3 door with roof cross bars

Bought some roof bars for my 3 door (Mont Blanc for £49.99 from Sparesworld - nice for the price) to carry the occasional kayak (~14 foot) or ladders. It did strike me however when I was looking at things that the fitted roof bars are a long way back on the body. If I'm taking the big double ladders (20 foot each section?) somewhere for work, they'll either have to stick out a long way back or cantilever out over the bonnet and probably flap about in the wind.

This raised two questions in my mind:

1. What are the legalities of this? Can I just tie my hi-vis vest off the end and be done with it? I realise the ladders will be overhanging somehwere whatever I do.

2. What do other people do - keep the centre of gravity between the bars and live with the rear overhang or cantilever out front tying down to the rear very well?

I'm aware that with the kayak, due to it's shape, it'll be impossible to do anythin other than C of G between the bars without the shape of it 'squeezing' it out forwards. The only way around this I guess would be to tie it back to the rear fitted crossbar to prevent it creeping forward, though this wouldn't fill me with confidence.

I suppose I could tie the front of the ladders down bloody tight to the front tow eye, but again, confidence isn't too high as there always seems to be a bit of movement in the tie down arrangements after a few miles.

Can't imagine what a freelander would look like with front posts and a full length roof rack

regularly have big extension ladders on the roof, never had a problem with just tying a hi-viz on the end overhanging the back. doesn't stick out quite as much as it seems, because of the depth of the spare wheel on the back door. I've had plod behind me a few times, and never been tugged over it. I think as long as the load is secure, and any overhangs are made obvious (tying a hi-viz is about as good as it gets) you'll be okay.

if you're going to carry a ladder on the bars often, well worth getting a set of ladder clamps to hold them in place. About £30 in B&Q at the moment. Once ladder is mounted with them correctly, it just will not move. I regularly put mine on the roof, and have driven 200 miles plus on motorways, and they've been as tight as when I left home.

As for the kayak, think the only way is with a ratchet tie down. Hard to find somewhere to tie the ratchet down to, so I drilled my crossbars and fitted some eyebolts at each end to always give me a secure tie down point.

Good Luck

Cheers Optimus - nice and helpful reply. I know there's always good advice around here but for some reason expected the first reply to tell me to get a Disco or Depender which would solve all my problems miraculously

I don't regularly carry ladders, but if they're only £30 for clamps I'm sure I could blag that on expenses without any questions

I'm wary of the kayak because of a bad experience with my old astra and roof bars. I was carrying the kayak and a surf ski on the roof for a 2 1/2 hour dive up to Lindisfarne. I ended up stopping about 10 times to re-adjust the tie down (ratchet, rope and bungee combined - don't like bungees myself). In that situation the roof bars were relatively central to the middle of the roof, though I didn't have side bars to tie down to. It was tied down to the tow bar and front tow eye but seeing it try to take off through the sun roof was a bit un-nerving at 70 mph!

I'll try to keep you informed of how it goes...

Yeah, the old buy a Depender or Disco from the neanderthal side of the camp does get a bit wearing after the thousandth time or so. Don't worry, they'll soon discover fire & hopefully burn their steeds to ashes. Glad you got sorted.

cough cough

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f9/poll-160-what-faults-have-you-encountered-your-fl1.html

Ossy said:

Cheers Optimus - nice and helpful reply. I know there's always good advice around here but for some reason expected the first reply to tell me to get a Disco or Depender which would solve all my problems miraculously

I don't regularly carry ladders, but if they're only £30 for clamps I'm sure I could blag that on expenses without any questions

I'm wary of the kayak because of a bad experience with my old astra and roof bars. I was carrying the kayak and a surf ski on the roof for a 2 1/2 hour dive up to Lindisfarne. I ended up stopping about 10 times to re-adjust the tie down (ratchet, rope and bungee combined - don't like bungees myself). In that situation the roof bars were relatively central to the middle of the roof, though I didn't have side bars to tie down to. It was tied down to the tow bar and front tow eye but seeing it try to take off through the sun roof was a bit un-nerving at 70 mph!

I'll try to keep you informed of how it goes...

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I think you'll find you must use ladder clamps by law now( although sumone will probley correct me)..dunt think they'll be much good fer yer kayak fingy though unless you cut a couple of holes in it ... ....

Get yoself a set of Thule kayak rack adapters. Cheap enuf off eBay.

nigel8 said:

I think you'll find you must use ladder clamps by law now( although sumone will probley correct me

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not heard anything come through to us on that yet, always worked on the principle that any load had to be secure, but it didn't matter how it was secured, as long as it was secure.

ready to be corrected....