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Dutch Dennis

New Member

• Jul 7, 2008

• #1

Anyone tried or seen one of these in action?

I am in the early stages of planning a 2 year expedition and am looking at various roofrack options.

The extra space of the full-length roofrack appealed to me. Since I will be using a hard-shell rooftent that takes up 2.3m of the roofrack.

Any feedback would be welcome.

 

Pikey

Dummy Ejection Facilitator..

• Jul 7, 2008

• #2

I had a HD roof rack that went from the windscreen mounts at the front and the rear crossmember at the back. The problem with huge roof racks is you end up taking more stuff than you would have if you'd had to make do with a smaller one and therefore you carry more weight than you would of. Also it transfers a lot of weight forwards onto the front end and front shocks tend to be the ones that suffer the most on rough roads. Without the extra loading

 

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Cassie

New Member

• Jul 8, 2008

• #3

We don't have any experience with the bumper to bumper personally but had thought about this as an option. We were thinking about a tent 2.4m long plus bikes. We were advised against due to what Redhand says - weight loading and we've also been told a bit cumbersome and a vision restrictor.

 

tacr2man

Well-Known Member

• Jul 9, 2008

• #4

The bumper to bumper racks are a bit of a liabilty as they increase weight forward and increase roll possibility due to weight transfer to forward outer corner when turning . plus other negatives mentioned. a standard rack has more than a enough surface area to be able to overload anyway

 

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Dutch Dennis

New Member

• Jul 9, 2008

• #5

Thanks for the replies, folks.

I will take it into consideration.

The current load that I expect to place on such a large roof rack is the following.

- hard-shell tent
- spare wheel/tire
- 3 storage cases for extra tent, sleeping bags, some tools, spare parts, etc
- bridging ladders/sand mats
- multiple jerry can holder with usually empty cans

The expedition I am working on would take me through Africa, first west and then the eastern route, into central asia, down through china into south east asia, then over to india and pakistan and iran. Then up into the caucasus and down through turkey, going through the middle east and across through north africa to tunisia and back up into europe.

Slow and steady pace. For upto 2 years. So the extra load space of a bumper-to-bumper roof rack sounds very appealing.

Again, thanks for the replies.

 

Pikey

Dummy Ejection Facilitator..

• Jul 9, 2008

• #6

you'll have trouble getting a visa for the Pakistan & iran stage of your route.

 

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Dutch Dennis

New Member

• Jul 9, 2008

• #7

Why is that? I am Dutch btw. So no british passport.

 

Pikey

Dummy Ejection Facilitator..

• Jul 9, 2008

• #8

Because of the troubles currently in the area and especially in Pakistan. Someone on here was told by the Consulate that they were'nt issuing any Visas for the forseeable future.

 

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Cassie

New Member

• Jul 9, 2008

• #9

It was Disco Dave who is travelling in 4 days time who said no entry to Pakistan at present so has had to re-organise route and visas etc last minute. BUT seems to be variable so maybe in 2-years time all will be fine again. We are looking at sea routes instead which reckon might be better option in the long run (was told that 14-hour non-stop armed convoy through Pakistan so wonder what's the point if at all avoidable but this information needs to be checked as this info might be incorrect - can't remember where got this from). Lesson we are taking away is to build contingency route plans where border areas known to be troublesome (in our case - probably avoid unless there is something 'drop dead' we are determined on doing/seeing/need to get to and even then - plan to provide contingency).

 

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Dutch Dennis

New Member

• Jul 10, 2008

• #10

Hopefully in 2 years things will have calmed down. Alternatively, to avoid the Pakistan crossing I could go back via Nepal-Tibet-China-Central Asian Stans-into Iran. A bit of a detour, especially since I would have already gone through the Stans. But I don't like the idea of shipping the Defender to skip a difficult section.