Roof bars for 944

[studog]

I want to carry sailboards or canoes on my 944. Does anyone know what roof bars are available and where from?

Before anyone moans it is my everyday car and is built to be used! Besides my Seven would look even more silly with a canoe stuck on the roll bar!

[Bananaman]

Have you tried Halfords?

P.S. Nice choice of cars.....(see my profile)

[studog]

Not yet, we country types have to paln ahead for these things.

[dern]

TA-DA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Mine are paddy hopkirk jobs which cost me 30 quid I think and are just normal roof bars for cars with gutters. The uprights are from some kayak shop and just bolt on. Wrap the whole lot in pipe lagging and black duck tape for that special look and to stop the irritating wind howl you would otherwise get over 50mph. They did move from side to side a bit but there are little indents you can drill out and screw self-tappers into to make the bars completely rigid. My car is ok up to about 70 with 2 boats on and much faster with one small playboat.

You will get lots of odd looks and shakes of the head which you will acknowledge with the finger. Happily my new boat fits inside the car but I keep the bars on to bring it home when it's wet.

I tried to carry that boat on my westy but the screen seemed to flex rather a lot so gave it up as a bad job.

Regards,

Mark

PS. Iguana didn't put you up to this question did he? If he did he's a big gurl who can't take his beer , if not ignore me

PPS. Did you build your own locost chassis?

>> Edited by dern on Tuesday 27th July 20:02

[studog]

Thanks just what I was looking for. A trip to halfords is on the cards. I belive in using these cars much like yourself.

On the locost front.
Yes I built the the chassis suspension body etc. Dimensionally it is quite different to the book one as I have corrected the dimensions to Lotus seven sizes. The transmission tunnel and engine bay construction are quite different. Come to think of it so is the front suspension.

[Bananaman]

dern

Would it create less drag & more stability to ditch the uprightd & just strap the Kayak??? to the roof bars?

[dern]

studog said:

Thanks just what I was looking for. A trip to halfords is on the cards. I belive in using these cars much like yourself.

Absolutely. The only downside is having your car smell of wetsuits all the time

I couldn't get the paddy hopkirk roof bars from halfords only from a local motor factors. The ones halford stock are thule and a lot more expensive. You should be able to get the paddy hopkirk ones on line from somewhere like towsure (www.towsure.co.uk/). If you have roof gutters like I have and from the year of your car in your profile I assume you have then you want model number 405U (£21.95 from towsure). Remind me when you get them and I can take some photos of the self-tappers I put in but although I'm sure you can work out where to put them yourself. The self-tappers really stiffen up the bars as the standard adjusters can still let the bars slide on the feet under stress. You'll see what I mean when you get them.

The only limitation I can see on what you can carry is the distance between the bars. I've carried 12 feet long pieces of wood on it and it's been fine but a large kayak may cause you problems because the wind may have more of a twisting effect on the bars. I've had my old 9 foot boat on the top without too much of a problem and have absolutely no problems carting my 6 foot playboat at speed. A windsurfer laid flat should cause no problems as it would present the same profile to a cross wind.

I got the uprights because I didn't want to carry the boats hull down because it can warp the flat surface and if I put it on upside down the top of my old boat touched the roof of the car. I got mine from Joel Watersports but I'm sure there are plenty of places to get these from for whatever application you need.

Regards,

Mark

[dern]

Bananaman said:

dern Would it create less drag & more stability to ditch the uprightd & just strap the Kayak??? to the roof bars?

The drag would be the same as the front profile is the same regardless of the orientation of the boat I would have thought. Apparently putting the back of the boat towards the front of the car is more aerodynamic though.

Strapping a playboat hull down can warp the flat hull which isn't a good idea and the curvature of the 944 roof and the high cockpit lip of the boat won't allow me to strap it upside down.

You don't notice the boat on the top unless you put a 8 foot boat or longer on top. For a longer trip without a boat the rack alone creates enough drag that you'd want to consider taking it off... not that I ever do though admitedly.

Regards,

Mark

[studog]

Thats great many thanks.

Regards

Stuart