Discovery Standard Roof Bars?

Most people seem to go for an expedition roofrack on their disco, presumably for looks, and because they can hold alot more than the standard one.

But I've never seen anyone make use of the standard roof bars.
Anyone use them, and are they any good?

Nope never used mine they are still in their black plastic cover with the jack handle under the back seat.. but we did use similar rails on the firms two Astra vans to hold ladders with out any problems.

And no 'everyone'

yep, my van broke recently and we had to turn mine into a 4x4 carpet fitter van, we got some dodgy looks when we turned up with 3 4Mx5M rolls on the roof.

i got mine out for the first time yesterday because was going to see if i coulf fit a roof tent. and i dont think theyre much use for anything! i wouldnt trust them to hold much atall

What's wrong with them? Is the fitting to the side rails poor?

Mine have been on the car since I got it. I was going to fit some J bars for a Kayak to them.

The maximun roof-rack load is 50kg (110 lb) for normal road use, and the load should also be secured to the side rail not just the cross rails.

i use mine quite a bit.... ladders, lengths of timber, whatever is too long to fit inside and not too heavy. ive also got an old roof bar that i can clamp on the gutter rails at the rear if im carrying something really long or a bit heavy.
its usually length of the load rather than its weight that makes me fit the extra one at the back for stability, i had about 10 sixteen foot decking boards on there last month which would have too much for the standard roof bars .

I fitted mine once and of course it made no difference to the fuel economy, but I was paranoid, someone would steal them as they're not secure, so I took them off. Ironically with a massive heavy expedition roof rack, it would ruin your fuel consumption to have it up there permanently, but nobody would be crazy enough to try and nick it lol.

ReadySalted said:

I fitted mine once and of course it made no difference to the fuel economy, but I was paranoid, someone would steal them as they're not secure, so I took them off. Ironically with a massive heavy expedition roof rack, it would ruin your fuel consumption to have it up there permanently, but nobody would be crazy enough to try and nick it lol.

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They also increase noise considerably, at cruising speeds.

mine didnt have the cross bars when i bought it...

got a set off ebay.. for £1.. collected..

shows how much they are valued by most people...

used ours quite a few times, they performed quite well, fetched two doors back from b&q. wouldn't want to carry anything that heavy on them again.

ron.