Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

I'm contemplating buying a kayak which will necessitate having roof bars on which to transport it to suitable bodies of water in which to go kayaking.

Happily I have an estate car that is sufficiently long, but I will need roof bars.

Any advantage to getting Thule wing bars (for £200+ once you add the fixings) or just get cheaper Halfords brand bars?

When I had a kayak many years ago I used cheap uprights which bolted onto a regular square section roofbar. Things may have changed now, but with Thule wing bars you may be tied into Thule-specific uprights which entails even more £££

Ruislip High Street, this afternoon;
Were the rear window louvres a factory option?

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I've got the wing-bars from my E-Class, which won't fit on my van - would they fit your car?

That's a good point. Kayak that I'm looking at right now is plastic so can be strapped directly to the bars.

However may progress to a composite at some point when I would need uprights and / or v brackets.

Edit - like this: https://www.thule.com/en-gb/winter-and-water-sports-carriers/kayak-roof-racks/thule-hull-a-port-aero-_-849

Ah - interesting.

Car is a 2017 Superb estate. Halfords website says Thule Wingbar Evo 118 and Thule Evo Raised Rail Footpack 7104.

What do you have?

I only ever had plastic kayaks but we used to trips with a full car so would strap 4 on the roof. This was in my Accord Type-R, didn't do much for fuel consumption. not that we cared in those simpler times

Long post deleted and cba to rewrite it.

Buy these from here: https://www.roofbox.co.uk/roof-bars/roof-bars-cruz.php

thanks - they look excellent for the price.

@el_presidente - 4 kayaks on the roof - impressive! I'm aimimg for a max of 2 at present, but we'll see how it goes.

I got the Cruz ones for both the Panda and now the C-Max. Can confirm they are fine.

i have a set of the large thule roof bars (off the 5 series), if anyone wants a set...

Talking of roof bars, on a related note.

Has anyone ever used one of the tow bar mounted box carriers, I am looking at the cruz one to go behind our camper, will be multi use to either take bikes, or a few boxes with light stuff like sleeping bags etc. any ever used one?

I'm interested in either @Dammit or @BRM roof bars, just need to work out if they will fit.

The Skoda has raised rails, so the bars need to clip onto those.

Mine are to fit on conventional rails, are yours' the type that require a sort of open clamp rather than a band that wraps around the rail?

I've never fitted bars so I really don't know how they work. This is the product Halfords say I need to secure aero bars to the rails:

mine are like this

I have the same ones as BRM, just a bit wider.

Thanks, I'll see if I can find them online and work out if they'll fit. Can't see why they wouldn't if the right length.

The original blinds were made by gradulux and were an option I think. Mines a modern reproduction

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Looks class. Alain Delon about to open the roof up?😀

Thanks. I've now had a look on Thule website. The bars that you have don't seem to be a current product. In the nearest equivalent, it says I need "size medium". Not that helpful.

I've measured the space between the inside edges of the bars on my car, it's 1105mm at the front where they are fixed to the roof, and 995mm at the same place at the back.

I'd always assumed they were parallel!

I don't know if that enables us to determine whether either set will fit?

At a guess I'd say the Skoda is more similar to the 5 series size wise, than an E class but that's just a guess.

Thank you for your patience with this!

Go second hand. For some strange reason people change cars so frequently there are loads of roof bars available. You just need to know what fitment type you need and the minimum width.

I think mine are an M and an L, the C Class was an S and an M.

I’ll measure them later.

Thanks for the reply.
Yours looks much better than the paint poverty spec matt white one I saw.

Great, thank you.