Low-Profile roof boxes?

[Herbie]

Hoping that the crowd here can help me find a better solution for storage on the roof of my van. Specifically, I'm hoping to find a relatively low-profile box, and preferably one that can be loaded from the rear (or narrow) end.

Currently I have a Yakima LoadWarrior on crossbars, but it isn't leaving me 100% happy.

Problems:

• Van is TALL, so I can only really access the roof by standing on the rear bumper or half-climbing the rear door rack.
• The Yakima bungee net has to stay on all the time because I can't reach the forward clips without a ladder (see above), so it ages fast in SoCal sun
• The netting snags on the corners of long things I try to put into the basket, making it hard to load.
• The basket has to be on top of the cross bars, making the tall van significantly taller.
• I've mounted my solar panel underneath the basket which keeps it protected and avoids raising things any higher, but also shades the panel.

I've acquired 3 different rooftop cargo boxes over the years, but none is really appropriate for this application. The old Rocket ski box can only be loaded from the curb side (where I also have my awning, meaning I'd need a 5' ladder to get to it). The shorter-length Yakima box loads from the rear, but is VERY tall, like over 18". The thule box is not quite as tall, but loads from the sides and is still too tall. I've considered relocating the solar panel (and it's sliding rack) to the top of the basket and using it like a "lid" to retain the largish, lightweight items I usually store there. However, I'm thinking adding 2 more inches to the 7" basket that sits 6" above the 5" pop-top on a van with a 4" lift is just getting ridiculous and the whole system needs a re-think.

My leading option right now is mounting a Pelican or Aluminum case to either the cross-bars or directly to the pop-top via brackets. Most of these cases are still too tall, but the long-gun type cases are a possibility. Most are short enough I could even mount the solar panel on top of them and still be shorter than the current setup. The problem with these is that they're long and skinny, so I either mount one transversely and only get 13"-17" of usable depth, or mount them longitudinally and I'm back to the problem of trying to unlatch and open them from the side...

So, I'm on the hunt for a box that's more squarish, and fairly low profile. Any ideas?

Goals:

• Combined, Up to ~45" long, ~40" wide, no more than ~7" high
• (willing to consider multiple cases)
• Preferably enclosed, ideally water-resistant or -tight
• Preferably semi-secure against casual pilferage
• Open and loadable from the "narrow" end (or convertible to hinged for this - latches around perimeter are a no-go, but willing to modify)
• Lightweight a plus
• Cheap a plus

 

[clift_d]

Thule do a soft roof box - the Ranger 90 that can be loaded from the side or rear. It does require roof bars to attach to but only has a rigid base so it's height is mainly determined by what you put in it. It's also easily removable when empty if your issue is head height in your garage. It's quite water resistant and has a locking zip to deter opportunist thieves, although I wouldn't leave it unattended for any great length of time. Might be worth looking at?

 

[shogun]

Go t a fabrication shop and have a custom rack made up. You can source gutter mounts, if you have gutters. Use more than four. Also can use T-channel similar to frontrunner racks to keep it very low, no side panels.

I always look in wonder when I see a basket, on top of a rack, thats mounted to another rack. Silly.

Normally overlooked (ignored) is that factory roof racks oftentimes are only rated for maybe 100-150#. Maybe, on a good day, with no wind, under 40 mph, perfectly distributed load. Dont use factory mounts for the foundation.

 

[Herbie]

Yeah, with a pop-up fiberglass top, there's no gutter and limited options for attaching stuff, along with a more stringent weight requirement than a traditional roof system.

I am considering a custom roof basket, though. Something I can mount lower and more directly...

 

[screwball48]

The Prinsu Design rack for a truck topper may be what you need. It is a flatter style rack made from extruded aluminum (80/20 style). If you can source a rear opening cargo box, you could mount it to one side then use extruded aluminum to build a basket for the other side and possibly mount your solar panels off of an extension in front of the rack.

