Attaching Board to Roofrack Correctly

-maccer-

Hi,
I recently bought a surfboard, have previously just rented or borrowed boards. Anyway I also bought a hard roof rack for my car and a set of straps. Thing is I am not quite sure of the correct way to attach the board to my car roofrack using the straps. Does anyone know of any online tutorial or intructions? Just worried that i'm going to be driving down the road and next thing my board is going to take off. My board is fiberglass so would rather keep it in the bag while on the roofrack to avoid damage. Is this okay?
Thanks

cornbb

There's not much you can do wrong really. Pass the straps over the board and around the exposed ends of the roof bars and tighten. Give it a few good tugs to make sure it doesn't come loose and tie away the loose ends of the straps so they don't flap around. You could also consider putting twists in the straps - i.e. don't have them flat against the board - so they don't whistle in the wind.

-maccer-

Thanks for the advice. So do I have to nose of the board facing forward towards the front windscreen of my car? Also should i have the fins sticking up into the air or facing down towards the roof of the car?
Thanks.

CJhaughey

Make sure that you have pads on the racks or your board will get dinged and loose.
Cut some pieces of the grey pipe insulation to fit on the roofrack bars and tape it in place.

TheTubes

I linked to a pdf that gives a good explanation in this post

-maccer-

That is really great pdf, exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for that....

Poster King

I had a quick look over that PDF and offer the following 2 comments:

1. If you tidy away the excess strap by running it into the inside of your car, when it rains, a lot of rainwater will run down the lenght of the strap and into your car, not so bad when you are driving, but if you leave the car parked with the straps like this while it is raining, you'll find a very wet spot on your seats when you get back.

2. See images at top of page 5 on the PDF. The strap has been threaded throught the buckle, and then been turned back on itself. This is wrong. The loose end needs to continue on over the rest of the buckle and then threaded through the wide gap in the buckle and passed back between the buckle and the board. If the straps are fitted as shown they are much more likely to slip. They are designed to work the way I have described and will never slip. However, it is still a good idea to check that the boards are still firmly strapped down after a few miles and they may easily shift.

Kell

If yer bag has a shoulder strap and hoops for same, thread the straps through the hoops. Your board will go nowhere then.

K-

Gone West

There's not much you can do wrong really.

I've seen boards fly off peoples cars at roundabouts, and coming off at speed on the road etc. Theres loads you can do wrong.

As advised in this thread of posts, threading through bag hoops, or around the exposed roofbar ends sticking out is bad advice IMO.

That very thorough(but lol) PDF explains the best way to do it with 2 straps, or you can do it with 1 strap, like a tennis ball design around the boards and insides of the roof bars, and back again, and it should tighten taut, the curvature of the boards preventing them from moving, rather than hoops in bags. With hoops in bags, unless your hoops match your roofbars exactly it will never be properly tight.

Any tying of the straps should be for tidyness sake or to stop them flapping, all pressure should go to the clasps.

Wow bit of a silly thread, but mad to see the different ideas out there.

cornbb

FuzzyLogic wrote: »

I've seen boards fly off peoples cars at roundabouts, and coming off at speed on the road etc. Theres loads you can do wrong.

As advised in this thread of posts, threading through bag hoops, or around the exposed roofbar ends sticking out is bad advice IMO.

Why so? I mean really, it's not rocket science. Anyone who's board is flying off their car is getting things seriously wrong or is tying their boards down with liquorice strings instead of straps. I wouldn't have thought a 5-page pdf would be necessary to explain how to securely tie down a few surfboards.

Poster King

It may not be rocket science, but even still so many people are making mistakes and unwittingly putting both their equipment and other road users in danger.
Boards will get damaged if strapped on too tightly or without padding.
It is a good idea to check the roof rack itself regulary in case it has worked loose or rusted. A friend of mine lost his whole roof rack while driving at speed with several windsurf boards and other kit on it. It narrowly missed a follwing vehicle, amazingly only one board was badly damaged.

I'm sure you've all seen people driving with their surfboards on those soft roof racks, and the board is in lift off mode at about a 30 degree angle to the horizontal - hilarious to see, but bad for fuel economy and the board I'd imagine and eventually the extra strain is going to break something and.....

BraziliaNZ

errrrrr dont any of you know what ratchet straps are? I thought everyone used them? You could keep an elephant on your roof in a hurricane with those things.

surfjunky

Its amazing the number of people you see driving around with their board nose facing upwards/fins down putting undue wind pressure on thier boards. Bad move. Annoys me everytime I see it.

happyoutscan

Agreed.

pendragon_y2k

"Tennis ball" is the way to go (and a great way to describe it too). I used to have two x-shapes front and back but the front still tended to loosen in wind. One strap alone is solid as a rock with tennis ball, though occasioanlly hard to tighten with two boards.