Surfing Waves

Hi people, anybody has tried the car soft rack "java", which it works without a previous typical roof rack structrure?I mean, that thing only with straps to fix the surfboard to the car's roof. I wanna buy but it seems that i'll lost my board on the road. Thank you and sorry bout my spanish-english.

I had one (before getting a camper-van).

They work fine - boards (ranging from one to four) stayed on with no problem at all

Just make sure you put the fins facing up and at the front of the car, so if the boards do start to slide backwards, they get trapped by the fins.

The only problem with the soft-rack is that they can vibrate, making a really loud humming in your car!

there a good investment but they can leave presure dings on the roof apart from that theres no probs not even they flyin off.

drowningbitbybit wrote:The only problem with the soft-rack is that they can vibrate, making a really loud humming in your car!

LOL, Very true, If you go over 40MPH then it hums like MAD! It can sound scary and you think the boards will fly off any minute, but they wont! Tie them tight and they will not move!

i strapped my board to my roof the last time i went out and it hummed like mad . Was terrified it was gonna vibrate my board off, or vibrate a big hole in it so i did 35mph all the way to the break

Mine hummed all the way back from uni (Norwich) to home (Northumberland) once. After 6 hours of it you begin to wish you have hard racks..........

Its bad when your on a motorway, you cant go over 50mph! People pass you looking stupid and they get really angry at you driving so slow. I take the back roads all the time when I use my straps

Laguna wrote:Its bad when your on a motorway, you cant go over 50mph! People pass you looking stupid and they get really angry at you driving so slow.

Hmmm, nothing changes there then



But back to the racks, some people say putting a twist in them makes them stop vibrating, but it didnt work for me.
The only thing that worked for me was to pull the racks super-tight, and put the boards at an angle across the car roof. No idea why that works but it does... kinda...

Thank you very mcuh to everybody, i supposed ill buy it, and i hope y could go at 60 miles per hour(i imagine is as 120km/h)

umm, get roofies fitted - i have massive pressure marks on my roof for the vibrations - new car too :S no one warned me about this part of them.

I rarely use my straps, I just put the board in my car, but I will be using the straps again this summer when theres people in the car. I think the straps are deffinately worth buying, they only cost around £30!

HOW much!!!!!!!!!!

mine were a tenner!

yeah, they're about 15$ where i live.

there about £2 over here!

What's the matter with a bit of old rope and some pipe lagging....tie it on the inside of the car and close the doors.....bobs yer uncle!

I use softracks localy there great.

But first (and only) time I went any distance (Christchurch to mangys/kaikoura) they drove me mad and I managed to cram my longboards into the car instead (with all my camping stuff shifted and wife in one of the rear seats...

Got a proper rack now

I've got them. I found the more secure the racks are the less humming you'll get. Luckily I only have to endure 20 mins. of it, if it does start (I couldn't imagine a couple hours). I havn't had any problems with pressure dents in the roof (although, now I'm a little concerned). They do make me nervous everytime I use them. I'm always checking out the front of the board when I'm driving to make sure it's still there . I eventually just put my shortboard inside the car (much better). I recently got a 9'8" longboard, so I had to start using the rack again.
In summary - I havn't had any problems with them.

RJD; Kaikoura=my favourite place on earth.

Soft racks hum, mark the car roof, and when it rains the water drips into the car, but apart from that they're excellent !

Broosta wrote: when it rains the water drips into the car,

oh yes, I'd forgotten that - you're right it does!

But by the time I was driving back, the car was full of stinky wetsuits, sand and seawater anyway, so it didnt seem worth worrying about