Car luggage rack

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
BMW 600 with roof rack attached to the rain gutter
Combi with roof box

A car luggage carrier is a device that is mounted on or on a motor vehicle in order to facilitate or enable the transport of luggage or bulky objects. As a rule, the luggage rack can be mounted in the following ways:

  • on the roof:
    • Screw connection to the permanently mounted roof rail .
    • Clamping in the area of ​​the door frame by means of mostly specially pre-formed clamping feet and the associated hooks.
    • Clamping into the fixed rain gutter (with modern vehicle construction, the designers often do without the rain gutter).
    • Screw connection in special fixed points installed by the vehicle manufacturer. These fixed points can be threaded bores or a rail in the roof as well as fastening points in the area of ​​the door frame in the form of bores or the like. represent. Such attachment points are often not recognizable at first glance.
  • at the rear: by mounting on the tailgate or on the trailer coupling.

The use of car luggage racks increases fuel consumption as they increase the air resistance of the vehicle. Carriers mounted at the rear perform better in this regard, as they are in the slipstream of the car. According to ADAC, consumption increases by 10 to 50 percent depending on the model, load and speed.

Roof racks must be very strong, flexible in use and generate little wind noise while driving.

Legal requirements

Roof racks do not have to have a general operating permit and do not have to be entered in the vehicle documents.

According to § 30c Paragraph 1 of the Road Traffic Licensing Regulations (StVZO) applies

"No parts of the outline of the vehicles must protrude in such a way that they endanger traffic more than unavoidably."

The guidelines on the nature and the attachment of the external vehicle parts of September 24, 1963, which u. a. demand:

"Luggage racks (e.g. roof grids and ski racks) must not have tips and must have a repellent effect."

Special construction methods

  • A conventional roof rack usually consists of metal rails arranged in parallel.
  • A bicycle rack is a device for transporting bicycles.
  • The roof box (also roof box) is a flat, elongated and streamlined box made of solid material that can be attached to the roof of a car by means of a base carrier on the roof rail or on a roof rack.
  • The ski rack, which is usually mounted on the roof, allows skis to be clamped in parallel. With rear ski racks, the skis are inserted vertically into the clamping device.

Web links

Commons : Car Luggage Carrier  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: roof rack  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ VkBl 1963, p. 478, last amended on May 28, 1985, VkBl 1985, p. 436 (online in the version of November 23, 1984) ( Memento of March 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive ).
  2. ↑ roof box . In: Duden , accessed on July 23, 2015.