I await future tales of you breaking the box when you drive into a low ceiling car park

getting a roof box is like making love to a beautiful woman, lot's of wrestling, sweating and dirty language and in the end you wonder if it was worth it

Just remember it’s there before getting wedged into the entrance of an NCP. 

Mrs Git still hasn’t lived that one down 

I think just suck it up and get the garage to mount it

also, kinda think the towbar box is a better idea, lots of low hanging garages and shopping centre car parks that'll rip a roof box right off

Ha, I have already done that with bikes on the roof. I realised about 2 seconds too late, by which time we had broken the height barrier bar, which I had to then hold up for about 20 minutes until help arrived. Cost me a small fortune in repairs.

I either buy a roof box and drive into a car park ceiling, or a trailer and reverse it into a wall.

I've tried both with an s-max, which I guess is a similar height. Preferred the back box. Partly for ease of loading, partly for better aerodynamics, but mostly for the lack of wind noise. Don't underestimate how annoying wind whistle can be on a 5 hour motorway journey...

Only downside is compromised access to the tailgate but how much of an issue that is depends on vehicle and box

rent a trailer

The Roofbox Company has some really good advice.

The issue is not the installing, as I think most are pretty simple now, but the loading and unloading, and latching a full box. You will need some form of collapsible step stool or ladder.

Just spend vegan get the top of the range Thule ones with the click ratcheting mounta

Mounts

Big and

Not vegan

This is what happens when you are on a run and try and dictate a post 

You don't need someone to install FFS

Get the biggest one you can

I have perfected the installation of my beautiful, sleek, silver Thule. I can do it in any weather in under 5 minutes. The satisfying clacking of each clamp as it locks into place makes me feel more manly than doing 36.5 pullups. I imagine the milfs on the street peeking through their blinds in awe of my roof box prowess and touching themselves as they fantasise me making a cuckold of their pathetic soft-handed husbands.

Only me?

You need to be able to take it off and put it on yourself. It will make your gas guzzling SUV guzzle even more gas, so you need to take it off when you are not using it.

The roof bars on which it sits can stay on all the time. Taking the box off and putting it back on is pretty easy, but needs two people.

Go to roofbox.co.uk and they will sell you something German that is easy to use.

sell the SUV and buy an estate car. 

You need to be able to take it off and put it on yourself

What? So he looks like some sort of cyber-tortoise?

i can do mine on my own in probably 1 minute

I dont think it's kind OR safe to put a puppy in a roof box. 

Wit rodge said, these r a piece of piss to fix on (assuming u have roof rack bars).

Get a garage to do it? FFS they will laugh you out of town (after parting you from your cash)

We have a fvcking massive SUV and a large dog so have the same issue. Mrs MIC has driven ours into a height barrier once which required a repair with a hairdryer and a hammer. She's also backed it into my car and pulled the front bumper off on our gate post despite it being fully kitted with sensors and cameras but that's probably beyond the scope of this thread

As this is rof you should go to the roofbox company website and get bars to fit your car and the appropriate size box. You are probably looking around £200 for the bars and £3-400 for a box. If I had my time again I'd just go to Halfords and pay half the price but not look as cool. It might be the pricier ones are easier to fit though as doing ours is a two minute job (for the box, maybe ten mins to get the bars on or off).

TBF I can fit the box myself but they are really awkward to carry so where possible I get the Mrs to help me lift it on. It's not so much the weight as the size and lack of hand holds as they try to make the streamlined.

Also if you staycation, the shaped roofbox bags which I was conned into buying are actually really good.

Also also, I have actually ended up getting a small trailer as well to fit the paddleboard, dog crate, beach gear etc.

Don't worry, the dog is not going in the box. I am not Mitt Romney. However, dogs consume unfeasible amounts of boot space (hound 1 sits on the back seat with a safety harness).

Has anyone tried a soft roof bag? Much cheaper, and easier to mount. We only need it for 2 journeys a year, so this looks convenient.

See, it's not a dull topic...

Soft roof bag? PAH 

My top tips:

• keep the bars on the box so you have to align the bars to the box each time you put it back on. Does need two people to lift it on to the car though.
• get one which you can open up from both sides. mine doesn't, and its a PINTA.
• unless you have running boards, get a small collapsable step ladder. At least, this is what I need as I'm a short arse.
• don't drop a 25kg suitcase down the side of the car when getting it out of the box. You'd be amazed how many panels get dented on the way down. 

Not feasible if you have a glass sunroof I suspect .

The Kamei Delphins are fine for attaching.  The 470 packs loads in and can be lifted solo (and I'm a gym-avoiding pansy) and it's piss easy to attach to the bars, opens from either side. 

340 is even easier to fit if you don't need the larger one/need a bike up there too.

Get decent bars though or the whistling will drive you mad.

I think with an SUV having a decent sized one on top will be a PiTA. There's a tunnel around Paris where even our MPV couldn't go through it with the box. I would go with the trailer option - much more versatile anyway. Roofbox will hold more than one of those towbar containers I think, so would immediately discount those. I imagine a roofbox on an SUV will have you down to 10MPG or less. 

Towing speed is of course restricted by law...

Of course if you had a car that was big on the inside rather than the outside you might not need a roofbox. 

But anyway. My tip is to get decent bars (ours are Thule, easy to get on and off, no wind noise and knock only a couple of mpg off at 80mph cruise). You can then go spenny on the box if you want but we have a Halfords thing that we got secondhand locally years ago for a few quid and it does the job fine, tough as old boots, it's only an opening lump of plastic after all. 

I couldn't be faffed with a trailer - remembering you've got it attached, rear parking sensors going bonkers with it all the time or whatnot, bah

Most new cars deactivate the sensors when you have a trailer attached. For the number of times we use a roofbox (2-5 times a year), I'd rather the aggro of a trailer with the larger capacity than trying to cram stuff into a roofbox, but then again our car is full of people so only circa 600l of space inside. Also for crap like garden waste, timber etc. I wish we had a trailer, but if you don't deal with stuff like that I can see why you could be arsed with a roofbox (which isn't difficult to use at all - it weighs fook all so you just slide it on and line up the bolts. The ballache is shutting it once it is obviously overfull). 

One other thing - we got a massive box (Kamei 510 - good as opens both sides) so can't get anything else on the roof e.g. skis/bike, but if you leave room for that the box can carry much less. Our kids skis fit inside a big box though, but worth checking if adult ones would.  The bars we got are whispbar through bars. My wife drove it into a multi-storey and am sore can offer the same service if you just want to get it over with. 

Last thing - work out where you will keep the fecking thing. Can you fix hangers to your garage ceiling? 

Finally this is just my own opinion, not some RoF special roofboxes/trailers from the river to the see shite. 

A Skoda Superb estate would solve all these problems. 

“I am the Kenny Everett of DIY”

I’m so sorry about that. If only you’d not paid attention to Freddie about that boy you might still be with us.

Pack less! What the fvck are you carrying that you need a roof box on top of an SUV. 

When I was a kid we used to go on holidays as a family of 4 in a mini and that was with the dog! 

chamber mode on

We have two massive dogs, harmless though, wouldnt buy them romanian treats though

*chambers mode off*

People have too much stuff generally but I do sympathise if you have a large dog. 

Estate with biggest roof box you can get plus towbar mount bike rack.  I can't imagine ever needing more than that unless had more than 2 kids.

Trade in for the new Superb. 

Heh at having a Skoda 

It's a shame Porsche don't do a decent estate but an rs6 should do the job