Roof pods

Tannin

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2008
Messages
209
Location
Huon Valley Tasmania
Car Year
2007
Car Model
Forester
Transmission
Manual
Over in the classifieds section, this thread talks about roof pods. Ratbag has a few things to say about a particular roof pod (long since sold and of no present interest) which are worth revisiting for more general discussion.

Ratbag said:
Even the noise from my "OEM" Subaru branded Rola aero bars is enough to irritate me at highway speeds, even though very quiet. And when my Rola basket was fitted to Roo2 for a little while, the noise was intolerable (to me ... and also to SWMBO ... ), even at only 80 kmh.

I would imagine that a roof boot (pod) is far more aerodynamic than my old style wire and tube framed basket, which doesn't even have a wind deflector of any kind fitted to it. That should make it very quiet by comparison. The square bars would probably create quite a lot of noise though.

Anyone have experience with relative noise levels from square vs aero bars, and ordinary old style baskets (like mine) vs ordinary ones with wind deflectors vs roof boots?? :question:
Click to expand...

Well, I've never had a square basket, but I can make some comments about an aero pod.

I bought a pod for my MY05 Forester about a year ago. I read up everything I could find, then just went down to my local AWB car bits shop and looked at what they had in stock. For me, it came down to the Rhino (bigger and cheaper) and the Thule (mid-sized and - in my judgement - better quality but a bit more expensive). I could also have ordered in other ones, of course, but I decided on the Thule.

I'll have to look up the model number if anyone is interested 'cause I can't remember what it was now, but essentially, you see two sizes of pod on the road: little ones about the size of an ordinary car boot, and great big ones that sit flush with the back of a wagon and stick out a bit past the A pillars at the front.

I can't really see the point of the little ones, and I wasn't convinced thast the realy big one would be practical.

  • First, I go to some pretty rough places and that's a lot of overhang behind and especially in front of the roof bar mounting points. From and engineering point of view, there is a lot of leverage there and I wasn't too happy about putting that much stress on the pod (which is only fibreglass), the pod/bar attachments, or the bar/roof attachments - just four points and no way to spread the load there.
  • Second, you need to leave enough room to open the tailgate fully at rear
  • Third, I'm a photographer. I frequently take pictures over the roof - e.g., standing with one foot on the driver's door rest and the other on the seat and twisting left to look out that way. (I mainly do birds and landscapes, this is a very useful technique for both.) Having the pod completely block that view was not attractive to me.


My other half was quite sure that the bigger one would be better and that we would run out of space with anything smaller. I was quite sure that we would run out of space anyway - you always have 15% more baggage than there is room in the vehicle - so we might as well just have the mid-size pod and take a bit less junk along. It should be no surprise to anyone to discover that we were both right.

Anyway, I bought the mid-size Thule. I have forgotten the model number and the pod isn't here right now, but it's one that opens from both sides and it reaches from maybe a couple of feet behind the top of the windscreen back to almost flush with the tailgate. More on it shortly.
 
In practice, the pod works very well. Yes, sometimes it isn't big enough. On the other hand, I took it fully loaded up the Cooper and right down the Birdsville Track, which was pretty badly corrugated at the time, and never lost a moment's worry about it. It never even looked like being a problem - and at speed on rough roads, the forces acting on the pod mount points must be quite high when you add the weight of the load multiplied by the rapid changes in vertical accelleration plus the fairly major aerodynamic loads. On that road and others like it, I have been more than happy not to have the giant size pod. This one is rock solid.

Now the really interesting thing about Ratbag's post was what he said about noise. Foolishly, I hadn't even considered noise when I was thinking about a pod. What's more, I have not given noise one moment's thought at any time in the year or so and ten or twelve thousand kilometres worth of travel with the Thule. I only ever thought of it reading Ratbag's post just now - and that just goes to show that noise with the Thule pod is a complete non-issue. Maybe there is a tiny bit more, but if so, it's such a tiny bit that I don't notice it over the (very small) extra noise I get just from having the roof bars alone mounted.

Anyone else hve experience with pods?
 
Gidday Tannin

Thanks for the write up so far.

I, for one, look forward to your further thoughts on all aspects of your roof pod :).
 
I have used a Thule pod ( with Thule areo racks) and i reckon it dropped my fuel consumption to about the same as towing my tinnie.
Certainly affected the performance.
It's really important to set them up on the racks nice and level. I found that it didn't really hold much and i flogged it off.
 
with my roof top tent it certainty affects my power and fuel consumption, especially when traveling at 100kmh it catches a lot of wind, which is expected. i dont notice it as much at low speed however.
 
From my experience you would be better to tow a box trailer if possible. The pods really are only good for light stuff and the trailer would give more options.
 
Before changing my setup with rooftop camper, rear bar and carriers, I used to carry a heap of stuff in my 900 litre Thule pod; including a 2nd spare. It did the job very well indeed and served me well on some very rough outings.
 
I use a Thule 780 litre roof pod with aero bars, has been robust and invaluable.

Minor noise increase, not enough to be bothersome.

Have ended up using it more frequently than the box trailer, but it all depends on what you need to carry/take along.

Fuel consumption goes up about 5% to 10% depending on speed distance load

Roof pod on and no load versus bars only and no load has almost no change in fuel consumption for normal commute of about 20mins highway and 20mins urban, yes I have measured over the same commutes based on weekly averages.

I have found the roof pod to be an excellent addition, down side is restrictions on entering some covered car parks, the trailer however is much more problematic and requires much more thought and planning when in use.
 
I'm looking at getting a roof pod for my Forester, more for for the areo dynamics over my basket. I have 1 major trip planned which across Aus in Jan 2013 and I really want to aim for 10l per 100km or just under if possible on the trip. Since it will be around 3 weeks I'm going to have heaps of gear and possibly a few people.

Got any pics of the pod/s on your Forester? I'm just wondering if they might carry the same or more gear than a basket but better fuel economy..?

Taz
 
thunder039 said:
with my roof top tent it certainty affects my power and fuel consumption, especially when traveling at 100kmh it catches a lot of wind, which is expected. i dont notice it as much at low speed however.
Click to expand...

I find mine the same. I'm thinking of bending up an acrylic wind deflector to sit in front of it.
 
I can't remember exactly what it did to my fuel consumption except that i was very surprised how much extra i used. I THINK it was from 8.5 or so to over 11 ltrs/100. This is not much less than towing my tinny.
I do remember that it made quite a difference to performance/overtaking.
I had a Thule Atlantis by memory and used to pack light or awkward things in it.
You need to remember that these things don't have a big load rating just like the roof bars. 75kgs???
Considering the effect on consumption and the cost, which i think was around $800 at the time, and what i could get in it, i did not see much value for money.
Although a trailer has drawbacks it does allow MANY more options and if the suspension/tyres/bearings are well looked after, to me,offers much better value and much more versatility.
Of course this depends on what sort of trip you are doing but the ability to carry extra fuel, a generator, extra food ( and beer!!:)),water,extra spare etc can not only supply a safety factor but can save money.
 
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