laser info

I also find that roof racks have a habit of scratching the paint on my nicely polished car...

Hi.

When I had my laser I drive it all over the country (on the roof rack) with out any trouble.  I wasn’t particularly interested in the breaking strain of the bars, but more the strength of the fixings to the car, since they take the most strain.  When you think about it, the bars aren’t put under any point load, they’re just squashed between the boat and the roof brackets.  I drove an old ‘A’ reg fiesta with a second hand bullet proof roof rack made by Toyota – it was great.  When I changed car to a Clio and got the Renault roof rack, different story, since the brackets simply weren’t up to the job – it floated around all over the place.  Regardless of which car I was in, I always made doubly sure that the boat was secure front and back (tied to the cars towing points - most important part in my opinion).

However, a cautionary story…I have a friend who did the same with his laser, but one day over tightened the straps on the roof rack.  The bars flexed slightly under the strain meaning that the brackets didn’t have enough grip on the roof and he used a thin rope to tie down the front.  Driving along the motorway, the whole load (with the roof rack still tied to the boat) flipped off of the car, landed on its trolley and came to a rest on the hard shoulder. (He should have attached a GPS and entered it on to Speed Freaks!).  Luckily they were the only car on the road at the time, but it could obviously have been far worse.  The boat was written off and I think he converted to a tow bar soon after.

A previous poster said that you weren’t subject to speed restrictions when car topping, which is quite right.  However, I think you’d have to be pretty stupid to drive at 70 in the fast lane with the boat on top!