Thule Ranger Foldaway 280 Litre

Product Information

Roof boxes aren’t easy to negotiate at the best of times as they are bulky and have to be raised to around head height to get into place; hauling them on to the roof and making sure fittings are positioned and secured correctly is often a two-person job. We are very flexible with our deliveries and will aim to deliver to an address which suits you – this does not need to be your home address.

You will find this important information in your car handbook - please check this before using your snowchains! I'd even see us taking it abroad with us and hiring a set of roof bars if we ever needed the extra capacity on a foreign trip.I found that the thing to do was to place a couple of larger bags first, and then to fill the spaces in between, then to zip up the whole things, squash and shake things down a little, to let things settle, then to partially open the zips and to pass in even more smaller items.

Attach these and pull the cords to tighten them and it compacts everything further and takes any stress off the zips.

Ladder track chains such as the Polaire GRIP and Spikes-Spider range only put chain over the tyre tread, so are not subject to these restrictions. If you don't have a garage or a spare storage room in the house then this presents a problem as traditional roof boxes are rigid fibre glass affairs that take up a large amount of space. This is usually because there is not enough space between the wheels and the shock absorbers; this can be a problem for ordinary SUVs and 4x4s as well as for high performance cars. I'm not sure that the rigid inner material is, but it is encased in the same durable material as the rest of the box.

When it's packed up into its bag it is 120cm long by 27cm diameter (actually it's 27cm square, not round). The downsides are the lack of security and the time taken to open and close it compared to a good quality conventional plastic box, but overall it's decent kit.If you are using this box on Whispbars /Yakima bars you'll need a set of the Thule 697-1 aerobar adapters shown below. It's actually more of a foldable roof bag, with a semi rigid base and sides, but let's not be picky, it does what it's meant to do and it does it well. This space-saving model should have the potential to impress the right user, but how does it fare as a practical piece of luggage? Add the dual-hinged, triple central locking top and three luggage straps included, and the box can’t be beaten for convenience. When you are finished with the Thule roof box, you can take it off the roof, fold it back up, and put it in the storage bag for added protection.