Technical Doblo Family - roof bars?

[alfadoblo]

Firstly I'd like to say hello to everyone on the forum. I've been reading the posts for some time but only recently registered on the site.

My Doblo is a 1.9JTD Family model - bought second-hand last October with about 12,000 miles on the clock. So far the car has been a revelation - excellent to drive, plenty of space for 7 and good fuel economy. It's only been used for shortish motorway trips (100 miles) up to now, however next week we are driving up to scotland so it should be a good test of the comfort levels for 2 adults and 5 children!

One problem with the Doblo and I think all small MPVs is the lack of boot space so we've decided to get some sort of roof rack and box combination so that the kids don't have to put all their bags on the floor of the car. I've searched the forum for the best roof racks and/or rails to buy and cannot see any definite recommendations. I guess the best solution would be rails that fit into the roof fittings and run lengthwise down the car.. but these seem impossible to get hold of.

I've seen some aluminium bars in a fiat accessories catalogue but for some reason these come as a set of 3, which seems one to many to me. (Boxes only seem to need 2 bars)

There must be other Family owners out there who've faced a similar problem ?

 

[Ozzie1989]

Firstly welcome to the forum

As far as roof bars go if you don't want to pay dealer prices for a set of 3 roof bars (of course most roof boxes only allow for the support of 2 bars) then you need something like this. Most of the bars you'll find are for vans with tie hooks etc. that just look plain ugly, these are the best looking ones I could find.

Then of course, you can buy your roofbox from the internet or an auto retail outlet such as Halfords

 

[Obadiah]

You can also get them from Thule, always my choice:-
http://www.thule.co.uk/appguide/you...A=&tFoot=&tBar=&tKit=blank&tSRA=&tSP=&tLocks=

 

[ashy_2002]

hello

I've a family multijet , we have the three bar fiat supplied roof bars fitted.. i think three is better than two... I have two cycles racks + long roof box fitted when going away . The long roof box fits over the three bars...

I've found that the three bars are very useful when visiting B+Q (long pieces of wood ??) + ladders...

The cost of the three bar set was £146.00 the instructions for fitting are useless . When fitting the bars fit across the top you need to make sure that they are fitting the correct way + postion to produce a perfect hoizontal installation run ...

 

[dobbie]

Yep Thule bars are what i got as well, easy to fit and if you change vehicle you only need new fitting kits and keep the bars

 

[alfadoblo]

well i went to halfords and i sourced all the correct Thule bars and fittings as per Obadiah's post but surprise, surprise they didn't have the 3021 kit to fix to the Doblo's fixed mounts in stock.. looks like i will be taking the van into Fiat on Monday to get the fiat supplied 3-bar roof system.

Just wish fiat supplied the longtitudional bars as standard, then getting a roofrack would be much cheaper and as dobbie pointed out, easy to transfer to a new vehicle...

not that i would ever change

 

[Obadiah]

Have a chat to http://www.gttowing.co.uk/ for the Thule stuff. I have used them a lot over the years, they often have to obscure bits in stock and delivery is, generally, next day.

Don't know where you are but GT are in Hertfordshire.

 

[RichDoblo120]

Hi,
I've got the Doblo family too. If you want the longitudinal roof bars, you have to buy a Doblo with the bars already fitted as this is an optional extra fitted at the factory only. As your car has no roof rails, you will need either the 3 bars from Fiat or some from Halfords or Thule or whatever. I bought the Fiat ones. These come in 2 types, standard or Topline. I went for the cheaper standard ones. They look really ugly and create alot of wind noise too. The Topline roofbars look factory fitted and are streamlined to cut wind noise but are expensive. When it comes to fitting a roofbox, if you use the Fiat bars they are in a fixed position so you will have to choose a roofbox with a fairly flat bottom as you will almost certainly need to drill new holes in the box so the U bolts line up with the roof bars. Also, I would go for a fairly large box as you then have more room to play with when fitting the box to the bars.
I hope some of this makes sense,
Richard.

 

[Ozzie1989]

Richard every roof box we sell, Thule or Halfords own, comes with adjustable points for the u-bolts to go through so that shouldn't really be a problem

The silver bars from Fiat do look nice, but then you can get Thule bars in silver that are aerodynamic and are probably cheaper!

 

[RichDoblo120]

Thanks Ozzie, the roofbox I bought was a real cheapie from ebay. It had fixed mounting points for the U bolts. This is my first roofbox and I presumed that all boxes were like this and you were supposed to slide your bars along the rails to suit your particular box, if you see what I mean. Of course you can't do this with the fixed Fiat bars so I had to drill new holes in the box. My box isn't really big enough now so I'm after one of those Thule 650 litre ones next, and some slightly more aerodynamic roof bars too.

 

[Ozzie1989]

Sorry to steal your topic for a second alfadoblo....

The Thule boxes are good, although so are Halfords own which are designed by Thule (iirc) and are cheaper. Most Halfords stores now have the new rage, which include boxes in different colours!

Now back to the roof bars themselves

 

[ashy_2002]

I bought our roof box from halfords... halfords own brand a long and thin type one............ Had to drill new holes to make it fit over the three bars...

also with the oval streamlined silver alloy bars ... try to get a typical cycle carrier to fit.... had to resort to obtaining exhuast clamps (they are oval) and some steel strips drilled to get them to fit!!! mind you they are better than the originals

 

[RichDoblo120]

I bought our roof box from halfords... halfords own brand a long and thin type one............ Had to drill new holes to make it fit over the three bars...

also with the oval streamlined silver alloy bars ... try to get a typical cycle carrier to fit.... had to resort to obtaining exhuast clamps (they are oval) and some steel strips drilled to get them to fit!!! mind you they are better than the originals

Glad I'm not the only one who's had trouble fitting a roofbox to a Doblo :bang: ,
I still think it would be easier with the rails and sliding bars.

 

[Ozzie1989]

Buy those bars from UK Accessories and then buy the £60 bars to fit them from a place like Halfords! You can take them off then when you aren't using them and save some fuel

 

[varesecrazy]

quote from Newbie section;
Have just bought my fourth doblo but this time a high top, and want to put on roof bars. Have seen previous threads and want to know easiest way so can carry my longboard. Will the standard Doblo bars fit if holes are drilled in the four recessed areas? I am thinking of getting motorhome/coachwork firm to do the job. Any ideas would be graciously received. Many thanks. Mariachi