Atera, Fapa, Thule, Autoform, Kamei, Kar Rite, Bigmak Roof Boxes: Information on Roof Boxes

An Introduction to Roof Boxes

We need to mention roof bars first! Boxes need to be fitted to a set of roof bars, a set of steel or aluminium bars going across the car, from one side to the other. Cars with factory fitted longitudinal roof rails will still need a set of roof bars going from rail to rail. Roof bars need to be a precise fit, particularly on modern cars without rain gutters.

Any brand of roof box can be fitted to any brand of roof bars, whether these roof bars are supplied by us or by a car dealer. You shouldn't persuade yourself that you need to buy your roof bars from your car dealer's accessory catalogue, not least because 'Original Equipment' bars are often own-badged Atera or Thule bars (see below). It's also fair to tell you that dealer supplied bars are often "neat but impractical", being either too short to allow you to carry all you want to carry, or too weirdly shaped to accommodate anything except for a roof box, e.g. you won't find bike carriers to fit them.

Roof bars are either plastic-coated steel, or aluminium. 'Standard' steel bars are rectangular in section, not more than 40mm wide and 30mm deep; we can usually provide wider or deeper roof box fittings for Original Equipment bar systems. Aluminium bars ("aerobars") usually have a slot in the top of them, often called a "T-track", designed to accommodate special adapters. If you already have aluminium bars, or decide to order them from our site, please order the appropriate T-track roof box adapters! These are listed as options on the roof box order pages.

Thule is the world's largest car rack systems brand, with an excellent roof bar system and fittings for almost all vehicles. We also supply Atera bars - best of the German car rack system brands - as well as much cheaper Fapa bars. There's a link to our roof bars pages at the end of this page, but there's also a "Roof Bars" link in the left hand menu, or you can click on any "What fits my car?" link - these rectangular yellow boxes appear throughout the site.

You'll see that there's a large range of boxes and box prices. You tend to get what you pay for with roof boxes, and you certainly do when you make the jump from boxes below £135 to those above, with the exception of the Farad 320 at £120 which is a mid-market box at a promotional price. There are some surprisingly cheap boxes being offered in the European market this year, which causes some concern. Are they up to the job? There were product recalls from budget manufacturers in 2004 and 2005, and this year we've discontinued every box below £100 as a result of our experiences. Bearing in mind (1) that roof boxes are European made, not Chinese made, and (2) that there have been massive price increases in raw material costs (oil and steel) in recent years, it's a good rule of thumb that the cheaper the box, the thinner the material, and the less robust and secure it will be. If you do intend to buy very cheap, we'd recommend that you choose a well branded product. Most families use roof boxes for a number of years, and with £20 or so being the difference between an adequate product and a good one, it does make sense to trade up market. We'll aim to show you where your extra cash buys genuine improvements in quality and features.

Boxes are on the face of it very simple products - two bits of plastic joined together with hinges, struts and locks. Most manufacturers source these raw materials from the same suppliers. So what do you get for your money if you buy more expensive boxes? The major difference is the thickness and quality of plastic. Boxes are subjected to huge forces at speed, and thinner plastic boxes - the ones that feel like 'eggshell' - tend to rattle a bit after prolonged use, as the rivets may compress the thin plastic and move about. This isn't a problem with thicker plastic / heavier boxes. You'll also find more features with better quality boxes; we list these in order of actual usefulness (i.e. ignoring the marketing hype!): (1) gas struts (wider opening), (2) dual side opening (which really come into its own with full width boxes), (3) adjustable fitting systems which accommodate unusual roof bar centres (the alternative of drilling extra holes is easily done and is not a problem), (4) central locking (which sounds smart, but apart from the KAMEI system actually makes boxes more difficult to close!), (5) 'quick release' roof box to roof bar fittings (ordinary U bolts are almost as quick, and are foolproof, unbreakable, and don't take up valuable space in the box).

The brands we stock: Autoform is the specialist Swedish box manufacturer, using full grade ABS plastic and top quality components. They make boxes for a large number of car manufacturers, many of which are just rebadged versions of the boxes we stock. Farad is an Italian manufacturer, a long term specialist in plastics moulding which produces a range of mid market boxes with particular innovations in dual side opening technology, including new central locking and strut systems. KAMEI is the specialist German box manufacturer. Without a doubt they make the best quality boxes on the worldwide market, with specialist plastics and a 'no compromise' attitude which sets the engineering aspects of their boxes above the demands of the marketing people. We've needed to cut the prices of these boxes to make them competitive, and rising freight costs have further depleted the margins, so most of the KAMEI boxes now sold here are distributed by us via the internet; check out www.kamei.de for further information on the history and philosophy of this brand. We can sum it up by saying that drivers of German cars tend to be happiest with KAMEI boxes... Kar Rite, owned by Thule, is the UK's box manufacturer. Their boxes are very sensible, being made from the same components and to the same quality as the Thule 'Pacific' range. Thule is the world's dominant car rack systems manufacturer; their boxes are sold throughout the UK so you'll see plenty of them about. They have 3 main box ranges - economy ('Pacific'), mid to top ('Atlantis'), and top quality ('Spirit'). The Spirits are by some way the best looking and best engineered boxes that Thule have produced, although they're expensive compared to the competition. The Atlantis boxes were new in 2005; they're good value and of very good quality. We aren't stocking the Pacific range because we think there's better value elsewhere in this sector of the market . (You'll find that Pacifics have similar fittings to all the Thule boxes; it's really just the plastic and packaging which are thinner. This stands to reason; Thule 360 litre boxes range from £150 to £425, so if it's not fundamentally the thickness of plastic and build quality that accounts for this difference, what is it?)

