Racks and boxes

[VeeFour]

We're planning on doing a trip down to a self catering apartment in the South of France next year, so I've been looking at ways to increase the luggage capacity of my '5.

I've bought one of the standard aluminium and wood boot racks from Autolink:



Then, when looking at some kind of case for the top, I found this on eBay:

[url]

The case is around 80x40x30cm - around 110 litres, I think.

Plan is to use some MDF in the base to secure it to the rack, but not sure what to do about painting it.

I'd love to leave the stencil letters on there - but need to remove the red and the stickers.

[JonnyFive]

Just stencil the letters back on there when you've given it a good clean up

[zaphod42]

It would look cool, but I'd check the strength of those bolts on the rack if I were you - it's an okay strength for a bolt in tension, but with that size of box there will be quite a lot of lateral load as well; might be worth uprating, and checking your main boot hinge condition as well?

[VeeFour]

I think the answer may be ratchet straps - one each way over the carrier and under the boot lid.

I've already been thinking that I may not bolt the box on, but I may just go with lockable ratchet straps.

[poing]

You do know that rack is the wrong way around?

(At least this is what I have been told by various people with far more experience than me of these things, including older relatives)

[VeeFour]

That's not my rack or my car!

[snotrag]

poing said:

You do know that rack is the wrong way around?

Yup, its flying forward under braking that you need to be preventing.

As for the plan - what about http://www.boot-bag.com/ ??

Bit easier than hulking that great thing round, plus more easily removed.

I had a look at one at a show and there a decent bit of kit.

[VeeFour]

Boot bags offer absolutely no security at all, though - so you have to be careful what you put in them and where you park with it on, unless you're going to remove it and sling it in the car.

The rack and case will be attached to a spare boot lid - and it's easy to swap them over - although the whole rack can come off, with box attached.

The idea of the box is that it can stay on permanently whilst 'touring', and just be used as a boot extension.

[scrwright]

if you have a second boot lid and just bolt through the boot lid & box floor, much more secure, and you can put your old lid back on when you are back.

[grimfandango]

VeeFour said:

We're planning on doing a trip down to a self catering apartment in the South of France next year, so I've been looking at ways to increase the luggage capacity of my '5.

I've bought one of the standard aluminium and wood boot racks from Autolink:



Then, when looking at some kind of case for the top, I found this on eBay:

[url]

The case is around 80x40x30cm - around 110 litres, I think.

Plan is to use some MDF in the base to secure it to the rack, but not sure what to do about painting it.

I'd love to leave the stencil letters on there - but need to remove the red and the stickers.

I have thought about this myself, and actually had a very similar idea: get a big old ammo box and bolt it to a boot rack of some kind. Not quite sure what it would do to the aerodynamics ect though! Although it would probabley be a lot more practical to buy one of the smallest roof boxes and bolt that to a boot rack of some kind instead.

I do like the Idea of the bag and how you can keep it in the car though

[VeeFour]

Don't think the aerodynamics are a big issue, given that I have a bloody great wind deflector mounted behind my seats anyway.

[MX-5 Lazza]

VeeFour said:

Don't think the aerodynamics are a big issue, given that I have a bloody great wind deflector mounted behind my seats anyway.

Bizarrely, that actually improves the aerodynamics! Think about it a moment - what direction is the air that it blocks from the cabin travelling? Without it the cabin is a massive low pressure area that sucks air in and destroys the air-flow over the car.

[VeeFour]

Right, all the bits arrived - half an hour later, I took these pics:









Not so sure now. That box looks awfully big!