does anyone know the regulations regarding roof rack loads. i am thinking of getting a plastic IBC container to store water in, the measurements are about four foot square, weight wise its just a plastic base plastic container with a wire meash support around it so not a great deal, it will not overhang but its the height i am worried about, the journey is about 10 miles non motorway. any thoughts?
It's not the weight (well assuming it's empty) but the wind that'll bend something.
Don't do it, you'll tear the roof off!
More seriously, so long as you're within the weight limit and it's adequately secured you'll be fine.
cheers, clive
Tony
Get it delivered .
if its plastic then you may have difficulty securing it as it may flex ,
If its windy it could tip you over (it sounds as though you have a small car )
Somthing like that strapped onto the top of a car will certainly get you pulled by the plod .
Depending what type of roof rack you have the windload could rip it loose
Look at it like this , if the windload applied to the board is only half a kilo per 25mm square then your looking at a loading of over 1 tonne
In my younger day, I was a competing Windsurfer and used to load up my Astra GTE with ridiculous amounts of gear (roof rack and T bar allowed the load height to go at least 1.5m). 4 -5 Windsurfers, 8 masts, 8 booms, 2 large sailbags etc etc. It was all packed/stuffed so it looked like a large block aerodynamically. It was sufficient to get bystanders staring in wonder.
Well, the car never blew over even when I took it to the Maze at Tiree and, in those long past days, that car was driven *really outrageously* fast with that load.
The trick is to use those roof rack straps (you can get in Halfords) that you can just pull and they self lock. I've seen one guy chop his surf board in two with one of those the applied tension can be that good!
However I've also seen a roof rack collapse in a gust of wind with one
8'x4' sheet on it.
Obviously a seriously cr@p rack - there's no way that would have happened on *any* of my racks. I only used Thule racks into rain gutters in those days. I certainly wouldn't think of it now as my rack is just anchored, effectively, by 4 smallish pins. However, I have carried 10 ft x 6ft (approx) ply sheet supported by planks to stop it bending too far. Didn't go much above 30mph though. Sunroof is handy for on-the-move spot checks!
It wasn't a great one.
Wind was well above 30mph at the time.
To give you an idea, going back to my previous windsurfing example, the wind speeds that load took would have been of the order of
140mph.When I think about it now, I shudder.
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