Roof Bars...

[jonnyspin]

I usually carry 1 or 2 bikes for competitions, and, for a week in winter, skis. Sometimes I get the roof box up there for trips too. So I permanently have bars mounted on my roof rails.

But, this Summer, for the first time, I had 4 bikes up on top of the car.

I managed to get a good deal on a set of genuine toyota aero bars and 2 'toyota' bike racks, and put the racks up with my existing Thule hydraulic lifters on Thule aero bars. The car handled it all fine, as usual. Although getting heavy kid's mountain bikes on to the middle racks was a bit tough on the back! You can't put more than one pair of the haudraulic ones on bars for obvious reasons. The new Toyota bike racks are pretty good though. They're Mont Blanc ones and are easy to connect the bikes to.

Still love the versatility of my Rav!

PS: I'm going to sell the toyota aero bars from the new set on eBay soon as I've already got Thule bars. They're £100.40 new. If you are interested, make me an offer ;)

[nattyboy]

Message sent..

cheers

nat

[mike xt-r]

Hi, I bought a small step/work platform from B&Q £30 it fits in the boot (folds flat) and is perfect for loading bikes' kayaks or whatever onto the centre of the roof. I even use it to wash the roof. Mike

[jonnyspin]

now, there's an idea! thx

[jonnyspin]

just listed my Toyota aero bars in case anyone is interested: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...E:IT&ih=009

[Gustaw]

I usually carry 1 or 2 bikes for competitions, and, for a week in winter, skis. Sometimes I get the roof box up there for trips too. So I permanently have bars mounted on my roof rails.

But, this Summer, for the first time, I had 4 bikes up on top of the car.

I managed to get a good deal on a set of genuine toyota aero bars and 2 'toyota' bike racks, and put the racks up with my existing thule hydraulic lifters on thule aero bars. The car handled it all fine, as usual. Although getting heavy kid's mountain bikes on to the middle racks was a bit tough on the back! You can't put more than one pair of the haudraulic ones on bars for obvious reasons. The new Toyota bike racks are pretty good though. They're Mont Blanc ones and are easy to connect the bikes to.

Still love the versatility of my Rav!

PS: I'm going to sell the toyota aero bars from the new set on ebay soon as I've already got thule bars. They're £100.40 new. If you are interested, make me an offer ;)

Being a new RAV4 owner I spend free time (if any) studying the extremely exciting Owners Manual.

I also used to carry bikes on the roof bars on my old Focus so when ordering RAV4 I insisted on the roof rails to be fitted (option on T180).

So I got them fitted but ... I read in the Manual that ... one should not carry more than circa 50 kg on them !

If I rememebr correctly I was allowed to load about 100kg on the roof of the Focus ...

And here only 50kg on RAV4 ???

Well, the design and the structure of the RAV4 rails is clearly different to those of Focus with only two points of attachment on each side of the car (3 points on Focus Estate). I wonder if this is the reason for such a low load limit ... ???

Anyway, did you notice any problems with "overloading" roof rails on the RAV ???

[jonnyspin]

I usually carry 1 or 2 bikes for competitions, and, for a week in winter, skis. Sometimes I get the roof box up there for trips too. So I permanently have bars mounted on my roof rails.

But, this Summer, for the first time, I had 4 bikes up on top of the car.

I managed to get a good deal on a set of genuine toyota aero bars and 2 'toyota' bike racks, and put the racks up with my existing thule hydraulic lifters on thule aero bars. The car handled it all fine, as usual. Although getting heavy kid's mountain bikes on to the middle racks was a bit tough on the back! You can't put more than one pair of the haudraulic ones on bars for obvious reasons. The new Toyota bike racks are pretty good though. They're Mont Blanc ones and are easy to connect the bikes to.

Still love the versatility of my Rav!

PS: I'm going to sell the toyota aero bars from the new set on ebay soon as I've already got thule bars. They're £100.40 new. If you are interested, make me an offer ;)

Being a new RAV4 owner I spend free time (if any) studying the extremely exciting Owners Manual.

I also used to carry bikes on the roof bars on my old Focus so when ordering RAV4 I insisted on the roof rails to be fitted (option on T180).

So I got them fitted but ... I read in the Manual that ... one should not carry more than circa 50 kg on them !

