Thule roof boxes

[TigerFeet]

I'm looking for recommendations for car roof boxes and know that Thule seems to be a popular make. Are they any good or is there another one out there which is better? How much do they hold and what can safely be stored in them? We drive an estate car - does this make a difference to the type of box to buy?

Thanks

I don't know much about them but Thule certainly seem to be a better brand. I believe that they have gas struts to hold them open rather than allowing the top to fall on your head everytime the wind blows. I think the locks on Thule are slightly better too. Sorry I can't be much more help.

We have a cheaper one, which was supplied and fitted by a shop which specialises, and the bloke there said Thule was the best. (Ours does have gas struts too but it just doesn't look classy!) I think they also make the roof bars that the box sits on. (We have cheaper ones of those too...)

With an estate car you can have a longer box because the roof is longer, so you can get more in probably, or you can get an ordinary sized one but mount it further back so you get less wind resistance, and use less petrol. Have a look in yellow pages, under car accessories I think, there are usually quite a few places which supply and fit and you could ask them for advice.

We have a Karrite one (ski shaped) as it's really only in use for a couple of weeks per year, and at the time we bought it roof boxes were about 50% more expensive than they are now so we really couldn't justify the cost of Thule. Having said that we've never had any complaints about it, or flet the need to change it.

I'd think it depends what you want to carry - obviously we take skis in ours, but you might find the squarer ones if you don't need to carry anything that shape.

this site seems quite good for comparing prices and sizes.

We have a halfords own make box which we now practically never take off as it is so useful. We have had no problems at all in the year and a half we have had it - when loaded up ours can take 50kg (from the label) but what we get in there is the buggy, travel cot, backpack and assirted soft items - gives you loads more space in the car when driving on hols (we leave it on when we go to do our fortnightly shop as we have to buy coal and chickenseed as well, and you can get it all in there.
Think ours was about half the price of Thule, but we have no complaints at all and would highly recommend the Halfors one.