Soft racks/dented roofs

[lucy]

Yo! Anyone with a feeble car manage to dent their roof using softracks? The roof of my car bends in even when I'm washing it, so I'm a smidgen dubious of strapping boards to the roof & zooming off down the a303.... We usually take the oh's company car, which we don't mind trashing, & it has taken the punishment well (it's a vdub passat), my car (which is still shiny[ish] & new) is a little vw fox.

Anyone got any tales of woe to tell??

Ta very much!

Lucy
x

[Sillysausage]

soz, confused, what you want to know? if the boards will bend the roof in or the racks?

[Sar]

if I tie them extra tight the the roof will pop in a bit but it does pop back out again. If you havent got another option othere than your VW or the cash for proper roof rack then you just have to ask yourself - what do you care about most? The car top? or the boards strapped to it? If the boards fly off whilst driving along then its not just the boards that might get damaged but other road users too.

[Hang11]

Did a 4wd in Costa Rica, had about 10 longboards stacked up on it, and kicked the dents out by laying on the seat, then shoved loads of dirt in the scratches on the roof. Got away with it too

Years ago I had an old Beetle, and that got badly dented. But then it rusted away to nothing, so no drama.

I also chucked a set of soft racks on a Mercedes CLK convertible, along with a longboard and shot off down the M4 once. The hood got all bent up, but managed to straighten it out before I gave it back to my boss (it was his car).

[lucy]

Hmm.. Hang11, that doesn't sound too encouraging! Ha ha! But seeing as I'm not planning on strapping 10 longboards on top I might just cope...

Thanks Sar, that's really useful, knowing that your roof pops back out again. That's what I hope mine will do - no way I'd drive with the straps at all loose, the boards bounce around enough when they're tight! Think i might have to risk a test run & see...

Sillysausage - either really, I am interested in all kinds of roof bend-age if you have a similar car/experience..

Thanks all!

Lucy
x

[Sillysausage]

nah, but with my soft racks they used to lift up in the middle anyway to let the air through them so not sure if it would make a difference, aslong as its tightly strapped to the racks, but not 100%

[surferdude_scarborough]

my roof bends in when i have my boards on the rack. it pops out again when they come of tho so its fine.

[lucy]

Thanks very much, & hooray for bendy roofs! Now i can look forward to punishing my tiny engine with the added drag of surfboards... People are going to curse the day they get stuck behind me going up a hill! Both feet on the accelerator methinks!

x

[mowflow]

The roof on my Honda Civic bent like you wouldn't believe with a soft rack (It's the type r model so it's made of KitKat wrappers). The roof always popped back out but the soft rack did start to mark the paint so i got myself a Thule rack off ebay for £12. If you care about your car get yourself a propper rack.