If I rememebr correctly I was allowed to load about 100kg on the roof of the Focus ...

And here only 50kg on RAV4 ???

Well, the design and the structure of the RAV4 rails is clearly different to those of Focus with only two points of attachment on each side of the car (3 points on Focus Estate). I wonder if this is the reason for such a low load limit ... ???

Anyway, did you notice any problems with "overloading" roof rails on the RAV ???

the toyota bars were rated at 100kg.

I had no problem with 4 bikes on top - that must have weighed circa 70 - 80 kg including racks.

mind you I wasn't aware of any limits for the rails...

[Gustaw]

mind you I wasn't aware of any limits for the rails...

Thanks for the reply.

I just found that statement in the Manual about the 46kg weight limit (incl crossbars, racks, boxes, luggage, bikes etc) pretty odd ...

Clearly once one attaches crossbars + racks the weight might be already circa 10-15 kgs depending on makes and models.

When one loads bikes or luggage then exceeding 46 kg is nearly guaranteed ... :D

[jonnyspin]

mind you I wasn't aware of any limits for the rails...

Thanks for the reply.

I just found that statement in the Manual about the 46kg weight limit (incl crossbars, racks, boxes, luggage, bikes etc) pretty odd ...

Clearly once one attaches crossbars + racks the weight might be already circa 10-15 kgs depending on makes and models.

When one loads bikes or luggage then exceeding 46 kg is nearly guaranteed ... :D

you inspired me to check the manual of my 2004 xt4. It says not to exceed 100kg all in. Don't think I could go for a new shape Rav now, given your info...

(ps: toyota bars sold. - very quickly)

[Gustaw]

mind you I wasn't aware of any limits for the rails...

Thanks for the reply.

I just found that statement in the Manual about the 46kg weight limit (incl crossbars, racks, boxes, luggage, bikes etc) pretty odd ...

Clearly once one attaches crossbars + racks the weight might be already circa 10-15 kgs depending on makes and models.

When one loads bikes or luggage then exceeding 46 kg is nearly guaranteed ... :D

you inspired me to check the manual of my 2004 xt4. It says not to exceed 100kg all in. Don't think I could go for a new shape Rav now, given your info...

(ps: toyota bars sold. - very quickly)

I need to double check the owner's manual.

I had a look at the roof rails installation manual :

http://techdoc.toyota-europe.com/legacy/To...00%20500-00.pdf

and it confirms (on page 5) the max load to be 100kg. :D

There might be some inconsistency between the two manuals or I misinterpreted some statements.

Sorry for causing any concerns or spreading panic ... ;)

Gustaw

[Hoovie]

Maybe it was 50Kg per rail? so 100Kg together :D

[Gustaw]

I need to double check the owner's manual.

So here are the snapshots from the Owner's Manual :

and zoomed a bit closer :

To me 46.2kg seems to be very little ...

[St Thicket]

To me 46.2kg seems to be very little ...

That might be true. I've heard that the maximum limit is 50 kg. It might be a national regulation in Norway anyway.

The reason why you shouldn't load more, is the risk of tipping over in case you try to avoid an elk or in your case, a sheep. By the way, what's the biggest animal you might encounter?

The RAV4 isn't the most stable car when doing corners, and increasing the weight on the roof isn't going to make it better.

[Robert6920]

By the way, what's the biggest animal you might encounter?

In London, a dog (?) elsewhere in the UK probably horses and deer

In Ireland, there are regularly reports of horses/cows/sheep loose on the roads "and the Gardai are on their way". A couple of years ago, driving to work early one dark winter's morning, I encountered a herd of cattle loose on a (very straight) unlit country road. They were Friesian, and I caught the outline of one in my headlights and stopped, just in time. As I drove on, I rang the Garda Siochana (the Guardians of the Peace = the national police in Ireland) and as I did, a Garda car doing about 80mph zoomed by in the opposite direction, with me by now frantically flashing my lights at them.

I heard the screech......

[Hoovie]

Burgers on the menu at police canteen for a week after that :)

I would say largest animal regularly on the roads round my area would be the cows - hitting one of those at any speed would not do the cow or the car much good :(

[St Thicket]

To stay on topic after some months inactive...

This weekend, I carried about 70 meters of 1.5x3" construction material... a bit more than 50 kilos i guess

I love the versatility of my Rav...