Roof boxes... who's got one, are they worth having and more to the point... why do they cost more than my whole tent?

[AitchTwoOh]

and it looks like i've got to get roof bars fitted as well? can anyone help?

Well tents etc OK at a pinchI suppose, but aerodynamically heaviest stuff should be as low as possible (ie in boot).

You could put the children in the roofbox, Aitch.....

vacaloca, ours is a karrite too - we have no indoor storage but keep it slung on hooks on the side of the shed (shed is wonky anyway so a bit more distortion doesn't make a lot of diff)

You can get folding roofboxes now if you have no storage, I've seen them in Halfords.

We found our roofbox quite useful but it was a rear opening one and being short I couldn't reach to get it closed and locked, even when standing on the sills of the car. If you are short I would recommend looking for a side opening one!

ah yes, i have no storage. thanks ladies these all seem like very good tips. much appreciated, keep 'em coming.

Ours is side-opening (& has stays to hold it open, which luckily leaves you with one hand to cling to the car roof while the second chucks stuff in.)

You could use a step ladder but then you'd have to take it with you for repacking to come home

Check your local free-ads too - we got a huge Halfords own-brand one a couple of years ago, for the bargain price of £10! Thought it was a misprint when we rang up... it was a bit scratched, but at that price, who cares?!

We bought the roof cars from the Roofbox Company - they were very helpful and less than half the price of Halfords...

they are the way forward! you need to think about use. you can get long narrow ones so you can put a pushchair in and still get bikes on the roof rack. or squat fat ones taht you shove you tent in.

roofbox are good. also we check out which best buy because they do vary in quality.

other considerations - will you be stopping in cities and want security? if yes you need a lockable one, if no, get one of the fold away ones cos they are bugger to store.

we are considering get rid of ours where are you aitch?

sunny glasgow, my goaty friend...

i'm a bit worried about the storage, i must say.

Are the foldable roofboxes any good please?

Some people just keep them on top of the car all year round (they are weatherproof after all) but

a) they do make you use more fuel
b) the wind whistles through the gaps at high speeds
c) as someone already mentioned, they don't fit well in multi-storey carparks (I've done that too )

Sal, ours lives on the side of the shed - we put a batten across & hook one set of clamps over that so the bottom end touches the shed itself & doesn't wave about. (Mind you it's also in a corner between 2 high walls so quite sheltered)

aitch am in in edinburgh so will keep you posted.

Aitch, you need to get one (a roof box that is) not only can you put shed loads of crap up there is also will add to the overall camping experience.

You see when you have filled it up all beautifully and neatly BEFORE you try and shut it then you have a little smug feeling that quite possibly you would have done very well on that bit of the krypton factor where they had to shify blocks about to make a nice, orderly pattern.

And then you try to shut it and the little fucker never shuts and you can't lock the bastard until it is fully shut. So then you rearrange and rearrange and attempt to shut it over and over and then you fall off the car back seat and bang you chin

AND THEN YOU FLY INTO A BESERKER RAGE

and you just ram things in, slamming and slamming and the blasphemy is something just terrible-muriel.

And then it shuts.

And this is all good you see because when you are trying to erect your tent in the bastard syphillitic rain and your dd has pissed in her pants THEN you look back on your trials with the shit-head roof box, and it all doesn't seem so bad after all.

And they are useful for putting stuff in.

We hired one for £40 from a local farmer who had it as a bit of a sideline. He fitted it for us and even bought in the right roof bars for our car.

Ask around!

yes i think hiring probably a good idea first of all. we don't have any outside space so the box would have to live in our flat somewehere. hmmm. that's why i'm into the folding or the rack thing, tbh. but i get the point that they're not as secure if you're making stops.

although look at this. glasgow.gumtree.com/glasgow/35/39714735.html is this rubbish?

You can apprently buy a hoist thing for them for storage below the ceiling in a garage. I guess if you were desperate you could hoist it up in a hallway/spare room. Use it to store your blankets, like

Realistically, how often will you use one? And how much would it cost to hire (in which case they would presumably take care of the roofbars/clamps/lifting it on & off for you)?

Yup. The people you hire from do fit and remove IME. You can also do it much cheaper than we did if you don't need a huuuuuuuuuuge one.

Lol slubber, we always had to repack ours about 4 times before we could lock it as well. I thought it was just us being incompetent .

Ponders, don't remind me. I was driving into a multi-storey carpark once when we were on holiday and there was an attendant in the little box by the barrier. He waved me to a stop and said "did you forget you had that on the roof?" pointing at the roofbox. I think I must have gone as white as a sheet at the thought of making the huge queue of cars behind me all reverse out and just stammered "yes I did". He said "oh well, it doesn't matter, through you go" and cracked up laughing, thinking himself very clever as I drove through with plenty of room to spare. What a git!

well we might use it fairly often as we can get away for a couple of nights quite a lot. it's longer vacations that we're rubbish at, if anything. btw

In that case it would be worth buying one & leaving it in situ for the summer.

Do you know anybody who lives within a radius of say 20 miles of you who has eg a large garage you could store it in?

yes, i'm sure i could leave it in my pal's garage actually. did anyone look at the ad i posted?

oh yes you do need one - as slubber suggests though they are created with the sole purpose of driving you crazy - nothing seems to be blocking the locking mechanism yet they stil won't shut - our secret is to treat them like a toddler - ignore them when they misbehave then sneak up and swiftly lock it - works every time.

tis the slippery slope to a trailer though I know

Oh sorry aitch, I did but it didn't give the size & I couldn't read the brand so not much help.

You need to do a bit of research into sizes at Halfords or somewhere - take a tape measure - so you know what capacity you would need & what the dimensions of that capacity are.

I think ours must be 320L - I just measured it It seems big to us but there are much bigger ones

We've had it at least 15 years so it isn't that nice sleek shape, haven't used it for a long time & it's absolutely filthy & all the screws have gone rusty, poor thing. Anyway it's been plenty big enough for camping with half a dozen or more so you could probably consider a smaller one which takes up less space.

Mil is about to treat us to this as we have no storage space for a hard one. We have bars already though for dp's job.