Surfboard roof racks: the lowdown

cantdecide

My sister needs a roof rack for a new surf board she's bought. She has a '97 Prelude. She hasn't had surf boards before much less carried them on a car roof.

There seems to be options ranging from OEM styles to strappy systems but the thing is she's on a very tight budget and I think she'll probably go for the cheapest one and I'm very worried about this. The Prelude has a tiny roof and obviously it has only two doors which is surely going to limit the usefulness of any roof rack.

What is likely to be the most suitable option for her?

OldGuysRule

Having carried surf boards for best part of 20 years on a fairly wide selection of cars, best recommendation is the OEM bars always. Using the strappy systems is a waste of time, particularly with a small roof length of a coupe.

promethius

i used to have a prelude and carried boards on it.
I mostly carried boards inside it, ie passenger side but that only worked for shortboards.
I used a softrack (strapped system) and it was ok but was only local travelling i did with it, no big journeys. It was grand but wouldn't be comfortable taking it out in high winds with it!
there's a hard rack for the prelude which kind of extends back over the back of the car to give a little more support since the roof's so short.

hard rack is def a better option, no worrying about the board coming off but it is of course a good bit more expensive.

i'm using a thule hard rack on a VW now and it's brilliant.

wet-paint

If budget is the most important factor, the tell her to go for some camping mat, and get three ties, seeing as she can't tie it down twice side to side. One sideto side, and then tie down the front and back to the towing eyes. It won;t move then.

-maccer-

wet-paint wrote: »

If budget is the most important factor, the tell her to go for some camping mat, and get three ties, seeing as she can't tie it down twice side to side. One sideto side, and then tie down the front and back to the towing eyes. It won;t move then.

I use roof bars purchased off Ebay a number of years ago which cost me 60e at the time. Still going fine. I use a set of surfboard straps to secure the board to the bars (they cost around 15e to 20e). Cheap enough option I think. Obviously these roof bars are bog standard with no locking mechanism but hey they were cheap! I think this is the must secure method of putting boards on the car especially considering that you are responsible if your board comes off and does damage to someone or their car.

smog

Soft solutions are a pain. Anything from rain water running down the straps into the car via the (didn't seem possible but is)

We ended up getting a removable roof rack (simple key solution) thats quick and easy to put on when heading west for less the 100 euro .. and it was well worth it for the piece of mind and ease of which it goes on and off

Something like
http://www.micksgarage.co.uk/ProdDetails.aspx?pid=185132&pk=843DB&AffiliateID=32475&utm_campaign=google_base&utm_medium=shop_channel&utm_source=google_base&utm_content=&utm_term=

Leonard Hofstadter

Soft racks are a PITA - not least because they leave in water. They are also extremely noisy on the open road. A proper roof rack is the only solution. Go to somewhere like Halfords or motor factors and look for a suitable set for the car.

V Eight

OldGuysRule wrote: »

Having carried surf boards for best part of 20 years on a fairly wide selection of cars, best recommendation is the OEM bars always. Using the strappy systems is a waste of time, particularly with a small roof length of a coupe.

have to agree here!- unfortunately you need to spend the extra for peice of mind. I've tried all forms of attaching surfboards to roofs and there is nothing like wondering and worrying if the board will go flying off and hit the car behind....soft racks scratch the paint and low quality racks just bend particularly with three or four boards on top........

colm_mcm

I would have thought frameless windows and a soft roof rack would be a bad combination. Won't do your window regs any harm