Car roof luggage carrier varies with regards to their shapes, sizes and materials. What you wish to carry on roof of your car will matter and make you want to choose a specific type.
The following are the different types of roof carriers that are available in the market. Go through these to make the perfect choice.
Boxes
Roof boxes are the most convenient and common type of luggage carrier for cars. They are heavy but secure. They are enclosed and keep the belongings safe and secure while travelling.
Most of these roof boxes have attachments of racks or bars and lockable lids. These required no ropes to tie it tight with the cars. However, it might be noisy and create increased drag. They are also more expensive compared to any other type of cargo boxes.
Bags
They are considered to be the soft type of roof boxes for making usability flexible. These type of roof boxes are securely set on the top of the cars using straps attached to the same roof racks. These types of roof boxes are soft which are easy to handle, and are also flexible. However, they have certain disadvantages, like if it downslides, it may cause a scratch to the windows. There is also a likelihood of faster damage than getting blocked when stuffed with more objects.
Basket
Some can be basket-shaped, which keeps the objects or loaded open to weather changes like sunshine and rain. They also require straps or ropes to tie the objects carried tightly on top of the car. However, they are likely to produce less drag while the car is moving as it does not have a solid body. They are also considered to be strong and cheap compared to the boxes.
Out of all the roof carrier types that have been mentioned above, the most preferred is the boxes.
How to choose the correct size of a cargo box?
Many things should be kept in mind while selecting the correct size of the roof boxes for travelling.
The first step is to think about the objects required to be stored in the roof box while travelling. It can be considered that lightweight objects are well-fitted in the roof boxes. For instance, sleeping pads, camp chairs, etc., are some of the options that can be considered. However, longer objects would require longer roof boxes. Moreover, heavy objects are better to be kept inside the vehicle rather than carrying on top.
Secondly, the roof boxes dimensions are required to be examined. After making an idea of the things that can be carried in the roof box, the dimensions must be checked. The length, height and width of the boxes are required to be checked.
Most of the luggage should be occupying the middle portion of the box. That is why they should be placed between the crossbars. Around 60% should be considered to be in the middle portion, and the rest, 40%, can be divided among the back and front portions.