I’ve got a roof box off free cycle. Husband has gone mad!

[VWCJW]

Every holiday, my husband prides himself on taking hardly anything to a self catering holiday, and gets really stressed by me and my daughter taking a normal amount of clothes. He moans that it all won’t fit in the car and our kids sit with loads of stuff by their feet and piled up between them. This year, we have a long journey through France and our kids are getting taller so I got a roof box and my husband has got really upset and stressed about it. He says he doesn’t want to drill holes in his car and it means we will just take more stuff we don’t need. He was literally shaking about it. I’ve told him we will get rid but I don’t really want to. We have a massive box of footballs in the garage and I am sure they could be stored in the roof box so it won’t take up more room but he just says he hopes we will have less footballs in the future. He’s clearly not thinking properly as our son is really sporty and will probably end up with rugby and basketballs too, once at secondary school. Am I right to think that a roof box is a good thing? I see loads of cars with them. Or is he right and they are just an excuse to take a load of extra crap you don’t need?

He sounds like a barrel of laughs

No holes needed. Ours was a huge help on holidays, I don't like having stuff packed round people, it's not safe in an accident.
We used to store ours by hanging it from the garage roof on a pulley and like a pp we've used it for present hiding.

We love our roof box. But you do need to learn how to get the right roof bars for your car and how to install these plus roof box on to your car safely and securely. If you don’t know how, it can be stressful as the risk is of the roof box falling off your car on the M25 and creating a twenty car pile up accident (catastrophising because that is probably what your DH is doing)

You do need to book the high height Chunnel or ferry tickets if going to France. It’s a bit extra but not much.

It is safer for the children to not be surrounded by stuff in the car.

How do people live like this? Controlled by their own footballs and shaking with distress at the notion of a roof box?

I need to know about the footballs. Why are there so many?

I take EVERYTHING on holiday. We have a massive car and a roofbox and honestly I'd quite happily fill a trailer too. I hate feeling underprepared for any eventuality. But I wouldn't take loads and loads of footballs. In fact, I'm not sure I'd take any 🤔

On a practical note, could they be taken deflated and pumped up when you get there?

op as pp said "it does not need to be stored in the garage it is water proof" that is the whole point of roof boxes ( grinds teeth because HER dh insists it has to be kept in garage)

The footballs are my kids. They both play football and get them for birthdays and Christmas from various friends and relatives. Yes we are both hoarders, but I don’t think massively so.

I don’t know really. Our kids just seem to be given them every birthday and Christmas.

@Sodthatforagameofsoldiers I read your message to quickly & was trying to work out how you could deflate & blow up a roof box

No. It should be stored in a garage whether a rigid fibreglass roofbox or a soft roofbox because the UV from sunlight and weather degrades the structural integrity of all roof boxes.

Aldi do universal roof bars about twice a year. Probably Lidl do, too. I don't know about the latter as there aren't Lidls in Australia.

We’re not taking footballs on holiday, well just 1. I only mentioned them to say how they could go in the roof box for storage so it won’t take up extra room. Or it could store camping equipment in the garage or anything really.

I love my roofbox. It’s never taken off the car - it would fill my garage. I have four colour coded roof box bags for it. It all brings more joy than it should I suppose 🤣

So neat and tidy and loads of room in the boot for cool box, coats etc.

Tell him you'll sell the box & buy a van. Explain how much a decent van costs...

If he can't come up with a decent alternative solution, then bin the holiday & ltb.

Oh the bit in France is likely to be the easier bit.

I am not very confident on motorways and less used to driving DHs car than my own due to its size (and 6 gears WTF) but on our recent holiday in France I did quite a bit of the driving and found it much easier than the UK on the whole as it is less busy

Has he realised he doesn't need to drill holes in the car yet?

My husband could easily shake with stress at me getting a free roof box online. Then he’d tell me three days later that he’s been thinking we should really use a roof box for our upcoming holiday. And he’d then talk all through holiday about how great the roof box was.

Not just mine then!

Where did the hole-drilling thing even come from? Did he honestly think that all the people out there who have roof boxes have gone and drilled actual holes in their cars? Like, ‘hey ho, cars are expensive but needs must’

I’m not even a driver and I can instantly see the holes flaws in that as a concept

Our roof box hangs from the ceiling in the garage from brackets which can also attach to walls.

Roof boxes are really useful.

Blimey, bit of an over-reaction!

I have had roof boxes on various cars, no drilling required

He sounds a right drama queen. He needs to get over himself :D

I guess it depends on how big your car is and how much stuff you’re expecting to take? Clothes fold down quite small so even if you’re taking an outfit a day it shouldn’t take up that much room, personally I think that yes many people do fill their roof box with things they could very easily buy there or will
nevwr even use and I wouldn’t want to go to the expense of roof bars and petrol costs to enable that.

The footballs are my kids.

Don't wanna look like a SPAG pedant but this tickled me No wonder you keep them!

When I was a kid, on one of our many camping holidays to France, we discovered that the family on the next pitch had been referring to us as "the cornflake family" ever since the ferry over, where they'd also (coincidentally) been next to us, and the most recognisable feature of our car was the fact it was jam-packed so full that the only place for the industrial-sized box of Kellogg's cornflakes was jammed up against the back window. Every time they'd seen us on the drive down, there it was, big, bright and identifiable.

If you're not the cornflake family, you're probably not overpacking.

Just a thought but how are his DIY skills? Is he secretly worried he will be tasked with fitting the thing but is worried he can't do it safely or securely?

I wouldn’t let someone try and dictate how much stuff I can take on a holiday.

Id let DH drive & I’d take a plane/boat/train with my luggage.