Roof tent

I doubt that the courts or insurance would see it that way.

I have a mental picture of a roof tent wizzing down the road on a set of plastic skates (without the grace of Torvill & Dean). It's almost comical. I hadn't noticed that our Gen3 had plastic roof rails until this forum told me, I now load the roof accordingly. Chris

Keithy wrote: Not really a debate....there is no limit on the roof.....just the plastic and al trim suzuki calls roof bars......30kg is pushing it on those.

We live in a controlling world.....I carry what I like on my roof and drive accordingly.........No strawman needed.

Unfortunately that's not true Keith.

Do you tell your insurance company?

Roger

Haven't logged-in here for a while, amazing that this topic is still raging. Perhaps it always will be.

Last year, I asked my contacts at Suzuki to get a definitive answer to this thorny issue, making it clear that people weren't interested in the rating of the bars, but the maximum roof load itself, and that nothing less than an answer from the engineers in Japan will do. The answer that came back couldn't have been clearer - the maximum roof load, no matter how it's attached, is 30kg.

Like I said at the time when I posted this, you're welcome to dismiss it if you want - it's your Jimny, you do what you want with it. But we shouldn't kid ourselves, the people who designed and built it state that the limit is 30kg. Should they have put that limit in the owner's manual? It would certainly have made our lives a lot easier. Perhaps if Jimny gets revised as an N1 commercial, they'll have to do just that.

Stability and liability issues aside, I personally believe it's more the lack of a load-bearing mount structure. Vehicles with a decent roof carrying capacity have rails or mounting points integrated into a sub-structure that is capable of transferring loads appropriately and uses a secure attachment mechanism. The new Defender, for example, has a 300kg static roof load, and I've seen the structure that makes that possible - it's substantial. On the Jimny, whatever the roof bars are made from, they are simply clamping on to a thin metal rain gutter that clearly isn't designed to be load-bearing.

Now, you guys are all quite welcome to dismiss this. I'm just trying to impart information. Before Covid struck, that used to be my job.

Ok I've done some investigation into roof tents and can confirm the following:-
Pros
Easy to pitch
The Jimny did not fall over
Roof easily coped with tent, toilet, occupant(s) and newspaper of choice

Cons
Fuel consumption suffers
It's a big climb if you are in a rush
If it did fall over no one would want to help you.

Can't see the problem myself.

I have a piece of paper from Suzuki that is strong and quilted that says it's all ok.:laugh: