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Roof rack understanding

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14K views 22 replies 10 participants last post by  hackR  
M
#1 ·
Hey all, I am new to roof racks, as my other cars have always been trucks or trackday cars. But now that I have the V90CC, I am looking into how to transition it into family duties. For example, we have a trip to the mountains next month and I am thinking of a roof mounted cargo box to hold skis and other stuff, keeping the inside of the car uncluttered. I have not yet decided on which cargo box, but I wanted to get a head start and order the Volvo roof rack (load bars) and I have some questoins.
IF I go with the Volvo load bars, are they compatible with most cargo boxes out there? (I assume that the aero bars are pretty close to each other as far as manufacturers are concerned).
Another question is in regards to the Volvo roof box. I have heard it is manufactured by Thule, and was wondering if it has a corresponding model for rest of world for me to compare? The only image that I have been able to see is not very detailed, but it does look pretty sleek.
I have seen some nice offerings from Inno (shadow), Thule (Motion XT), Yakima, etc.
I just want to be sure that I order the right load bars. I like the idea of the Volvo load bars as they do not extend outside of the mount, and that looks cleaner to me.
I assume that the Volvo load bars are lockable, right.

Any idea as to what the quietest box might be? I see that all have aero offerings, and that is most certainly to address noise as well as wind resistance...
I have a stealth hitch that I need to install for my bike rack. Just need (at least I think I need) a cargo box for trips and I will be good to go.

Any and all advice is welcome.

Thanks and regards,
Mike
 
B
#2 ·
I believe the best for wind noise will come from boxes with bars through the box like the skiguard or some packline, but you loose sunroof function.

For actual bars they should all be compatible.

Volvo racks are made by packline afaik (at least the ocean race one), not available in North America.

Second option is thule motion xt with cutouts for the roof bars.
 
M
#3 ·
Thanks Beachboy.
Those are some nice looking racks. I had never heard of either before your posting. They are now on my short list, although I just purchased the Volvo load bars and Rhino Zenith box. If I do not like the box, I will likely spend the money on the Skiguard option. The only thing that convinced me was that the skiguards are decidedly dedicated to skis, and are so low that they may not fit much else. That, and the pricing. But man do they look good.
 
J
#5 ·
We've got the factory load bars, which are great, and a 22-ish cubic foot Yakima box. There's a decent bit of wind noise, depending on your speed and how the wind is blowing that day. I recommend closing the fabric interior sunroof cover, which helps. The only real downside of the sunroof is it lets in a lot of wind noise when using the box. I don't find there's much wind noise from just the rack itself, though.

I love those sleek low-profile boxes, but with 2 kids in the back seat and a dog in the cargo area (which takes up about half of it), we find for trips we need the big box. We also have the Stealth Hitch for bikes/cargo platform as needed.
 
#7 · (Edited)
I believe the factory racks are made by Thule. In any case, they are fully compatible with Thule (including lock cylinders) - so if you get a Thule box, you can have matching locks for everything (one key). They are a pretty good buy, IMO - the only trade-off being no options to increase bar width.

As for noise - if you experiment with position, the factory bars (by themselves) can be pretty much noise free. That's with the sunroof closed, of course. With a box, it's another story. Again - experiment with your box and load bar position to find the optimal position, Position can even affect fuel economy (eg: If your load bars are too rearward, the box can actually have a slight uplift profile which increases drag. You want your box to have a minimal frontal profile into the wind.

I have a Thule Motion Alpine box and it's great for skis/snowboards and has a fairly low profile. It can still pack a lot, so long as you're packing soft bags (as opposed to hard sided luggage). My box has cutouts for the rack and I find that having the load bars/box positioned so that the bars are close to the front of the cutouts makes the box less noisy. I position the bars/box so that the rear hatch is about 1/2" away from hitting the box when open. I get no whistling, and pretty noise free at around 110 km/hour. But above that it gets noisy - nothing that the sound system can't cover though.

Photo is from last year. Since, I’ve fiddled with moving the rear load bar forward so it’s at the front of the rear cutout.
Image
 
S
#11 ·
Omac bars off eBay, 99.00 and they came from Texas! I like them a lot, sunroof doesn’t open as I never do. I keep interior cover closed, honestly I don’t want or need sunroof. I have Thule XT Motion in 16cf. Love it, gloss black, opens either side and very very easy to clip off and on. I got the hook access step that clips over door striker, game changer, never stand on your seats again or grind sand into your door sill plates! I bought Thule from REI, free shipping with store pickup and only 725.00 with member discount
 
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V
#12 ·
Have you had the OMAC bars a while?? I just bought them from Amazon a couple weeks ago. I actually really love the design/styling of them, I think they look great on the car. Only concern is that the piece holding the cross bars to the feet is plastic where thule uses metal... have you put some miles on with cargo up there without issues??
 
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