In Short – What a piece of Kit!!!
I bought these J-Bars in a mad, last-minute panic. Not the way I like to acquire equipment that is going to secure my boat on an international drive.
However, having recently bought a Dacia Jogger with integral roof-bar system, it had not occurred to me that finding I- or J-bars that fit would be an issue. The bar is, however, 30mm high and 60mm front to back. The leading edge of each bar also drops down to a nose shape making them less than stable for bolting at the front. After a week of trying to get something, well anything, to fit; a quick call to Cambridge Kayaks and a chat with one of their staff and they assured that this would.
They were right.
The fit itself was far from optimal. The integral roof-bars fit to the roof rails, which curves with the roofline. Thus, the J-Bars ended up at different angles and also both pitched forward on the roof-bars themselves. The small gap between the front of each roof-bar and the roof of the car meant that I could only have the front retaining bolt of the fittings on about 5mm of the bolt thread.
This whole set up meant that once the kayak was in the bars, it was only resting on the rear of each J piece. Not so much of an issue for the Paddleboards’ as these were both in their bags; but the already full car meant that both Paddleboard bags were one on top of the other on the opposite side of the Double J’s to the Kayak. All in all, the thing looked like it was going to take off the minute I hit 30 mph; rather than survive the 710-mile non-stop trip that I was about to submit it to.
But survive it did!
The rig did not move. We drove through torrential rain, blazing sun, sideways storms. It never shifted once on the roof and the load didn’t so much as flinch in the bars.
Quite astonishing.
I could not recommend highly enough.