 

[ab1985]

Have you ruled out alu boxes and military shipping cases? I've wondered about the same type of lower profile box for my roof. Those were the only ideas I could come up with under 12" tall but haven't really settled on anything yet.

This is the type of Hardigg case I was thinking about: http://www.ebay.com/itm/USED-HARDIG...327?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cddc6490f

Alu boxes are on the Equipt site. For the life of me I don't know why they are listed by part number rather than size.

 

[Herbie]

Most are still pretty tall. 12" is going to be way too much.

The 74L Alu box is only 8", which might possibly work, but it's also $300+.
The USGI surplus aluminum medical cases came in a 7" version which would be short enough, but also isn't quite as long as I'd like. Also that seems to be the hardest size to find. The "medium" ones are ~11" tall.

Scouring the web, I came up with a couple of other possible solutions.

First would be to switch to a different (possibly semi-custom) basket that wasn't quite as tall. Most of the stuff I put in mine is relatively flat, so that could be good.
Second would be to change the mounting system of the roof basket to get it down as far as possible.

Here's a guy who built some custom adapters that interface directly to the Yakima towers:

 

[SWITAWI]

Depending on your length requirement you might try looking at some rifle cases. You could probably find some used ones on eBay or CraigsList.

From the 'Narrow Roof Box' thread last year...

How much are you trying to carry up there ?

I could not find a roof top box that wan't taller than I'd like so I bought two rifle cases (a Pelican and a Boyt) and mounted them to my rack. They barely stick above my Bajarack airdam and, from what I can tell, they haven't affected my mileage. Inside dims are something like 5-6" high inside x 14" or so by almost 5' long. Enough room to pack a tent, sleeping pad, cot, boots, jackets, axe, pett toilet and wagg bags and more. The Pett toilet barely fits in the Boyt and doesn't bounce around at all.

Having been a big fan of Woodsman's thinking for a while I figured I would throw in his responses about those cases he used from the Blue Room last year...

http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/foru...130-roof-box-recommendations.html#post2107256

http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/foru...0-roof-box-recommendations-2.html#post2108786

 

[zscott]

Most are still pretty tall. 12" is going to be way too much.

The 74L Alu box is only 8", which might possibly work, but it's also $300+.
The USGI surplus aluminum medical cases came in a 7" version which would be short enough, but also isn't quite as long as I'd like. Also that seems to be the hardest size to find. The "medium" ones are ~11" tall.

Scouring the web, I came up with a couple of other possible solutions.

First would be to switch to a different (possibly semi-custom) basket that wasn't quite as tall. Most of the stuff I put in mine is relatively flat, so that could be good.
Second would be to change the mounting system of the roof basket to get it down as far as possible.

Here's a guy who built some custom adapters that interface directly to the Yakima towers:

That is pretty cool. I am surprised Yakima/Thule Doesn't make something like this.

 

[Christophe Noel]

Yet one more reason to visit the home page of Expedition Portal.

http://expeditionportal.com/yakima-skybox-lopro/

Best box I've used in 20 years of box ownership. This after at least 6 or 8 boxes.

 

[Herbie]

Looks like a great box for some applications, but it doesn't really fit my criteria at all. It's 5” taller than the current solution, but more importantly it loads from the sides. I'd need an eight foot ladder to get into it.

Still hoping to fun something I can access by standing on the rear bumper.

 

[JasonRedwood]

I just saw this box on CL and it reminded me of your last post OP. Looks to load from the rear.
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/pts/4629494852.html

 

[Herbie]

Thanks Jason, I'll look into it!

 

[Bryan_FRO]

Im a huge fan of the Front Runner Racks. They can make custom sizes and pretty low profile. Have you look into those. A friend of mine has their rack and even found a ladder for the same van just about.

Heres a picture.

Bryan

 

[olsen_karl]

Packasport roof boxes are fiberglass and rear-loading. Some are fairly low profile. More expensive than the plastic Yakima or Thule offerings, but they are quite well built.