Considering getting my first roof box.

Car as pam roof and never had a roof box or anything else before so unsure if one can be fitted without damaging the car and how easy are they to fit considering it's almost impossible to wash the roof I can't imagine lifting a box onto of it.

with the 7 seats up we can't fit more than a weeks worth of stuff so a couple of weeks away we need more storage space.

There are special fittings for the LR roof rails for cars with Pano Roof, then you need cross bars and a roof box.............. ££££££££'s. I had the LR rails, crossbars and the roof box for my Evoques, I had never driven a car with a roof box before and even on the Evoques the only way I knew that it was on the roof was because I could see it through the panoramic roof, it was so quiet even at high speeds and I didn't notice any increased fuel consumption. My set up was all LR bits and the roof rails were fitted by the dealership as I felt it would be better for them to "cock" up and break the glass or drop something and scratch it rather than me do it at home. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Use a box a lot and I'm afraid it's a pain (as well as expensive, noisy and worse fuel economy).

You'll need the massively expensive roof rails from LR (plus what they call "finishers" which aren't included in price but necessary). You can then save a lot by getting the cross bars and box elsewhere: Thule have aero bars with the correct fittings but I haven't tried them so don't know how noisy they are. They're about half LR price and I think (from the images and spec) that the LR box is the Thule Pacific 200 which is also about half the LR price – though you might as well get a big one if you're going to go to the bother.

Fitting the bars is tricky – they have to be slid along the rails to a set point so fittings need to be as open as possible but go just too far and they fall apart – and you'll definitely scratch the roof rails and pinch your fingers before long. The special fit screw driver for the LR bars is also strangely shaped and will scratch the paintwork if you're not careful. Getting the box up is a two-man job and then you still need to climb up to reach over and inside to tighten the fixings and the height also makes it tricky to make sure it's completely straight. You then have to climb up to fill it.

If you've got a tow bar have you thought about one of these rear-mounted cargo boxes? Not sure exactly how they work (if you can still open the boot, how much weight they can hold etc) but they seem generally easier and less obtrusive than a box.

Sounds a pain as I thought it might be.

Perhaps best to just use the laundry room than to pack more stuff.

Thanks for the advice.

I use a roof box regularly on my RRS (e.g for a 3 week, 6,000 km road-trip across Europe last summer, which we will repeat this year) and find it not too big a hassle.

Sure there is some extra wind noise at motorway speed. Yes it takes some time to mount it, but except for requiring two persons to lift on top of the cross bars (which is no heavier or difficult than that my 15 year old daughter can assist with) it can be done single-handedly in about 30 minutes from mounting the cross bars to locking the roof box.

Thule's hitch mounted cargo box needs to be tilted before the boot can be opened - if you press the boot opener by misstake, you will at least scratch or at worst dent the boot. Also with the hitch mounted box, there rear parking aids are pretty much useless. 2015 Range Rover Sport HSE TDV6, Corris Grey

New owner with a question. I don't have roof rails and see there are plenty available on flee bay , and they look easy to install. First question:- Are they easy to install?
Are the e-bay ones OK?
Do the roof rails increase cabin wind noise? M16 SVD8 ,4.4 HSE with a few extras, Sold R50 , Wife SQ5 , BMW R1200GSW.