The biggest area of confusion is capacity: Don't take too much notice of manufacturers' estimates of capacity (litres). A few extra centimetres of height can make a huge difference to the nominal capacity of a roof box, but will probably make no difference to its real world usefulness, particularly if the box lid has pronounced styling. Anyway, the lower the box the less the wind resistance. You are likely to put one layer of soft bags along the base of the box, and then coats and flatter objects on top of them; no box on the market will be deep enough for two layers of soft bags. Length and width are therefore the most important measures of usefulness. Unless indicated otherwise, all the boxes we sell will accommodate several sets of golf clubs, or a decent sized tent and sleeping bags etc. Many customers ask whether their child's buggy will fit in the roof box. The answer is that "It depends" - the size of the wheels being the usual problem. Don't forget that it may be easier to put the buggy in the back of the car, and use the roof box for other items. Hard suitcases, especially large ones, are not usually suitable for use in roof boxes; soft bags are always more appropriate.

Quality boxes should be almost silent in use. Boxes mounted too close to the roof are likely to generate a whistling noise, so roof bars lift them at least 10cm clear of the car roof.

OK, so which type of box should I buy?

Short Wide, Medium Long Medium Wide, Long Thin, Long Medium Wide, or Long Wide? It's usually quite easy to decide which type of box to go for. Rule 1: If you need to carry long items such as racing skis or fishing rods, you'll need a long box. That's obvious. Rule 2: If you want to carry other things on the roof as well as the box, choose a box which leaves space on the roof bars. Also obvious! Most people who buy Long Thin or Long Medium Wide boxes therefore do so because they also want the flexibility to carry e.g. bikes, windsurfers, or canoes. Long boxes will almost certainly be longer than your car roof and will stick out over the windscreen, but "So what?" - you won't notice the box when you're in the car.

But even if you don't have particularly long things to carry, it is likely that a Long box will suit you best if it's for family use. Long Medium Wide boxes are by far and away our most popular 'family flexible' boxes. Their particular advantages are that they can be moved around by one person, have a very good capacity (usually 460 to 475 litres), are easy to get things out of, are much easier than Long Wide boxes to store, and are very flexible, e.g. there'll often be room on the roof bars for two bike carriers as well.

There is of course a potential problem when Long boxes are fitted to hatchbacks, because the rear of the box and the glass in the tailgate tend to meet. This isn't an issue if you're careful - we've never heard of a rear window being damaged. (Note that we sell many more Long boxes in the summer than in the winter, and that most of these are for use on hatchbacks!)

To get around the Long box / hatchback problem, yet still leave roof space for a bike carrier, most manufacturers have now produced a 'Medium Long Medium Wide' box - see the Autoform Explorer 380, Farad 450, KAMEI Corvara 390K, Thule Atlantis (except 900). These boxes will accommodate the majority of carving skis.

Here's another 'Rule of thumb' where boxes are fitted to 120cm roof bars: A family of 5 will probably buy a Long Medium Wide box, leaving space for 2 bike carriers on the roof either now or in due course (or perhaps a second roof box). A family of 4 will probably buy a Medium Long Medium Wide box, leaving room for 1 bike carrier. 3 bike carriers can usually be fitted on the back of the car, or 4 on a tow bar carrier.

Some of the KAMEI Delphin and single side opening Corvara boxes, and the Kar Rite Contour 380, open from the left hand side; other boxes open on the right hand side. Farad, KAMEI (Corvara DuoLift) and Thule (Atlantis, Spirit and X1) have a dual side opening system; this is very useful on full width boxes ('Short Wide' and 'Long Wide'), particularly when used on tall vehicles, but is of less benefit on narrower boxes as for ease of access these boxes really need to be on one side of the car or the other, and cannot then be reached from the other side. KAMEI's 300 / 400 / 450 series is entirely symmetrical so you just need to turn the box around to open it from the other side of the car. Placing a box in the middle of the car might look tidier but unless it's a wide box you'll end up having to stretch, balancing on the door sill and at risk of straining your back; most boxes are best fitted to one side of the car or the other.

There's no such thing as "a particular box for a particular car" - we often supply large boxes for use on small cars. Our overall advice is therefore to think about what you want to carry in the box, what else you might want to carry on the roof, and then to think about the cost. All boxes have at least a three year guarantee, although in practice the major problem with quality roof boxes is lost keys! (We can usually sort out lost keys within 24 hours.) 'Metallic' (gloss) finish boxes cost more but are easier to keep clean than matt finishes, and keep on looking good long after matt finishes have lost their lustre.

When you visit the Product Range pages you'll see that there are many boxes within each category. The choice isn't as bewildering as it might seem at first sight! Most Autoform, Farad, KAMEI and Thule boxes have at least two colour options.

Customers tend to ask the same sort of questions if they haven't used a roof box before. Here are some frequent questions and answers:

Do I need anything else apart from roof bars and a roof box? No. A set of box to standard bar fittings is included with every roof box we sell, as is a set of straps to keep luggage in place. When a box is locked it can't be removed from the bars because the fittings which go around the roof bars are secured inside the box, and the box will be locked.

What are boxes made from? Unless stated, all the boxes we sell are made from various types of UV protected ABS plastic, and they are fully recyclable. None of the serious manufacturers uses fibreglass nowadays.

What's the big deal about quick fit systems? It's mostly just marketing hype; all boxes are almost as quick and easy to fit to roof bars, whether or not they have 'quick fit' systems. As a rule of thumb, the quicker the box is to fit, the more space the fitting system takes in the box, i.e. the less space there is for the luggage. Bear in mind also that many people leave their box permanently fixed to the roof bars, so fitting time is irrelevant. And also ask yourself the question, "If I take my box on holiday 3 times a year, and the slower but low profile U bolt fittings take an extra 2 minutes to fit each time, does this really make any difference?"