A roof box is a vehicle accessory that installed on the roof of nearly any vehicle using the dedicated channels built into all cars and vans, or onto the factory fitted roof rails of a vehicle.

Roof boxes attach to roof bars that are specially designed for your vehicle make/model and year of car and attach into the purpose made attachments into the top of a vehicle roof gutter or onto the rails that already exist.

Once the roof bars are installed, the Roof Box sits on top of this and securely fixes to the bars, therefore attaching it to the vehicle. The roof box comes with a key and locking mechanism to keep all of your holiday, ski, riding or canoeing valuables safe and secure when you might leave your car unattended for example to stop at a service station or to drop into a supermarket to get groceries.

Roof boxes are designed to carry a fair amount of weight and come in various sizes to carry things such as camping bbq’s, tents, suitcases, sports holdalls, camping or kayaking equipment, skis, children’s toys for holiday – they are very versatile.

Ever been excited to go on a family road trip but get stressed as the kids want to take every toy in the house and you find yourself getting stressed before you leave for your holiday by trying to cram stuff into every single hole available in the car? A good sizes quality roof box takes all of this pain away!

Create a tonne of extra space in the car to make it more relaxing, comfortable and enjoyable – and allow you take more stuff with you.

The most effective and useful way to use your roof box is to store the stuff in there that you wont need until you get to your destination or the games/toys/cricket sets/tennis rackets that are not used all day every day – that way you keep free space in the car boot to store items that you will need fast or frequent access to – like your overnight bags or luggage to take into a hotel or AirBNB.

A roof box makes your journey safer too – over filling the car will hinder and prevent a good view point for the driver and passengers and there is always the risk of an loose item moving and suddenly blocking view for the driver or worse, in an emergency breaking situation, a heavy bag flying through the car cockpit and injuring someone. By loading the overflow luggage into your roofbox, you remove all of these hazards from the car journey.

Roofboxs can get heavy when full and at speed, with wind resistance the weight of a roofbox can become incredible, for that reason it is absolutely essential that a roofbox is installed with the correct roofbars and fittings to prevent disaster on the road!

You cannot simply rent a roofbox and put it on the top of your car – you must start with the correct roofbars which fit side to side of the vehicle – one near the front and one near the rear.

Roofbars come in various types, the basic square bars, aluminium “t-track” slotted bars which hang over the eddge of the feet (and therefore giving more space on the roof for potentially another roofbox or bike carrier. The Aluminium bars tend to be aerodynamic giving better fuel economy and reduced road noise and are somtimes called WingBars or

The roofbars then attached to the feet which connect to the car – called fixings. Fixings come in 4 different types depending on the make and model of vehicle (this is why its critical we know your make and model of car when booking to ensure we have the right fixings for you!).

The fixings can cater for almost any vehicle produced and come in the forms of:

	Flush Roof Rails – these are rails that are fitted at the factory to your car and are attached to the vehicle all the way along the whole length of the roof rail. You cannot get your hand underneath of the roof rail anywhere along the roof.
	Fixpoints – these are welded in points that are made in the roof of the car whilst the car is being produced in the factory. These fix points are set in the perfect locations on the car to ensure stability and a strong fixing system – they are almost always under a flap or sliding panel on the roof gutter of the car.
	Clamp Around Fitting – These are not very often seen on never cars however they do cater for cars that have no fixing system on the roof already such as fixpoints or roof rails running front to back. These bars clamp around the car bodywork.
	Raised Roof Rail – these are car manufacturer fitted rails that run front to back of the vehicle and you are able to get your fingers / hand underneath them – they are connected to the roof of the car at both ends but nowhere else.

Finally, once the bars are selected and installed can you concentrate on fixing the box onto the bars. There are generally two methods of connecting the box to the bars, ether by a large u-bolt that wraps around the bars and through the roofbox and bolted from the inside of the box, or by utilising power mounts where each end of the bar has a “claw” type mechanism that compresses and clamps against the factory fitted roofbars.

A roofbox does change the airflow over a car and as such, it will have a very small impact on your fuel economy. As the vehicle will essentially become larger, there is more wind resistance and due to this the car will have a slightly reduced amount of miles per gallon – this is known as “drag”.

As well as the additional wind resistance, the roofbox will allow you to carry more weight due to the belongings inside it.

Both of these combined will cause your engine to work a little bit harder to move the car as normal.

Does that mean your fuel consumption will go up massively? Well according to most manufacturers, fuel consumption wont dramatically increase. Yes it will go up slightly due to the additional drag and weight but not significantly enough for you to notice much difference.

When speaking to Thule who are one of the biggest and most advanced on the market, they estimate that you should see no more than 5% increase in your fuel consumption with a roofbox attached.

You will notice nearly all roofboxes are a strange shape, this is by design to help the roofbox cut through the air resistance and reduce drag – you will notice the front section is usually flatter – like a wedge shape – and this means a smoother air flow over the car.