When deciding to do a driving holiday to France I didn’t really take in to consideration how much stuff we would need to pack. We have an estate car and even a trip down to my mums house can end up with a full boot and the girls foot wells packed with things.
I am not very good at packing light so when I was offered a Thule Touring M Roof Box to review I jumped at the chance although I was a little bit apprehensive. I mean how exactly do they get fitted onto the roof?
Using the Thule buyers guide to input my car details they told me exactly which parts I needed but I was still a bit worried when the packages arrived and everything looked very confusing.
It didnt take me long to work out exactly what I needed to do though. The Roof bars came in three separate packages. The attachment for my specific car, the roof bar foot that fits that attachment and then the roof bar themselves.
Actually attaching the roof bars to the car was very easy and they locked in place nicely. The car was starting to look good already.
I was worried about attaching the roof box. I had visions of it flying off the roof bars as we sped down the motorway but I didn’t need to be concerned. The patented fast click grips that hold the roof box onto the roof bars are very safe for simple, secure fitting. The Thule Touring M is 175cm in length and 82cm in width which I thought was a bit thin but they actually designed it to be so thin so that you can also attach your bike to the roof bars alongside the roof box!
The Thule Touring M roof box we were sent can be opened from both sides which makes loading and unloading a lot easier. The box has a central locking system which keeps everything nice and safe. The dualforce hinges mean that the lid can be opened and closed easily and even when it was windy I was not worried about it blowing off. Packing the Roof Box was a bit of a challenge for me as I am quite short but I just used a step stool to ensure that I got it all in neatly and evenly.
I was really impressed with how much the Thule Touring M can hold. We tend to pack into Ikea bags unless we are flying and it managed to hold four bags of clothes plus a few extra bits. We strapped everything in using the included straps and were on our way. Having the roof box meant that we were able to take Elizabeth’s wheelchair with us in the boot which made the holiday a lot easier particularly when we went to Parc Asterix. In the past, we have had to sacrifice the wheelchair for the luggage which has meant we have had to hire a chair or carry Elizabeth when she got tired which is obviously not an ideal situation.
The Thule Touring M Roof Box weighs 13kg and can hold up to 50 kg of weight. It had really changed the way we will be able to pack for future trips and has even helped me to take all the Blog On Conference goody bags to the Museum of Science and Industry which was definitely a bonus.
If you are thinking of getting roof bars and a roof box I couldn’t recommend Thule enough, the quality of the items are fantastic and they were easy to fit even for a first-timer like me. I know that this roof box will be very useful for many years to come.
