Got me thinking, how many straps are really necessary to strap your board onto your car roof racks??

I used only the one front strap of my roof rack to get my board down to the beach today and no issues (just in a rush and being lazy, plus I was only travelling at a slow 50km speed to the beach).

My brother once drove home from Scarborough Beach to Kalamunda (a good 50 minute drive) only to get home then go to take his board off his car and to then realise...forgot to put straps on at all.

Anyway got me thinking...is the usual strap at the front and one at the back always necessary??

Without the rear strap the board can bounce a bit. If the front strap is towards the nose the board can slide backwards and out. It is a fail safe as much as anything. I have had 3 boards come off through at 110 after driving for five hours and having the wiggle free in the wind. I knew exactly what the noise was and looked in the wing mirror to see my prize shortboard pirouetting eight foot in the air before crashing to the road. Broken fin, no box damage and a tiny solarez ding repair. Gotta love old Creatures travel covers. The ones don't have as much rail protection unfortunately.

straps are over rated,

do a propajob and bung in a couple of 3/8th coach bolts front and back.



stephen

Agreed with thedrip
Two straps ensures there is one each side of the wide point so it can't slide back or forward.
Never had a drama with two straps, but I can see that if one DID let go you'd want it to be the rear. So for driving many hours at 110kph (ish ) I always put 2 straps on the front just to be safe

Depends of the aerodynamics or the vehicle is strapped to...a van for instance creates a big low pressure area from after the windscreen, which will tend to a suck a low lying load down. a higher load will hit a huge wall of air displaced from the front of the car.

A low slung sports car designed to have minimal air displacement will have a lot more air hitting something on the roof.

The increase in fuel consumption for roof load can be up to 20-25%.....those bike racks on a long trip....cheaper to hire a bike at the destination

Please think about the motorcycle that may be behind you when you're laziness fails.

Well if you only have one strap and it shxts itself you could kill people, so even though the back strap might justvstop it slewing around its a good backup if the front strap ever fails

While driving grain trucks I've sucked a few surfboards off Wicked vans.

They just "wooden school ruler" through the air.

While traveling to a bush fire in our new light tanker, an oncoming road train removed our low profile magnetic emergency beacons and trashed them last week.

Secure them correctly and keep the public safe.

Yeah, good valid point.

Have to admit to sitting right back from a car when driving, when I see it with about 5 boards piggybacked on the roof racks.

I once drove home from Dolls Point with two complete Bombora Tri-fin setups on the roof, and NOTHING holding them on. That's two boards, two booms, and two single piece masts with sails wrapped around them, all stacked a mile high on top of each other. Probably drove about 5km, at speeds up to 70 kmh. Can't believe none of that budged. Scares me just to remember it.

I made it to work the other day with my pulled pork sandwiches and house keys sitting on my boot. Damn lucky as that pork was sensational.

I drove from Ulladulla tocanberra with a pram unstrapped. Couldn't believe it didn't move.

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thedrip said..
I drove from Ulladulla tocanberra with a pram unstrapped. Couldn't believe it didn't move.

Poor kid was probably in shock is why.

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Mackerel said...
I made it to work the other day with my pulled pork sandwiches and house keys sitting on my boot. Damn lucky as that pork was sensational.

You were sooooo lucky that I wasnt behind you.

Step-Dad drove from Bindoon to South Perth with the trailer unshackled
.
.
.
.
and unhitched

silly bugger didn't realise the trailer was still in the garage where he left it.

He still gets reminded about that one pretty regularly


stephen

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Buster fin said...

Mackerel said...
I made it to work the other day with my pulled pork sandwiches and house keys sitting on my boot. Damn lucky as that pork was sensational.

You were sooooo lucky that I wasnt behind you.

He had white knuckles from holding on and a bad attitude for sure.

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evlPanda said..

thedrip said..
I drove from Ulladulla tocanberra with a pram unstrapped. Couldn't believe it didn't move.

Poor kid was probably in shock is why.

He had white knuckles from holding on and a bad attitude for sure.