Carrying wood on top of van roof.

[gavztheouch]

Hi I’m thinking about buying a roof rack to carry 4.8m timber on my van roof. It’s a standard van length (Peugeot expert) 

 

i think I need a full rack as the mounting points on my van are quite close together so a full rack will give extra support in the length. I think the rack is 2.6m long so I will have 2.2m of overhang to split between front and back somehow.

 

The first job is to pickup some cladding battens which are 42mm by 42mm, they are 100 miles away and I will need to go on the motorway/dual carriage.

 

Is it a bad idea to carry loads like 20 or 30 battons on a roof rack long distance. I have tried searching for pictures or folk discussing this online but I don’t seem to see anything. If they came off during transport it would be extremely dangerous 

[SimonD]

I've done a few timber collections where the merchant has loaded my order straight onto my roof rack with a fork lift truck. Once the load bent the roof rack carrying 6m lengths - not a great strategy I realised at the time! You need to check maximum weight yo can carry on your rack and van roof - it's often far less than you might think.

 

However, more importantly, I only ever go and collect if I absolutely have to, preferring to pay for delivery when I can. A 100 mile trip each way to collect is easily a day lost in work, why not arrange delivery and then you can get on with whatever work you are doing instead?

 

 

[ProDave]

I regularly carried 4.8M planks and 4.5M ladders on the roof of my Subaru Forrester, just with the 2 standard roof bars.  The geometry of the car dictates the front overhang (in front of the bar / rack) will be greater than the rear, to prevent an illegal overhang at the back of the vehicle.

 

Anything heavy, place at one side of the rack not in the middle to avoid bending the bars.

 

Small things like battens, strap them together at front and back to make them more rigid and more like one item.

 

Sometimes with things like that I would also tie down the front to the front towing eye and the towbar at the rear.

 

Now carrying a bundle of 6M long unistrut was entertaining and possibly not entirely legal.

[SteamyTea]

29 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Sometimes with things like that I would also tie down the front to the front towing eye and the towbar at the rear.

I used to do a lot of kayaking, was not unusual to put a K2, which was 6.4m long on a cheap 1970s universal roof rack.

On the top of an MGB GT.

I always tied the ends down as that stopped movement and bouncing.

Needed a flag at the end as well.

Make a triangle from the end ropes if you can, that stops the loaf shifting side to side.

Accept your paintwork will get damaged.

[ProDave]

2 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

I used to do a lot of kayaking, was not unusual to put a K2, which was 6.4m long on a cheap 1970s universal roof rack.

On the top of an MGB GT.

Won't be doing that with my GT I care for it too much.

[MortarThePoint]

1 hour ago, gavztheouch said:

The first job is to pickup some cladding battens which are 42mm by 42mm, they are 100 miles away and I will need to go on the motorway/dual carriage.

 

I'm surprised this would be worth your effort cost. If there are dual carriageways/ motorways involved there is logically a closer option. It'll cost you about £30 of fuel I'd have thought. Easy to get that timber <= £0.85/m. You'd need to be getting about 500m of it for free to make it worth it (Inc time cost). That would weigh about 500kg which is way over that the roof capacity is likely to be. Roof capacity might be up to 250kg so 250m, even that feels pushing it. Assuming £20/hour and £30 fuel you'd be paying about £0.52/m just for collection.

Edited Sunday at 09:23 by MortarThePoint

[SteamyTea]

18 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Won't be doing that with my GT I care for it too much.

Was my daily drive back then. It was considered a banger, cost me £250 in 1982, was a mere 13 years old then, younger than my present car.

Ran it for a couple of years, but can't remember what I did with it, probably scrapped it.

[Russell griffiths]

@gavztheouch

dont do it, you need a full length rack that extends out to the front bumper with vertical bars going down to the bumper. 
 

if you have 2m overhang out the front the wind will whip them up and snap them. 
 

I do this regularly, but my timber yard is an 8 minute drive away, so worth taking the punt around the back lanes. 
you would not believe the loads imposed on that timber if doing 50mph. 

[Temp]

Check the regs on overhangs. If that's ok and the weight is ok I think it will be fine.

 

16 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

if you have 2m overhang out the front the wind will whip them up and snap them. 

 

To prevent this put a strap around them to keep them tied together. In the past I have used a strong Tesco bag for life and duct tape!

[Nickfromwales]

200 mile drive for some battens?

 

Is Nicole Shirtswinger the seller and you'll get an autograph???

[SteamyTea]

1 hour ago, Russell griffiths said:

you would not believe the loads imposed on that timber if doing 50mph. 

It regularly snaps holiday makers surfboards.

[Alexphd1]

Was just looking at getting thule aero bars for the van mainly to transport the ladder this very minute. Points are 1.5m apart on van but probably go for middle rack aswell. Not planning on anything heavy on there so was looking at aero bars. Although I wouldn't mind nipping down to Edinburgh (approx 180mile) for a few 100mm steel road shuttering at some point, 3m lengths so would only be 0.75m over hang.

[BotusBuild]

4 hours ago, ProDave said:

Won't be doing that with my GT I care for it too much.

Snap

[ToughButterCup]

6 hours ago, gavztheouch said:

...

Is it a bad idea to carry loads like 20 or 30 battons on a roof rack long distance. 

...

 

Yes.

But if needs must enough,

No.

[Iceverge]

Do you have access to a trailer with a ladder rack? 

 

In any case I think the battens would only be 140kg.

 

Assuming you tie them to the towing eye and rear hitch it should be fine. 

 

 

[SteamyTea]

29 minutes ago, BotusBuild said:

Snap

They should be driven daily, that way they will be off the road faster.

 

(Have had 3 and will probably get another one day, but they are shit cars really)

[BotusBuild]

18 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

driven daily

When the house is done 😀, then the garage, the ... 😀

[ProDave]

I don't drive mine daily but it is my summer runabout when the truck is being a motorhome.  It never goes out on salted winter roads.