Technical Roof rails/bars

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Technical Roof rails/bars

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For those that don't know, I have a 100hp Panda

I have been looking at getting a way of transporting a canoe with the Panda. I have seen that Fiat sell the rails as shown below

EK55PYJ.jpg


I will then have to buy bars that go accross the car and lock onto the rails shown to hold a canoe in place.

But i have seen companies like Thule make bars that use the same mounting points but go accross the vehicle, Are these any good ?

edit: I see Fiat now sell these for under £60 !!

http://www.fiat-accessories.com/Fiat-Panda-Roof-Bars

50900983_Large.jpg
 
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I bought a pair of Thule lateral bars to use with an existing wire roof rack - cheap alternative, and as Pondweed said they're easy removed until they're needed.

One minor niggle though - they fit the roof perfectly but the transverse bars are at a slight angle back and front. I had to bend the rack mountings a bit to get them to clamp on.
I've seen the Fiat lateral bars and they are designed so that the bars are level, but then obviously they don't need to fit anything except a Panda !
 
I bought the square section rails for my Panda - same roof set-up as yours.

They are strong and will take whatever you give them, but they are very noisy. Drive me mad, so I took them off after the first week, and only have them on when I really can't avoid using them (which means I tend to use the trailer rather than fit the bars!).

I suspect the more expensive bars will be much quieter as well as more fuel efficient, which will be one reason why Fiat promote the dearer ones more than the cheaper ones (other than a desire to make more money of course!).

The bars are 'handed' front / rear, so take care when fitting. They only mount at the front / rear of the longitudinal bars (so you can't, for instance, mount the front one at the back like I tried to do early on to move the noise further back). They come with locks which is good and, I think, 3 keys which is also good!

I'd avoid the cheapo rack to be honest




.
 
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Style wise I prefer this..

EK55PYJ.jpg



To this..

50900983_Large.jpg


I suppose if you want to carry canoe's and bodies wrapped in a carpet then the second option is the better one..:p

And @ MEP do summat with those wipers please they wont wipe the windscreen pointing in that direction..:D
 
Style wise I prefer this..

EK55PYJ.jpg



To this..

50900983_Large.jpg


I suppose if you want to carry canoe's and bodies wrapped in a carpet then the second option is the better one..:p
Or you could get the bars in the first picture, then just put items laterally across the width of the car. :devil:
 
Or you could get the bars in the first picture, then just put items laterally across the width of the car. :devil:


Trouble is the ones in the first pic are a couple of hundred quid from Fiat then i still need to buy laterell bars as well


So i think the £60 ones will do me fine, I only do about 200 miles a month now so will leave them on the car unless i do a long journey
 
Got the same problem.

Fiat longitudinal roof bars £285
Thule Aero bars £125
Thule Bike rack £95
Thule Kayak carrier £110

Total £615

Searching for someone who wants to sell there fiat roof bars so i can get the price down, wish i had brought them with the car now.
 
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In Halfords the Thule set up with aero bars and locks is about 190 - these look like they fit under the roof but above the doors like old fashioned racks whereas the Fiat ones appear to go into the mounting holes. I wonder if the Thule might be quicker and easier to put on and off. With square bars it's a bit cheaper 160 with locks. The Halfords value range looks to be about 80.
edit - just looked on ebay £20 at moment - not sure if its the right thing.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FIAT-PANDA-TO..._CarParts_SM?hash=item4cec223081#ht_500wt_975
 
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The lateral roof bars on mine ( Mont Blanc, not Thule as I earlier stated :eek: ) were only about £60 for the pair from a local accessory shop.
A quick Google came up with this:
http://www.towequipe.co.uk/products...fits-fiat-panda-5dr-hatchback-04-on-401n.html

They only take a few minutes to fit/remove, as they simply screw in to the factory mounting points - no ugly clamps in the door openings.
But don't lose the plastic blanking screws....:)
 
The lateral roof bars on mine ( Mont Blanc, not Thule as I earlier stated :eek: ) were only about £60 for the pair from a local accessory shop.
A quick Google came up with this:
http://www.towequipe.co.uk/products...fits-fiat-panda-5dr-hatchback-04-on-401n.html

They only take a few minutes to fit/remove, as they simply screw in to the factory mounting points - no ugly clamps in the door openings.
But don't lose the plastic blanking screws....:)

Sounds good (y)

I have ordered the official Fiat lateral bars as shown in pic

- £58 which use same mounting points
 
Got the same problem.

Fiat longitudinal roof bars £285
Thule Aero bars £125
Thule Bike rack £95
Thule Kayak carrier £110

Total £615

Searching for someone who wants to sell there fiat roof bars so i can get the price down, wish i had brought them with the car now.

I had this problem too, I needed the roof bars and nearly choked at the price Fiat wanted.

I loaned some roof bars off someone on here and bought some cheap cross bars for around £30 on Ebay

Still on the lookout for roof bars thou and try scrap yards now and then hoping to stumble on some.
 
Sounds good (y)

I have ordered the official Fiat lateral bars as shown in pic

- £58 which use same mounting points

The problem with these bars is that you cant use the Thule bike rack with them, as they are to far apart on the roof. The bars need to be close togther, hence you need the longitudinal bars and the thule ones to go across the roof. You can then get the right distance between them to fit the bike rack.

The only way to get around this is to use the fiat panda bike rack, but i
am not sure what the quality of this rack is like. Thule do another rack which may fit the fiat bars , but this one involves taking the front wheel off to mount the bike each time.
 

Still on the lookout for roof bars thou and try scrap yards now and then hoping to stumble on some.[/COLOR]

Try Traynors (Traynors.co.uk), they get a lot of (Republic of) Irish stock and the longitudinal roof bars are standard spec on every Panda in Ireland bar the 25 100HPs Fiat Auto Ireland have imported.

The longitudinal bars have close to zero impact on MPG as they don't really have much air to drag, just remember the take the lateral ones off when not in use...
 
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