Car roof boxes or bags?

Got a rooftop box on my drive that I've used a couple of times on the car - came with a 2nd hand car and outlived the car. Seems to withstand the elements O.K. and be long lived. Also looks streamlined.

I think the profile is probably the issue, and that the drag is less from a pointy fibreglass thing than from a bag.

Whereabouts are you, John?

Could provide said box for a lot less than 100 notes :-)

Cheers

Dave R

But I suspect you actually want the pointy end facing backwards, teardrop- style, for less drag! (Who remembers the French and Saunders sketch of the two middle-aged women cyclists wearing Olympic-style teardrop helmets, one pointed-end forward, other backward?!)

Reading: email address works.

Looking for something to stash bags of clothes and other bulky but

Do you mean this sort of thing?

I have a Thule bag and it works very well on the odd occasion I needed it (holiday in Belgium for one).

Waterproof, spacious and rolls up (unlike abox).

Not quite as convenient and you really do have to unmount it when empty - but unless you need a box all of the time or storage is no problem, I would go with the bag.

Felixstowe, Suffolk, unfortunately. And not likely to be over in your neck of the woods for some considerable time. My gmail address can be deduced from my posting name (two '.'s)

Dots aren't significant in gmail addresses, you can remove them, or add more of them at will, the message will still arrive.

Also if your address left of the @gmail.com is in the format first.last you can also be reached as last.first, this work for first.middle.last as last.middle.first though.

In message , John Stumbles writes

We've had a roofbox for a number of years and it must have done 1000's of miles by now. Doesn't seem to produce any extra wind noise. Pretty quick and easy to fit to the roof. Easy to load. Not always 100% waterproof. In certain circumstances, in heavy rain, a little bit of rain can work it's way in around the front. But assuming anything in their is packed in some sort of bag this isn't a problem.

It's not showing any signs of falling apart, nor are any of the ones friends have AFAIK, though mine was more like around 200 notes, but the important bits seems fine on the cheaper ones I have seen.

We use ours quite a bit, and it often stays on the roof with stuff infor soemtime, so bag wouldn't suit as so well. And we have space to store it.

I can see a bag being useful for those with limited storage space.

The trouble with roof boxes is the weight limit on roof racks. Typically a car is limited to 100kg. Subtract the roof bars and the box and you are down to about 70kg of load. There isn't much other than clothes, sleeping bags, etc. that will then fit into that load space without overloading or leaving it empty. Of course the clothes, etc. can be put into vacuum bags and compressed down so they fit elsewhere. I would try some vacuum bags and a 12v inflator/deflator before buying a box as you probably don't need one, saving ~£200 and a lot of fuel. The big drawback with vacuum bags is the weight of your suitcases can triple or more with all the extra stuff you can put in. Make sure you weigh them before getting to an airport.