Which 80 roof bars

[oostsco]

I was thinking of getting 3 bars - which ones do you recommend and who could I buy it from? Thanks for the help so far!

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Heavy duty or normal? Basic or fancy? Rhino do some nice kit but it's not cheap. I've used BOAB bars on mine (scroll down the page a bit) very simple and heavy duty but still not bargain basement or lightweight.

 

[IRLGW]

do you have rails?

 

[oostsco]

Heavy duty Jon - something that will be strong enough to support kayaks or roof tent. How many bars do you use Jon 2 or 3?

IRLGW it doesn't have rails

 

[oostsco]

Those BOAB bars is about half the price of the Rhinos looks well made

 

[IRLGW]

I recently got a Thule 420 foot kit out of the clearance bin at halfords for €15. the box was open but I emptied it out and after 25mins had accounted for all the pieces so i bought it! Anyway the point is that it is actually the fitting kit for vans and minibuses but has wider feet than normal so spreads the load better on the gutters. bought the bars off ebay for £15 separately.

same as
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Thule-420...ccessories_Touring_Travel&hash=item3f2211bd59

 

[ByronJ]

I recently fitted 3 Rhino heavy duty bars to my 80 to carry my roof tent. They look strong and well made. However they generate much more wind noise than the Rhino Aero bars I used to have. I changed to the standard Rhino bars as it was easier to source clamps to fit a Columbus roof tent. Thankfully the noise level decreased noticeably once I fitted the roof tent. Now having actually seen the Autohome fitting system it should be a relatively simple matter to make clamps to fit to the Aero bars. The consensus seems to be to fit 3 bars if going off road with a heavy load such as a roof tent. If staying on tar then 2 bars are considered to be sufficient. I have carried some very heavy loads on my two Aero bars with no problems at all. Both types of bars use the same legs with just a differing system of attachment. I bought from TBR. I cannot post a link as I am too new a member but typing "Rhino-Rack" into google should find them.

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

I use 3 bars for the 2m long roof tent and have a 4th right at the front with my antenna mount on it. For a shorter RT 2 HD bars would be plenty. To use 3 bars on anything long and flat like our RT you need some way to get them level because the 80 roof gutters are not quite flat so adjustable height legs or an angle grinder are needed if you don't want a slight bend in your RT. For a hard shell tent I'd just use 2 HD bars.

 

[oostsco]

Never thought of that Jon - will have the same problem with kayaks ........... and if i want to build my own roof rack

 

[grantw]

Jon is it these ones you have? If so how do you rate their strength over all. They looks simple but very sturdy .. and at that price you certainly couldn't complain too much!

 

[Lorin]

Never thought of that Jon - will have the same problem with kayaks ........... and if i want to build my own roof rack

It is an issue! I had a custom rack made that I mounted on 4 Thule roofbars - with non-adjustable height legs. I then discovered there is slight curvature to the roof gutters!

 

[ByronJ]

Hi Jon. As you say the 80 roof gutters are not level. TBR supplied me with a couple of spacers for the rear bar. I was rather sceptical but once all three bars were in place I laid a straight edge across them and found them to be level with the straight edge resting on all three bars. I went from sceptical to impressed.

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

I have the 40mmx40mm BOAB bars pictured. Very heavy duty, very simple. It's not hard to get the bars level, it's just something to be aware of. The width also changes slightly but that's less likely to catch you out. My front most bar that I have my antenna mounted on is so far forward it would be tipped forwards by the angle of the gutters so I just used an angle grinder to adjust the angle of the feet to level it out.

 

[grantw]

Thanks for confirming Jon!

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

I changed some but not all of the nuts and bolts to security ones, enough of them to stop someone with just a 13mm spanner being able to spend 5 minutes getting the bars off with tent attached. The height given on the BOAB site is to the top of the bar not just the leg itself so the RR classic / 80 series ones are normal roof bar sort of height.

 

[grantw]

I just bought a set of the BOAB bars that Jon recommended. They are indeed very heavy duty. The package for two roof bars weighed around 20kg - that was fun taking it home on the tube!