Fitting roof bars when already a Fiamma mounted?

[kitetraveller]

Our first motor caravan (Citroen Relay lwb) has a Fiamma awning fitted, using the roof rack mounting points.
We want to fit a roof rack to allow either canoes, or a roof box to be fitted.
Can anyone point us to solutions (commercial or home made) that allow the roof rack without having to remove the Fiamma please?

Many thanks in anticipation.
Kitetravellers

 

[vin0114]

Maybe for the roofbox a couple of lengths of mezzanine plate glued down to the roof with sikoflex, then drilled and tapped to allow direct fixing of the roof box? fixing anything to pvc's is usually a bit of a pain because of their usually corrugated and domed surfaces. Just my 2 cents

 

[kitetraveller]

Thanks Vin & Josie.
We are so new to this it took a while to figure out PVC = panel van conversion......at least thats what we are hoping!

I had not even thought about glueing something onto the roof. I guess there are some good recommended adhesive mastics to use?

I also have to work around roof light and aircon (the TV aerial will be coming off soon) but there is definaely space up there.

I will let you know what solution we use.
Thanks
Andy & Christine

 

[vin0114]

I fitted a solar panel last year using sikaflex 221 sealant but I had to glue down plastic fillets in the roof channels to allow full contact for the 150mm square corner mounts. By the way is your Relay a Wildax conversion? as I had a 2005 one with an aircon on it.

 

[Geo]

Not sure if your looking for the right way or a quick fix
The correct way would be to remove the awning and fit the roof bars to their respective mounts assuring you of a safe and correct fitting for carrying a load, then you should look at getting or fabricating a mount kit for the awning, many of which are bolted direct to the vans roof and dont use the roof bar mounts at all
G

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[Minxy]

Why try to reinvent the wheel - if you buy the Fiamma roof rack it already comes with brackets that allow you to fit the awning to it. It isn't cheap though!

http://campingequipmentshop.co.uk/fiamma-roof-rail-ducato-maxi-xl-05808-02.html

 

[kitetraveller]

Our Relay is a home conversion, not ours; we bought it from the guy who did the conversion.

The Fiamma F65S is already very well installed, and I was hoping for a solution that didn't require taking it off and remounting it. Fiamma do a mounting set to attach the awning to roof bars, and it may well come to having to remove the awning, fit the roof rack, then fit the awning back on.
This is our first time away in the van, so all is new to us, but we are already planning longer trips, and considering how to carry extra 'stuff'.

I need to get some measurements from the roof of the van, as there are skylights and aircon up there that are bound to be in the way of roof bars.

Thank you for the suggestions, greatly appreciated.

Andy &Christine

 

[Merrievale]

Hi Andy and Christine,

I hope you are both well. I wondered if you found a solution as we are currently trying to fit roof bars to our van which already has a Fiamma awning in place!
We don’t want to spend the money on the ‘official’ method if we can help it!

Thank you

 

[The Wino]

I think the first question is whether anyone has the payload allowance to make it sensible to add the weight of the rack plus whatever is going on it.

 

[Minxy]

Hi Merrievale, welcome to the fun house!

I love the description of your van as a 'can conversion'!

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[trophychap]

Has anyone noticed when this thread was started?? It was 2016 thread starter may not even own the van anymore!

 

[Minxy]

Has anyone noticed when this thread was started?? It was 2016 thread starter may not even own the van anymore!

Yup I noticed but sometimes the original owner is still around even if they don't own the vehicle anymore.

 

[TheMachMan]

I have a similar dilemma. Ours has factory fitted awning which looks like it’s been bonded on. But need a roof rack for kayaks.

 

[TheMachMan]

Thread bump. is it possible to have a the sun shade removed easily if it’s been bonded on?

 

[Itsmcb]

Thread bump. is it possible to have a the sun shade removed easily if it’s been bonded on?

If it's a Fiamma type they are fixed to normally three brackets with just a few screws so will come off easily, the brackets (which are quite small) are bonded or bolted to the roof so not so easy to remove.

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[TheMachMan]

Mine are bonded, so not sure whether it’s even possible?

 

[Minxy]

I have a similar dilemma. Ours has factory fitted awning which looks like it’s been bonded on. But need a roof rack for kayaks.

If its the usual type of awning that is fitted to the 'top' edge of the van then it is held on only in 2/3 places (depends on awning length as to how many brackets). These brackets are first stuck and clamped to the lugs on the top of the van and then the awning is sat on them and bolted securely.

I've moved a Fiamma awning from one van to another and the hardest part was removing the clamps due to their being stuck (see below) but it can be done, just be careful not to scrape the paint off where the clamps are stuck down otherwise you'll need to touch it up (better to get a tin of matching spray paint anyway as you'll likely need it no matter how careful you are!).