My instructions on my Thule roof racks say that I shouldn't drive >90kph with a load on the racks. But I've seen many drivers on the highway driving 110kph with surfboards on their racks.

im looking for opinions and experience - would I be safe driving 110kph with my SUP on the racks? I'm planning to drive from Gold Coast to Sunshine Coast and small roads aren't really an option.

cheers

Depending on wind conditions, most I have generally felt comfortable with is 110. Although it was funny to see the reactions from other people as I passed them at 130 with a 14' allstar on the roof of my barina!

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Cookie86 said..
Depending on wind conditions, most I have generally felt comfortable with is 110. Although it was funny to see the reactions from other people as I passed them at 130 with a 14' allstar on the roof of my barina!

NT, at 130 kmh, pop to 150 passing Triples or B-quads , we travel a lot with 10' boards on FJ Toyota stock racks, wide Ty down straps,
position boards so nose is level or behind top of windscreen,
remove fins ( birds strike shy ). We check the mountings regularly.
But thats us
, you need to do what feels best for you...

If it's really windy , run an extra strap through inside of car. The doors still close even with a Kanulock strap.

I've always put my boards on far enough forward I can look up while driving and make sure it's not flying around. I've never had a issue going 110 but I guess it's a matter of driving to the conditions.

120 to 130 km/h with 3 boards on the roof...as the guys said , nose in correct position , serious straps and no worries at all...

I use lockracks and often travel at 110> no probs

Me too.

All the above mirrors my experience.

However- not with Prorack
They are notorious for the moderate speed detachment.....

So just in case anyone reads this later I thought I'd mention it.

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rockmagnet said..
If it's really windy , run an extra strap through inside of car. The doors still close even with a Kanulock strap.

Yes i second that approach

Did Perth to Wollongong with a 14' and 8'5 on top and was at or (slightly ) above the speed limit the whole way. No dramas with the racks or the boards..... make sure you have good straps, the boards are positioned well and you will have no dramas (unless you encounter the madman BigHugg on some dark and stormy backroad )

Have carried boards on multiple cars at 110km/h over many years.

I had a problem with a less well known roof rack system that was held on by tension only (i.e. tighten up a screw that pulled the two halves of the racks together). I lost four boards off the roof and landed in the median strip on the South Gippy Highway. Boards were still perfectly tied to the roof racks... it was just the roof racks that were not attached to the car. Solution in this case was to add Nutserts in the door jamb where the racks attached (did it for the front rack only as that's the one that gets all the pressure). Then just bolted them to the car so the roof would have to be torn off too.

My current car uses a similar system (Thule bars) of tension to hold them on. These ones tighten to 3nm (they have a torque allen key) which ensures you get them to the right tension.

Having said that, if I am carrying long boards (think 12'6" or 14') or lots of boards (meaning two stacks side by side) I generally put the bottom board on backwards and run a rope from the legrope plug to the front of the bonnet. Once you have this you cannot have a problem as the rope stops the boards lifting due to the wind.

I use the Yakima Bow and Stern tie downs for this (but only bother with one at the front to stop lift).

There's a video somewhere on YouTube about aerodynamics relating to longboards on car roofs that is very interesting. End result was tail to the front of the car. I've done 160 with a 10'6" SUP without issue

Wow, surf must have been pumping.

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Zeusman said..
There's a video somewhere on YouTube about aerodynamics relating to longboards on car roofs that is very interesting. End result was tail to the front of the car. I've done 160 with a 10'6" SUP without issue

Tail to the front only works aerodynamically if you zip the bag tight and it's a good fit. I've lost count of how many cars carrying board that way have the bag bunched up like a great big brick wall or unzipped and flapping in the wind...

I generally stick to having boards in bags nose to the front for this reason. And the difference aerodynamically is not enough to worry about in the end.

I'm hesitant to do high speeds without the Nose tie down with the racks I have. If they are bolted to the roof then all good but most these days are just held on by tension and I don't trust it after two incidents...

Tail forward everyday of the week.
Never lost any boards from 17ft Naish down to to 7'8 shorts sups.
Buy good quality racks and mounts and tie downs.

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Mahanumah said..

Zeusman said..
There's a video somewhere on YouTube about aerodynamics relating to longboards on car roofs that is very interesting. End result was tail to the front of the car. I've done 160 with a 10'6" SUP without issue

Tail to the front only works aerodynamically if you zip the bag tight and it's a good fit. I've lost count of how many cars carrying board that way have the bag bunched up like a great big brick wall or unzipped and flapping in the wind...

I generally stick to having boards in bags nose to the front for this reason. And the difference aerodynamically is not enough to worry about in the end.

I'm hesitant to do high speeds without the Nose tie down with the racks I have. If they are bolted to the roof then all good but most these days are just held on by tension and I don't trust it after two incidents...

I was actually referring too not using a bag. Bags are only good on airplanes in my opinion

What do we mean by held on by tension?
I thought nowadays everything was captive nut in roof, or optional roof bars between the factory rails

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Zeusman said..

Mahanumah said..

Zeusman said..
There's a video somewhere on YouTube about aerodynamics relating to longboards on car roofs that is very interesting. End result was tail to the front of the car. I've done 160 with a 10'6" SUP without issue

Tail to the front only works aerodynamically if you zip the bag tight and it's a good fit. I've lost count of how many cars carrying board that way have the bag bunched up like a great big brick wall or unzipped and flapping in the wind...

I generally stick to having boards in bags nose to the front for this reason. And the difference aerodynamically is not enough to worry about in the end.

I'm hesitant to do high speeds without the Nose tie down with the racks I have. If they are bolted to the roof then all good but most these days are just held on by tension and I don't trust it after two incidents...

I was actually referring too not using a bag. Bags are only good on airplanes in my opinion

I use bags for my surf SUPs so I don't have to remove the legrope. Just easier for me.

The 12'6" and 14' boards are generally bag free...

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Mark _australia said..
What do we mean by held on by tension?
I thought nowadays everything was captive nut in roof, or optional roof bars between the factory rails

Of the last 4 cars I've had (BA Falcon, FG Falcon, Jeep Grand Cherokee and Kia Stinger) the only one I was able to bolt the racks to the car was the Jeep and even that was not a Jeep approved process (The Jeep had roof rails that the racks were supposed to clamp to but the car had a sign on the rear quarter window advising against loads poking out past the Windscreen...).

With the Jeep I was able to remove a couple of the bolts that held the Roof Rails and bolt the Roof Racks to them.

The two Falcons and the Kia all expected the Roof Racks to be held on by tensioning them down.

This is me driving from Northern Beaches Sydney to Glenelg Adelaide in 15hrs (or less) - you do the maths. This is with 4x Naish Nalu 11'6", 2x Nalu 10'6" and a 10' Mal on the roof. Everything made it there fine, however I did find at 130 steering became hard as it felt like my front wheels were no longer in solid contact with the road. (yes the entire back of the van is loaded too). I had a lot of side wind which made it interesting too.

Just stay and surf the Goldie, way better wave

In 40 years never lost the roof racks.
Snapped a few ropes though , now with ratchet straps no probs.