and they have a good seal around the lids.

As you can tell the boxes came with merc roof racks that are held in place by 5 stainless screw heads down each side. The roof racks are too short to span the distance across the cruiser so i am going to have to make a plan.

My options as far as i can tell are to try and source the same profile alu rack and make longer racks. Or try and adapt my toyota racks which fit in the roof box roof rack track perfectly to hold the box.

I was thinking of just drilling 3 holes in the current toyota racks and slotting a bolt through with a retaining nut to hold it all in place. My concern is that by drilling 3 holes in the toyota rack will i not be weakening it too much. Both the toyota and merc racks have 100kg on them.

What are thoughts.

 

[Gav Peter]

Just get some u-bolts to go around your 'yota roof bars & drill the boxes to suit. Or you could just get plates & bolts to do the same job...

PS - boxes look good