​How to choose a roof rack?

For self-driving trips, we often drag our family and carry a lot of luggage with us. There is a roof rack, which can indeed solve many problems. So how do choose a suitable roof rack? Let us find out below.

Here is the content list:

What kind of car models can install a roof rack?

How to identify the quality of the roof rack?

How to maintain the roof rack?

What kind of car models can install a roof rack?

As long as your vehicle has a roof rack fixing rod, whether it is an SUV, an off-road vehicle, a sedan, or a station wagon, you can install a roof box or luggage frame.

Some main parts of a roof rack that we need to know:

Towers / Feet

The primary part of a roof rack is the tower/foot set. These bear the weight of everything on your roof and are installed at the strongest points on a vehicle’s roof.

Fit Components

Towers themselves are usually somewhat generic. To mount the towers to your car, you will usually need a vehicle-specific fitting kit.

Fitting Kits typically consist of

Clips/Clamps - attaches the tower to your specific roof-line, rail, etc.

Bottom Pads - rubber bases that sit between your roof and the tower. Provides stability and prevents damage to vehicle roof.

Crossbars

Usually, two bars run across the width of the vehicle roof, which you then mount your activity-specific racks too. Crossbars support the weight of all the gear you’re adding to the roof and transfer the weight to the towers/feet.

How to identify the quality of the roof rack?

The price of roof racks varies greatly, which is caused by the disparity in materials. First of all, there are two materials, aluminum alloy, and high-strength plastic, for the main body supporting part. Among them, aluminum alloy materials have the advantages of high strength and lightweight, so they are the most widely used, but aluminum alloys contain different trace elements, so the strength and hardness of the manufactured materials are also different. High-strength plastic materials are more prone to aging because plastics are easy to expand and contract with heat, and assembly precision is relatively poor. Material is the core of quality. There are two identification methods: one is to see whether the surface gloss is consistent, uniform, and there are no bumps and cracks; the other is to see whether its mechanical structure is reasonable, it depends on the thickness of its materials, and whether the joints are tightly connected. , After the roof rack is installed, judge the rationality of its mechanical structure in terms of whether it is easy to deform.

How to maintain the roof rack?

1. The roof rack cannot be overloaded, pay attention to the carrying weight capacity of the roof rack and the actual carrying weight of the car;

2. Pay attention to the lock core and key to be installed on the luggage rack, and make sure to lock and remove the key during use.

3. The roof rack made of aluminum alloy will not rust, but it will slowly oxidize during use. Rain or car wash water contains acidic or alkaline substances, which will also corrode the surface to a certain extent, and there will be slight stains after a long time. this is a normal phenomenon.

4. When carrying heavy objects or other hard metal objects, it is easy to cause slight scratches on the aluminum alloy crossbar, which is a normal wear phenomenon.

5. Make sure that the sealing strip has been installed on the crossbar during use to prevent dust and reduce wind noise.

6. After the roof rack is installed, it does not need to be disassembled frequently. For cars with ordinary roofs, frequent disassembly and assembly of the roof frame may damage the paint; for cars installed with reserved fixed points, frequent disassembly and assembly may cause damage to the screws at the fixed points. Therefore, We can remove and clean the roof rack regularly to make the roof rack durable.

Tustmade has developed a variety of different roof racks and conducted a large number of tests before leaving the factory to ensure quality. If you are interested in roof racks, you can consider using our cost-effective products.