Roof basket that mounts directly to factory roof rails?

[G0to60]

I'm looking at getting a more substantial roof basket for my Audi allroad. My wife and I are planning on doing more camping stuff and would like to have more storage up top. Currently I have a Yakima system and the dinky little basket they make.

I would like to ditch the cross bars and mount a basket directly onto the roof rails to try and limit the overall vertical height. I was looking at a Surco basket and thought they did this but it looks like you need to buy rail adapters that are essentially what I already have. I suppose I could make something that would clamp the basket to the rails but I would prefer something already made. Is there something out there like what I'm describing?

Here is the type of roof rail that I have on my Audi (just generic allroad pic).

I want to avoid the picture below. Just too tall to easily reach and I don't like the look being so far above the roof.

 

[Ramjet]

Frontrunner makes some. I don't know how tall it would be, but they have several different mounting options.

 

[Desert Dan]

Do you have the Yakima Basket Case ?

 

[G0to60]

Yeah, it's the Basket Case. It does all right but it's pretty small and in order to get it down on the roof rails I had to attach it on the sides to the cross bars instead of underneath so it can't hold that much weight. Here's how I have it set up now:



I did some searching around again and found the BVG All-road (coincidence??) Roof Basket but I can't really find any info on it. It sits pretty low but I can't see how it attaches to the rails. In the picture below it looks like it might attach to some cross bars.

BVG basket

Those Frontrunner baskets look really nice but damn they are expensive. I'm looking to spend no more then half what those are going for.

 

[Ramjet]

That BVG attaches to the cross bars just like the yakima. Your right, Frontrunner is not cheap, but here is the nice thing. When and if you sell your car. You can move it the next vehicle. You just have to get different mounts. So, it was worth it to me to buy it because of that.