Weight capacity of roof rack?

sunrunner_pei · Post by **sunrunner_pei** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 1:43 am

We're heading for our first road trip with the Vibe this weekend, and we're going to be using our Rola roof basket & Rola Platypus cargo bag. However, I can't seem to find what the weight capacity of the Vibe's roof rack is. I'm running the Gm Accessories utility cross-bars, which as far as I know, have no specific weight limit. They can hold as much as the actual roof rails can support. So does anyone know that capacity?Here's a pic of the basket & bag... Thanks in advance!-Shawn

ZubenElGenubi · Post by **ZubenElGenubi** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 2:48 am

Edited:The official capacity for the original roof rails is 75 lbs ('03-'04). I don't know what the specs are for the new crossbars, but I would imagine it's similar. Several folks have loaded up more than that with kayaks/canoes and such.

prathman · Post by **prathman** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 11:28 am

Yes, the official limit is 75 lbs. But I suspect that it's rather conservative. Doesn't make sense to me that if I use Thule towers placed at rather arbitrary positions on the roof together with rails that look just like the GM Utility bars that the limit suddenly doubles to 150 lbs (which is Thule's stated limit). The rail hardware certainly looks capable of holding more than 75 lbs and if the roof can take the pressure from 150 lbs. loaded on Thule towers then it should be able to take a similar weight loaded on the rails unless the rail mounting design is incredibly poor. But of course you're on your own if you exceed the factory recommendation and something bad happens.

zionzr2 · Post by **zionzr2** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 8:29 pm

some food for thoughtif you were to gently turn the vibe upside down placing the roof on the ground,would the car crush under its own weight?

Whelan · Post by **Whelan** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 9:16 pm

The roof rack rails may crush but not the roof, at least it shouldn't.I would imagine those numbers are due to the plastic polymer supports on the ends of the metal rack tubes. They are metal right? Unless they are just covers and the metal tubes are actually mounted to the roof.

sunrunner_pei · Post by **sunrunner_pei** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 10:34 pm

Thanks very much for the help, everyone. I figured 75 lbs was very conservative. We loaded it up, and I'm guessing we had about 130 lbs on the rails, including the cargo basket, bag & contents. The roof seemed VERY sturdy throughout the trip, I won't have any issue doing it again.I was however very careful to make sure the crossbars were on securely!!!Thanks again!

sunrunner_pei · Post by **sunrunner_pei** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 11:08 pm

Here it is loaded up, on the first leg of our journey. That's our Grand Am beside it, we had so much stuff we had to take 2 cars. haha!

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Sublimewind · Post by **Sublimewind** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 4:30 am

That is a really nice rack you got there, mam.... lolBut seriously, i really do like the rack, looks really beefy on there... Gotta link to where you bought it, or did you buy it local somewhere... And where is PEI.???

sunrunner_pei · Post by **sunrunner_pei** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 2:20 am

The rack and bag are both made by Rola. http://www.rolaproducts.com/ Rola is distributed in North America through Hidden Hitch/Cequent retailers. I picked up the rack and bag locally. PEI (Prince Edward Island) is Canada's smallest province, located North-East of Maine.

Whelan · Post by **Whelan** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 5:10 am

PEI ftw! Great island, very pretty!

Sublimewind · Post by **Sublimewind** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 5:49 am

Cool, thanks..!!

natedog77 · Post by **natedog77** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 1:39 am

I wouldn't worry to much about weight limits. I probably put 500lbs in my roof box for camping and I've never had a problem.

Weight capacity of roof rack?

Weight capacity of roof rack?

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