Why do people do this?

[freebeard]

If there's a garage or carport, one could hang pulleys from the ceiling and grasp the crossbars.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by freebeard

If there's a garage or carport, one could hang pulleys from the ceiling and grasp the crossbars.

You could.

We had a roof mounted bike rack for our earlier Jetta Wagon that was Yakima brand. It came on and of by simply turning 4 locks and loosening an allen head bolt so my wife and I could take it on and off in about 1 - 2 minutes as a complete assembly.

For our current Sportwagen I was shocked to see that the same basic rack / mounts are now about $500. No way I was paying that much for 4 mounts and two round bars so I bought a no-name rack off Amazon for $50. The downside is that it is really fiddly to take off and on.


Right now I have my folding boat hanging from my garage ceiling so the box is stored in my shed loft.

[Xist]

How many RVs and fifth wheels have you seen that are taller in the back versus ones that are taller in the front? I am sure they are more convenient when they are taller in the back, but I am sure that most people think the tall backs are more aerodynamic than ones with low backs--just like cargo boxes.

Why do people turn cars into pickups? How much time and money does that take? https://www.hotcars.com/20-sedans-th...pickup-trucks/

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Xist

Why do people turn cars into pickups? How much time and money does that take? https://www.hotcars.com/20-sedans-th...pickup-trucks/

Why? Because it is there.

Some of those are kits from this company:

https://www.smythkitcars.com/order-shop


I like this Beetle based one. The Beetle has rear seats not suitable for adults so it seems like a good choice of base vehicle.

[freebeard]

Those aren't pickups, those are utes. I feel particularly bad about the choice for #10, the VW Beetle. There are more tasteful examples. There's a local Beetle with a full Datsun 510 box with a bed/cab gap. It looks almost stock. Speaking of stock:


http://petrolhigh.blogspot.com/2011/...le-pickup.html

Nice:

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/1976-V...ureId=35636759

[rmay635703]

People turn vans and pickup trucks into trailers

Why would you do that?

[freebeard]

To use as a splash mold for fiberglass reproductions.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by freebeard

There's a local Beetle with a full Datsun 510 box with a bed/cab gap. It looks almost stock.

Reminds me the day I saw a Variant adapted with the box of a Ford Pampa.

[Autobahnschleicher]

I have been considering to fabricate some mounting hardware to mount a box to my MR2 Spyder to increase its cargo capacity when required, however I've been not quite sure how to mount it as the position affects aerodynamic drag a lot.
Plus my car has less drag than a Prius in stock condition, so any effect on that will likely be very noticeable.

Obviously the ideal from an aerodynamic perspective would be a fastback-style hardtop as is available for the Porsche Boxster (makes it look like a Cayman) and for the Honda S2000 (wich is sold by Spoon IIRC).
Not only would it increase my rather small cargo space, it would also reduce my aerodynamic drag.
But that would be a very complex project, expensive and hard to get right.

Next best would probably be mounting a small-ish box transverse behind the roof above the engine bay.
This would very likely increase my aerodynamic drag to some degree by increasing the wake behind the car, but not as much as a normal mounting position would as it wouldn't increase my cars frontal area or at least not by much.
There are cargo racks available wich mount there, wich makes this a lot easier.

The last option would be to mount it in the conventional position, wich would result in a significant drag penalty as it would increase my frontal area, wake size and possibly make the flow seperate from my rear window and engine bay.
This would also require some fabrication as my car doesn't have a structural roof or hardpoints for that.
Plus the rear mount would need to be very tall as it needs to be all the way back over the engine bay.

This has been an option for the AW-11, but not for the ZZW-30.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Autobahnschleicher

Obviously the ideal from an aerodynamic perspective would be a fastback-style hardtop as is available for the Porsche Boxster (makes it look like a Cayman) and for the Honda S2000 (wich is sold by Spoon IIRC).
Not only would it increase my rather small cargo space, it would also reduce my aerodynamic drag.

And possibly having a fewer impact to the center of gravity, even though it would affect the weight bias when loaded.