California Roof Rack (no bars)

[dctrl]

Does anybody have experience of using a roof rack on a california (I DO NOT mean roof bars, load bars,...).
As I will use the California as my daily (for now I still have the 'old' car), it has to be as versatile as possible.
That means that sometimes I need to load (very) long items.
Also I want to store things on the roof, wet things, gas bottle, jerrycan,...

Very new and possibly less known is the Frontrunner solution for transporter (even with tailgate door). Also ARB now has a lightweight base rack, but ARB is very hard to come by over here.
I sourced products from 4x4 expedition world in the past, it is always super heavy duty made.
A half-rack (or less) would weigh at max 20kg, possibly less.
That leaves 30kg of load to carry (according to the VW specs).

This picture from frontrunner shows exactly what I want to do (I would add a normal 'roof bar' up front for longer items).
O and no, I don't want this ugly roof boxes you see on passenger cars, especially this time of year.

Any experiences?

 

[Tarquers]

Have a look at Hess Automotive in CH and Terranger in DE both Have some interesting ideas. You will probably get better answers on Caliboard.de. My 4 year old has seen the ladder and is now adamant we NEED one…

 

[MattBW]

I tried a roof box on my Beach and with manual struts I had trouble getting the roof fully up even with the box empty. However with the auto roof you should be fine.

This looks interesting but I can only find the ladder on the site., this does look ideal for my uses too.

 

[dctrl]

I tried a roof box on my Beach and with manual struts I had trouble getting the roof fully up even with the box empty. However with the auto roof you should be fine.

This looks interesting but I can only find the ladder on the site., this does look ideal for my uses too.

I have a quotation from frontrunner with a full kit fitting a rack 1345x954mm on a california roof. Price is 704€. Not cheap, and 25kgs total, a bit too much.
Still going forward with this: a decent roofbox with load bars would cost a little less but not much. Second view: a decent thule roofbox is way more expensive!

 

[Loz]

If I need a platform I use a Rhino-Rack clamped onto Thule Aero Bars
Here is one on our previous Touareg, but this will go widthways on the CAli.


They also do platforms: https://www.rhinorack.com/en-us/products/roof/platforms-and-baskets/pioneer-platforms

 

[dctrl]

If I need a platform I use a Rhino-Rack clamped onto Thule Aero Bars
Here is one on our previous Touareg, but this will go widthways on the CAli.
View attachment 82406

They also do platforms: https://www.rhinorack.com/en-us/products/roof/platforms-and-baskets/pioneer-platforms

Thank you Loz for this info. The rhino is not lighter (than frontrunner), and more expensive (fr was including feet and one extra bar on feet for longer loads.
it is mounted, is superstrong, looks good (the way I like it), and is very practical for light loads. The roof opens just fine with the rack lightly loaded (25-30kgs).
thanks for the rhino suggestion, also neat solution!