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Roof Bars

Roof bars overview | Roof bars finder | FAQs | VAN-RACKS

Roof Bars/roof racks at The Roof Box Company

Click on the magnifying glass logo, wherever you see it, to find out which products have been specifically approved for use on your vehicle.

More on the brands we sell and what makes them special

Prorack engineers built a mini wind tunnel for the Frankfurt Automechanika trade fair in September 2008, capable of generating wind speeds up to 160 km/h. A range of standard European roof bar profiles were compared to the Prorack Whispbar, and the results were graphed. They’re compelling.

VAN-RACKS is our sister company dedicated to supplying commercial and heavy duty users with roof bar systems, roof racks and other accessories for their vans.

VAN-RACKS is the part of our business which supplies heavy duty ladder bars, roof racks, pipe carriers, bulk heads and other accessories for light commercial vans. We supply the full range of CRUZ commercial, Rhino, Saunders and Thule Professional.

"Which bits of my Thule roof bars can I reuse?"

Click here for our FAQs page.

$This is The Roof Box Company's roof bar/roofbar/roof rack/roofrack page, the UK's leading mail order supplier of car roof bars/roof bars from Thule, Atera, Prorack and CRUZ$

Choose your vehicle to see what Roof Bar options you have:

Product overview

CRUZ (Spain) makes much the best quality mid market bars on the market, a modular system with separate adapter kits, i.e. when you change car you often only need a new adapter kit. Atera (Germany) and Thule (Sweden) make bars of equal quality. Atera bars, which are always available in either steel or aluminium, are supplied complete; everything is in one box, all adjusted and ready to fit onto the car. Thule bars are supplied in modular form, which means several boxes of components that you fit together. You may be able to use some or most of these components when you change vehicle, but the six different roof fixing types usually require different Thule Foot Packs. Thule is the world’s largest manufacturer of roof racks. Their bars are always available in steel, sometimes in aluminium. Prorack S-wing bars are the new generation of roof bars, taking roof bar science a long way forward. They have an aerofoil-shaped aluminium wing that generates minimal drag and therefore makes next to no noise and has a negligible effect on fuel consumption. This is also a modular system but you use the same “foot” for all six roof fixing types, and you’ll probably only need to change adapter kit when you change vehicle.

More on the brands we sell and what makes them special:

I know what car I have, what roof fixings it has, and what brand I want. But are aluminium bars worth the extra money?

Most of the aluminium bars we sell are oval-shaped “aerobars”. They certainly look very smart and, being aluminium rather than steel, they are always the more expensive option. There are however three important practical reasons for choosing aerobars:

(1) You can use the full length of the bars for fixing your accessories, which may allow you to carry more on the roof, and thereby get better value from the whole system. Whatever you’re carrying on the roof bars is fixed to the aerobars via the slots that run full length along the tops of the bars. A frequent problem with the cheaper steel bars is that the roof bar feet get in the way of the accessory fixings.

(2) Aerobars are substantially quieter than steel roof bars, as the name “aerobar” suggests. Roof bars generate a hum, sometimes a whistle, often around the ‘middle C’ frequency, which can become intrusive in certain situations, especially if the roof bars are exposed - it depends on the type of car, the type of roof bars, and the position of the roof bars on the roof. The volume tends to increase in line with speed. We don’t want to exaggerate this issue – millions of roof racks have been sold over the years, and if the roof bars sometimes make an irritating noise, so also do the tyres, the engine, and the passengers! It’s also important to note that roof rack whistle can usually be reduced to an acceptable level by moving the roof bars forwards or backwards, even by a centimetre, and that it’s much less of an issue if there's a roof box to change the airflow.

(3) Aerobars create less drag than steel roof bars and therefore have less of an effect on fuel consumption. This is important, especially if you are likely to use your roof bars frequently or to leave them in place for many weeks at a time. Aerobar science has undergone a massive and we suggest fundamental leap forward with the launch of the beautiful looking Prorack “Whispbar”; this has been shown in test conditions to create almost 70% less drag than its major competitors. It is truly a product for our times and it’s no surprise to see it winning prestigious design and environmental awards.

Welcome to our Roof Bar pages

Roof bars are the foundation of any load carrying system - everything else is fixed to them. Even cars with front to back roof rails will need a set of cross bars. It makes sense to buy a good quality system, mainly for safety reasons, but also to avoid any damage to your vehicle.

We supply roof bars from four different manufacturers – CRUZ, Atera, Thule and Prorack – representing the best of the mid market to the very best.

CRUZ roof bars

Cruzber is Spain’s largest roof bar and roof rack manufacturer, founded in 1963. Cruzber specialises in the mid market sector, and sells most of its products under the CRUZ brand label, using state of the art manufacturing machinery. Cruzber is very highly regarded in the European market in particular and is also Thule's Spanish distributor. More…

Atera roof bars

Atera is the best of the German roof rack manufacturers. Most of their roof bars and accessories business is with the car manufacturers, where major customers include Audi, BMW, Daewoo, Chrysler, Fiat, Honda, Mitsubishi, Mercedes-Benz, Opel, Subaru, Suzuki, Vauxhall and Volkswagen. Their own branded SIGNO AS and SIGNO ASR roof bars are beautifully made, stylish, pre-assembled and ready to fit, more…

Thule roof bars

Thule makes excellent roof bars and has fittings for almost all car makes and models. Our database shows all the Thule bars available for your vehicle, together with any available options, e.g. aluminium aerobars instead of the standard black plastic-coated galvanized steel bars. We also show you where you can use longer bars than specified – this may useful if you have lots to carry, or if you already have the longer bars from a previous Thule roof bar system. More…

Prorack roof bars

Prorack’s S-wing bars are a generation ahead of their competitors; they’ve been designed from first principles by people who have half a lifetime’s experience of using roof bars. It shows. Apart from the unique aerofoil-shaped bar it’s the sheer quality of design, materials and finish that sets them apart - you really need to handle them to appreciate this. Even the tools provided for fitting are designed or chosen to make the job as easy as possible. More…

When you click on our Roof bars product finder we will show you all the roof bar options available for your vehicle.

The purpose of this page is to help you to identify your type of car roof – for example, does it have roof rails, flush mounted roof rails or Fixpoints? – and then to help you decide which brand and style of roof bars to buy.

You need to be sure about exactly which car you have. When car models change we show an overlap, e.g. Ford Focus five door (1998 to 2004), and Ford Focus five door (2004 onwards). If your car was registered in 2004, is it the last of the old model or the first of the new? If in doubt please look carefully at the pictures we provide.

You can of course mix or match brands and products, e.g. you could put a KAMEI roof box and a Thule bike carrier on Prorack bars, or an Atera bike carrier and a Thule kayak carrier on Thule bars.

There are essentially six very different ways of fixing roof bars to cars, as shown in the following pictures. For example, if your vehicle has “roof rails”, where you can slide your hand under the rail, then you must choose a set of bars that are “for cars with roof rails”, otherwise the bars we send you will not fit.

A continuum of roof bar quality

Roof bars usually clamp around the bodywork if you don't have rails, tracks or Fixpoints.

"for cars with Fixpoints" - these mounting points are usually
hidden under flaps or sliders.

"for cars with T-tracks" - a channel in the roof with a slot running
full length.

"for cars with roof rails" - you can push your hand under the bar.

"for cars with flush mounted
roof rails"

A few cars have old fashioned gutters.

$The Roof Box Company: Atera SIGNO roof bars/roofracks$