Roof Rails -NOT LOAD BEARING

Called at my van supplier (Warwick Duo) to enquire about bars to fit my roof rails to carry a kayak.
Answer: "You cannot do that because they are NOT load bearing." What are they there for then? To hang your washing!!
Thought those of you who wanted to mount things on your roof should be advised that you will need a complete roof rack that is gutter mounted if you wish to use your roof.
I must say I felt deceived when buying a van that gave the impression of a roof rack system.

There's no gutters either!

Motorwaycafe wrote:Called at my van supplier (Warwick Duo) to enquire about bars to fit my roof rails to carry a kayak.
Answer: "You cannot do that because they are NOT load bearing." What are they there for then? To hang your washing!!
Thought those of you who wanted to mount things on your roof should be advised that you will need a complete roof rack that is gutter mounted if you wish to use your roof.
I must say I felt deceived when buying a van that gave the impression of a roof rack system.

You must have missed it, but I advised you of them being 'cosmetic only' earlier this month, when you were requesting info on roof racks.

It's always good to have confirmation from the dealerships though, for anyone browsing in the future.

Sorry Warenwolf, yes I must have missed it, and as 'Toffee' says there in no gutter to fix a ladder rack system.
I will have to see  what Peugeot have to offer.

No probs and its worth going back to that thread as there are some photos from a couple of us, which might be interesting to you.

I just bought my Warwick last November and explained to the dealer (Perthshire Caravans) that I need a suitable roof rack to carry two sea kayaks. They fitted one ok and it appears to be bolted onto the roof along the guttering runnel. The only problem they had was the Thule awning that comes with the van had to be replaced with a Hamma to get enough room to fit the rack. I have yet to try out the roof rack.

Thank you for that. Is it a side loading rack, or do you have to climb on the roof to secure the kayaks?

You have to climb on the roof. I'm reluctant to try a KariTech loading system. We had one for the car to load 3 kayaks and found it very difficult. It required two people and a lot of strength. All be it that was a few years ago and they may have improved by now. The roof rack I have at the moment has a roller at the loading end which should help. I hear through the grapevine that there are other loading systems being developed so who knows. Something ideal may yet come onto the market.

Thule now do replacement bars for there kayak lifting system.

I take it that that's a Hullavator? How do you reach up to gat that on top of an Autosleeper?

just meant that they do replacement roof rails that are load bearing and can be used with some sort of kayak lifting system and other roof bars etc, can't swim so don't have anything to do with kayaks.

Cheers

Cedartower wrote:You have to climb on the roof. I'm reluctant to try a KariTech loading system. We had one for the car to load 3 kayaks and found it very difficult. It required two people and a lot of strength. All be it that was a few years ago and they may have improved by now. The roof rack I have at the moment has a roller at the loading end which should help. I hear through the grapevine that there are other loading systems being developed so who knows. Something ideal may yet come onto the market.

Was the difficulty due to the fact that you were lifting 3 kayaks at a time, or more of a problem with the side lift rack.

I'm hoping that fitting a Kari-tek side lift rack will be the answer to my problem of getting a single kayak on to the roof, single handed.

It was trying to lift three kayaks onto the roof. It required two people at least to lift it and they had to be well co-ordinated or the rack would twist, even slightly, and miss its housing as it met the roof rack. I've been checking the KariTech website and the arrangement for vehicles like our vans seems much improving to the design for similar vehicles when I bought ours for our car. I think KariTech may be the way ahead for me but I need to make enquiries first before purchase.

Thanks for the info. If all goes well, I'm planning on taking the van to them early in ownership and I'm hoping that they can fit one for me.
I took my Bolero to them a few years ago and due to 'roof furniture' they were unable to do so and I came away empty handed and resorted to physically dragging my sea kayak on to the roof.

This isn't going to be an option on the Kingham and I've since changed my kayak to a large 'sit on' fishing kayak, which is both heavier and bulkier than the sea kayak was, so the side lift is pretty much essential.

I asked the AS dealer at the recent NEC show if the roof bars were load bearing on our new Kingham and he answered in the affirmative - I can see a bit of a 'rebriefing' taking place when we collect later this month.

Elvis the Fish wrote:I asked the AS dealer at the recent NEC show if the roof bars were load bearing on our new Kingham and he answered in the affirmative - I can see a bit of a 'rebriefing' taking place when we collect later this month.

It may be that they have sold you a brand new Kingham, previously ordered by a customer who specified the 'load bearing' Fiamma upgrade, but didn't complete the purchase ?

That may also explain how you are getting a brand new van from them in a month, when it normally takes them over 4 months and sometimes closer to 6 to supply a new build. 

Not that I'm jealous or anything, but I'm still waiting for the Kingham that I ordered at the NEC back in October 

Wargenwolf wrote:

Elvis the Fish wrote:I asked the AS dealer at the recent NEC show if the roof bars were load bearing on our new Kingham and he answered in the affirmative - I can see a bit of a 'rebriefing' taking place when we collect later this month.

It may be that they have sold you a brand new Kingham, previously ordered by a customer who specified the 'load bearing' Fiamma upgrade, but didn't complete the purchase ?

That may also explain how you are getting a brand new van from them in a month, when it normally takes them over 4 months and sometimes closer to 6 to supply a new build. 

Not that I'm jealous or anything, but I'm still waiting for the Kingham that I ordered at the NEC back in October 

I believe that it's more likely the salesman at the show didn't understand the question or was 'waffling' regarding the load bearing capabilities of our Kingham.

As for speed of delivery, Choose Leisure just happened to have a 2017 model in stock in the exact colour and internal spec as we wanted - pure luck 

Thanks for the update and if it's standard spec, then I agree with you, it's likely that sales person has got it wrong.

I can't remember the exact figure, but it was something like £500 or £800 extra for the upgrade to Fiamma load bearing rails, crossbars and awning.

Cracking choice of van that you've made