roof racks & manly transportation questions????

[ernest]

I want to buy a football table in uk & bring it back to Switzerland. We don't have enough room in car for table pluss all luggage. choices are -

1. table in car, some luggage in car some in roof box but we don't have one & def can't afford to buy for 1 off.
2. table in car, 2 cases on roof
3. table on roof. we have a peugeot 807 that has 2 bars running across car, rather than length of car.

Would these not be good enough to just tie the table onto, or a couple of suitcases for that matter? dh has totally poo pood the idea of tying stuff to these bars, saying we'd need a box, but we don't have one & I just don't understand what's wrong with tying stuff to the roof bars, for those who don't know it looks like this. Any bright ideas? trailer not an option, as we don't have one of those either & it's cost loads more ferry charges.

ta

Ferry company charged us more for roof box also.

Can't you get one shipped to Switzerland?

I would definitely put the table in the car. More stable and more secure. Whether or not you tie cases to the roof bars, buy a roofrack and tie cases to that, or hire a roof box and pack in that, you will be able to take the luggage into your hotel for security(if you have an overnight stay). If you leave the table on the roof it's a bit of an invitation. Also, I imagine it's more liable to damage than suitcases or a roofbox. I don't see why you shouldn't tie good cases to the bars, and bungee a tarp over. We've transported things this way, though only between two cities in the SE, not halfway across Europe!

Or hire a van?
Our neighbour hired a transit van and took a whole heap of gear across to new house in Spain.

i would tie the table to the roof. because it'll be bigger and flatter surely? so will sit nicely across the bars... .

gingerbear, most companies won't ship out of uk. just found 1 who will & they quoted us £250 - more than the cost of the table. have talked with ferry company & they've upgraded us to higher height for no extra charge just gott work out how to do it.

shoud say we're coming to uk for christmas in our car anyway, so, given fact couldn't have it shipped, next step is to get it in car. hubby adamant we can't use roof?? I don't understand why & he's now fed up of talking & flies into temper & refuses to discuss any further, but I still need to work out how to get the damned thing back. We won't have any overnight stay, but will of course have some rest breaks.

I don't see why you can't just put it on the roof, using elastics, assuming a) the legs come off and b) you can wrap it securely in a tarp or something.

Oh, and c) it's big enough to overlap the bars comfortably.

well, you seem to be of the same mind as me, but dh is flat refusing to consider anything on roof except proper box. to hire will cost us in region of £100 so not option. now stuck. stupidly loosing sleep over this

Wouldn't you ever use a roofbox again if you bought one, ernest? It would pay for itself after a couple of uses if it's £100 a time to hire one - we've had one for 10 years and have used it for holidays half a dozen times, it's great for making travelling more comfortable inside the car.

If you were doing the trip the other way I'd offer to lend it - could you ask around over there to see if anyone has one?

as you probably know, we have the peugeot 807, so with the back 2 seats removed we have a ginormous boot & always more than enough, so apart from this 1 off for the giant pressie, I can't see we'd ever need it again. i don't know anyone with one, have asked around. fingers crossed. it's such a pain for just 1 journey

Ask around and see if you could borrow a roof box, someone must have one lurking in their garage. We bought one at the car boot sale for £20. Its only been used a couple of times but very handy and a bargain at £20. Either that or hire a van.

BTW would it not work to put table in first then bags on top, squishy holdalls might fit around it.

the van hire is completely out of the question - that's hardly going to be cheaper than the £100 to hire the roof box is it? sorry, had a really bad night with poorly kids & no sleep again. I've tracked 1 person down who I hardly know at all who has 1. Her husband is away so she will hopefully ask him next week. My only hope of doing this without this bloody table working out costing a fortune.

you're unbelieveably lucky to get a box for £20.