Package deal: KAMEI 450 box and bars

Aerobar box adapters will also be included; tick the Roof box adapters box at the bottom of this page if you intend to order aerobars. (Please note that we won't supply these adapters if you order steel bars.)

Kamei makes the best quality boxes on the market. Don't just take our word for it! They're a specialist box manufacturer, Quality Assured to ISO 9001, represented in over 40 countries, with numerous Best Buy awards over the years, including the Auto Express 2006 "Best Buy" award for the Delphin 375, one of Kamei's mid market boxes which has identical features to this one. With their innovative and intelligent designs, top quality materials and engineering, and outstanding build quality, it's no surprise that they are Original Equipment box suppliers to several major manufacturers, including Audi, Mercedes-Benz and VW. And Kamei boxes have the longest guarantee of any manufacturer in the car rack systems sector - 6 years!

This box, new to us for 2006, is entirely symmetrical so you can fit it to open either on the left or on the right. It also seems bigger than its stated 430 litres of capacity, thanks to its low profile reinforcing ribs and fittings, and a lid that's an optimum shape for load carrying. Certainly it's amazing how much you can stuff into it!

Kamei makes a virtue of the 'Click' and 'Push button' locking system used in this box: Long boxes with central locking can be awkward to close, especially on taller vehicles, and when stuffed full. You need to hold the box tightly closed at the front, at the middle, and at the rear, and turn the key; this often requires two people. You close this box by pulling down on one end of the box until it clicks shut, then pulling down on the other end, and then pushing the locks in before covering them with a weatherproof flap. Each lock drives a bolt from the lid into the base; this is fundamentally a stronger system than central locking systems can achieve.

• Made from top quality 'DUROKAM', an ABS plastic developed by Kamei to optimise weight, stability and impact resistance.
• Wind tunnel development as well as TÜV and GS (security) testing and approval.
• Stabilus gas struts for wide and easy opening and closing.
• Sliding box to bar fittings so there’s never a need to drill new holes if the distance between your roof bars is non standard.
• This box comes with fittings to accommodate roof bars up to 44mm wide. If you will be using aluminium aerobars, or your roof bars are wider than 44mm, you'll need to purchase the aerobar adapters listed below.
• 6 year guarantee.
• Holds up to 6 sets of skis.
• Weight 19kg empty, maximum load 50kg, gross loading limit 69kg.

This season we are offering a free roof box hoist to give you a superb deal. Boxes are bulky items so the ideal place to store them is above your car in the garage, or perhaps in a shed. Many people will leave the box attached to the bars, and also use the box for storage.

If you don't need a box hoist, our alternative gift is a set of 3 Fasty straps - 0.5m, 1.5m and 3.0m. Although of much less financial value they will be useful for 1,001 things, time and again. To order the 3 straps, tick the Alternative free gift box below. Please note that only one box hoist or one set of straps will be included per roof box ordered.

Very few customers know much about the roof box market before they visit our site. We have a lot of information about the things to think about before buying, and the “real world usefulness" of various roof box features, but you’ll be buying sight unseen, and you probably won’t have used a roof box before, so there is inevitably some luck in getting a box which you’ll be happy with.

We want to remove the risks of buying these large and often expensive items, perhaps from brands which almost every other roof box retailer doesn’t stock, and so we have a unique “90 day Exchange Scheme” for roof boxes.

This allows you to use a roof box and, with the benefit of experience, to exchange it for a new one within 90 days of invoice date. Most exchanges are from a shorter box to a longer one, or from a wider box to a narrower one.

These are the rules of the Exchange Scheme:

• You are allowed one exchange only.
• The original box must be in "as new" condition, subject only to fair wear and tear.
• The replacement box must be a different model.
• The replacement box must not be part of a package deal or be from our Bargains section.
• Roof bars are never part of the Exchange Scheme.

This is how the exchange scheme works:

• We charge in full for the replacement box, including the appropriate carriage charge and a charge for any packaging needed for the return of the original.
• We arrange the collection and pay the return carriage costs.
• When the original box arrives back here we refund you for the invoice value of the original box, but you won't get back more than the invoice value of the replacement box. In other words, if the replacement is cheaper than the original we won't be giving you "extra cash back".

If you want to exchange a box that was purchased as part of a package deal, the scheme works in exactly the same way. Please note that the roof bars in package deals will be invoiced at the full “Our Price” that was advertised at the time of order, with the box representing the difference between the package deal price and the roof bars. Package deal roof boxes are often invoiced at a very substantial discount to the cost of buying that box on its own, so it’s likely that you’ll need to pay a bit extra if you want to exchange for a box that is normally the same price as the one you’re trading in.