Now we have our sleeping mats the final essential piece of equipment we need is something to carry everything in. As I've said before our C-Max is not quite big enough to to fit all five of us, the tent, and all the equipment. On our previous trips we've been with others who've had spare capacity but we can't rely on that in the future so we need to 'extend' our C-Max's carrying capacity.
We're not going to buy a bigger car as our C-Max suits our needs perfectly apart from carrying all the extra camping kit. So have two options: trailer or roofbox. I have no experience with either and so I have been doing some research about which to get. In my previous post I had decided on the roofbox option but to be honest I am still flitting between both options.
First of all I needed to work out which trailer and which roofbox. The trailer was easy enough to decide on, the Erde 102 should suit our needs and is the only one cheap enough to consider. The roofbox choice was a bit more involved but after some research I have found two, the Atera 820 (pictured top right) and the KAMEI 400 (pictured left) both bundled with roofbars for a great price at The Roof Box Company.
In addition to it's lack of space for holding all the camping kit our C-Max also lacks both a towbar and roofbars. So the price of buying and fitting those has been added to the costs of the options.
| Trailer | Roofbox | Notes | |
| Cost | £400 | (Atera)£285 (KAMEI)£295 | The cost of the trailer includes the towbar which is £230, plus a cover which the trailer doesn't come with. The cost of the roofbox includes the roofbars as they are a bundled package, there is however an additional £25 for aluminium aero bars which I've included in the cost. |
| Capacity | 288L | (Atera)430L (KAMEI)400L | The capacity of the trailer is calculated from it's internal dimensions and assumes that the trailer is filled level to it's top. As a comparison the capacity of the boot of the car is 550L. |
| Load | 300KG | (Atera)54KG (KAMEI)50KG | The load of the roofbox is the lower of: (a) the car's roof load limit minus the weight of the empty roofbox and the roofbars (b) the maximum load of the roofbox itself For the Atera a = 75 - 17 - 4 = 54KG and b = 75KG so the lower value is 54KG For the KAMEI a = 75 - 16 - 4 = 55KG and b = 50KG so the lower value is 50KG As a reference our tent (with it's poles) weighs 38KG. |
| Installation | very simple | more complex | Assumes the towbar has been fitted professionally. |
| Loading | very easy | awkward | The roofbox we are looking at opens on both sides and this should help with loading. |
| Security | low | high | The trailer doesn't come with any kind of lid. The cheapest option (which I've assumed in the costs) is a fabric cover which offers very little security. A more secure solid lid will add around £80-£100 to the cost. The Atera roofbox has 3 point central locking on each side. The KAMEI roofbox has a 'Click' and 'Push button' locking system where each lock drives a bolt from the lid into the base; this is fundamentally a stronger system than central locking systems |
| Driving | parking and reversing | none | I was going to put that fuel economy would be worse with the roofbox on but then after a little research I found that in fact that's rubbish. See here for details |
| Storage | not an issue | not an issue | We have a garage which we use to store bikes, lawnmower etc (not the car) both the trailer and the roofbox will fit quite easily inside. The roofbox comes with a free hoist to store it in the garage roof space but as our garage is quite low that won't really meet our needs. |
Conclusion
In conclusion I think that the roofboxes still come out on top, they have bigger capacities than the trailer and cost less.
Between the 2 roofboxes it's a difficult choice, the KAMEI is a better quality box but it's slightly smaller and slightly more expensive. The KAMEI also fits the roof of the car better, it's shorter and wider, although that means it might be harder to pack as it involves reaching further over.
We would pack the trailer and roofboxes differently. The roofbox would be used to carry light but bulky items like sleeping bags and pillows, we'd pack the tent and other heavy items in the car. With a trailer we'd pack the tent and other heavy items in that and put the other things in the car. So the larger load weight of the trailer isn't a big help, but the larger volume of the roofbox would be.
From a driving point of view the roofbox shouldn't really have a big impact except possibly feeling cross winds and the turbulence from passing lorries a bit more. The trailer is so light it shouldn't affect normal driving, but it makes parking and reversing more complicated. A trailer also adds to the cost of a ferry crossing too which the roofbox won't. The added height of the roofbox is not enough to cause any issues with multi-storey or underground car parks as far as I can tell.
The big downside of the roofbox is the fitting and loading, something which is not an issue with the trailer. I guess we will have to develop a method for fitting and loading the roofbox.
One final advantage of the roofbox is that it's a secure waterproof storage pod, this is not only good for when the car is parked up with it on, but I can see how it would be useful when we are camped. I was thinking we would unpack, take the roofbox off and then use it to store things while we camped, mainly because leaving the box on would reduce fuel economy for the remainder of the holiday, however this is actually rubbish (see here). So it makes more sense to leave the roofbox on the car for the entire holiday.
So having decided on a roofbox all I need to do now is decide on which one and whether to get the aero roofbars.
Trailer fuel efficiency
We bought a trailer in the end (see here) having been on our first trip we found that the trailer didn't adversely affect the fuel efficiency at all, we managed 35+ mpg which is pretty similar to what we'd expect without the trailer.
This is all anecdotal obviously and not very scientific but worth noting. It also seems to agree with what I've read elsewhere on the net.