Weight limit on roof rack with pop top up?

D

dave1986

Member
Hi there,

I'm having my LWB T6 converted soon and trying to decide between an SCA or Reimo Easy fit pop top.

I'm planning on taking a loaded roof box away with me and want to choose the roof that allows the most weight with the roof up.

I have read that the SCA roofs are rated to 70kg, whilst the Reimo roofs are rated to 35kg, but I assume these limits are for the roof down?

Does anyone have any real-world experience of how much weight the Reimo and SCA roofs can take when they're popped up?

Cheers,
Dave
 
dave1986 said:
Hi there,

I'm having my LWB T6 converted soon and trying to decide between an SCA or Reimo Easy fit pop top.

I'm planning on taking a loaded roof box away with me and want to choose the roof that allows the most weight with the roof up.

I have read that the SCA roofs are rated to 70kg, whilst the Reimo roofs are rated to 35kg, but I assume these limits are for the roof down?

Does anyone have any real-world experience of how much weight the Reimo and SCA roofs can take when they're popped up?

Cheers,
Dave
Click to expand...
I doubt either would be able to support the maximum weight when open (basing around the amount of effort my SCA requires to pull closed seeming to be a lot less than this). I’d go for the roof you want and, if it can’t support the maximum weight when open, then look at uprating the struts (downside of this would be the roof being harder to close when the roofbox is empty). Alternatively just use the roof box for your bulky but light items such as bedding?
 
With pop tops being so different are you not better off picking a roof that works best with you for comfort, looks and price and possibly working the roof box around that? A roof costs £1000s. So I'd be inclined to get that right and then buy a £200 box to fit and not the ther way round. As @Davenjo has mentioned maybe using it for bulky stuff like bedding, this would be in use during camping and not a weight issue when the roof is up.
 
My understanding is the Reimo is rated to 50, although I've also noted someone saying it was 70 kg. Irrespective of all this, that rating is for a load on the roof when the roof is down. Which isn't the same as the ability to raise the roof with said load on it, or indeed have the roof stay up with that load.

Putting this into context, we carry a pair of sea kayaks on a Zoltzer rack fitted to Reimo, and were advised by the converters to take them off them prior to lifting the roof. The reason being the load and stress put on the hinges and their connection to the f/glass roof. In any event, I doubt very much whether we could physically raise the roof with that sort of weight on anyway. And I'd be surprised if the gas struts would support it either.
 
To follow on from this thread -- I ended up getting an SCA 192 (LWB) pop top roof.

With the extra weight of the roof rails and roof bars the standard gas struts (420newton force per strut) only just hold the weight of the pop top when it's up.

So I upgraded the struts to 2x 750 Newton force struts. The new struts were powerful enough to hold 2x surfboards and an empty roof box with the pop top up. HOWEVER.... after several successful nights in the van and several times up /down with the loaded roof, I ended up pulling the roof down a little bit wonky... for some reason this resulted in buckling/ bending one of the gas struts!!!

So it turns out that the upgraded struts were too slender to hold the extra weight. At some point in the future I might buy some sturdier 750N gas struts (i.e. with bigger diameter) to reduce risk of them buckling/ bending, but for now I have decided to go back to the standard gas struts - it just means I have to unload the roof rack each time I want to raise the roof.

Hope this is helpful for anyone thinking about doing the same!
 
I went for the SCA roof as It did seem to have the highest weight capacity & I also carry sea kayaks, & have had 3 on there so probably over the 75kg but I pretty much accepted that I would need to unload them to put the roof up, no problems so far
 
My Reimo is rated at 50Kg, however it takes much less than 50Kg force to close it so it’s fairly obvious that the rating is for a closed roof.
 
Jerba were rating over 100kg from memory. Comfortably enough for our kayaks
 
We have a austops roof and our converter advised against putting anything on it let alone getting roof rails and putting it up loaded!

@Epic-Rob have you got roof rails fitted with bars to carry that?
 
cgtmiles said:
We have a austops roof and our converter advised against putting anything on it let alone getting roof rails and putting it up loaded!

@Epic-Rob have you got roof rails fitted with bars to carry that?
Click to expand...
No i just cut 4 x 30cm strips of Ally angle bonded those the the roof with Worth 'KD Bond' and put a couple of peel rivets in each one just to hold it firm. once the KD bond sets its not going anywhere without a piece of the roof attatched. drove about 1500miles with that setup.
 
P20 said:
Jerba vans roof

Just checked it is 100kg and they show it lifted with the kayaks on top! Not the cheapest though!
Click to expand...
Not sure I'd want 100kg up on the roof (my Hobie TI fully rigged is at that sort of weight and no way I'd carry that weight up so high even if it was rated to carry) - as above, I'd also be concerned that the additional force required for the gas struts to hold the roof open with such a load would make closing the roof very hard without a load on top (anyone with the uprated tailgate struts who's then removed their bike rack will know how much harder the tailgate is to close).
 
For those who do have storage on the roof, did you fit a ladder for access too? If not how do you get at it?
 
Kev Liddle said:
Did you ever get anywhere with this, I'm thinking of going this route rather than drill the pop top and also wanting to carry 3 kayaks!
Click to expand...
I didn't do it but when I got my reimo roof fitted I got both active rails and two multirails fitted so it is an option!
 
Not trying to railroad this thread but what is load rated on a standard T32 roof? I ask as I have the Retroracks Unity on mine and wondered if it works hold the right of two people?
 
Hi,
I am after a set of roof bars for my RIEMO pop top roof.
It will be to transport a double canoe so should be well within its load rating (just guessing)
Any recommendations cheers
 
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