The present invention refers to a roof rack having lowered supporting elements, which can be attached to the existing roof rack fixing points on a vehicle.

Transverse supporting elements of roof racks existing today, so-called load bars are positioned about 15 cm above the car roof, which is an unnecessarily large distance with increased loading height and not so good driving characteristics as a consequence. Since the load bars offered on the market are completely straight, there is no natural stop to secure the load laterally. The large distance between the load bars and the roof means that many, who have a roof box on their car, cannot use their garage or carport, since the car with the roof box on will be too high. In most cases it is a matter of just a few centimetres and if you got rid of these by a reduced distance between the load bars and the car roof this problem would be solved. To reduce the height and the air resistance of the roof boxes of today, the normal method is to "cut out" a space for the load bars. In this case the boxes become thinner, which leads to a loss of significant cargo volume. If, instead solving the problem by placing the load bars closer to the car roof, you would get more volume in the box and still maintain a low loading height. This would also move the centre of gravity down with improved driving characteristics as a result. You would also get a more homogeneous streamlined look. This applies to all types of cargo that are placed on the load bars.

The advantages of a reduced distance between the load bars or the supporting elements and the car roof are: a lower fuel consumption, lesser air resistance, load weight comes down, it will be easier to load and secure the cargo laterally as there are natural loading rills or load stops, improved road holding, lower height of the vehicle which make it possible to park the car in a garage with normal height with a roof box on, roof boxes do not lose cargo volume, as they tend to do today when the load bars are built into the box, and a sportier design - the entire vehicle unit gets a more stream-lined look, which matches today's cars better.

Technical solutions exist today to get the roof bars closer to the car roof, but they are almost completely useless because you have to rebuild the vehicle's roof rails and obtain customized fasteners, so-called carrier feet. This is an expensive, complicated, and for the market unattractive solution. Common for these existing solutions are that the load bars or supporting elements are substantially straight between their outer ends. One object of the present invention is to provide a roof rack, which, in an excellent way, overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art known at the same time as the roof rack is cheap and easy to manufacture. The characterized features of the invention are stated in the appended patent claims.

The invention also solves the problem with sliding load, since the lowered roof bars or supporting elements provide a natural load stop, which secures the cargo in lateral direction. The roof rack according to the invention is suitable to most attachment means that are available on today's market, so no modifications are needed. In most previously known technical solutions one tries to get the load surface closer to the car roof by changing or bringing down the roof rails and fasteners while maintaining straight lateral supporting elements. If, instead the supporting elements have a lowered section accomplished by lowering parts, the height on the sides is maintained so you can retain the original car roof rails and fasteners, allowing the roof rack of the invention to fit all cars directly, without causing any damage to the vehicle. The angles that occur on the roof rack of the invention also provide natural load stops.

The invention is described closer below with help of two preferred embodiment examples with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a schematic front view of a roof rack according to a first embodiment example of the invention having a lowered supporting element or load bar,

Fig. 2 shows a schematic side view of a solution for a roof box previously known, which has less loading capacity as a consequence,

Fig. 3 shows a schematic front view of a roof rack according to a second embodiment example of the invention with lowered supporting elements, adjustable in width and height, and

Fig. 4 shows one of the more well known roof racks on the market with its load bars.

As shown in detail in fig. 1 and 3 a roof rack 6 may get the load surface 3 closer to a roof 7 of a vehicle by integrating lowering parts 1 in transverse supporting elements 2, unlike what previously may have been made, as shown in fig. 2, to reduce the height and the air resistance of a roof box 12, namely to make a cut-out 13 for the supporting elements 2. The lowering parts 1 can be achieved by using angular portions 4, 4', which can be created by bending and welding. This allows the two ends 10 of the supporting elements 2 to retain their original design and attachment means or rack mounts 5 already on the vehicle or available on the market, can be used. As the angular portions 4, 4' are integrated parts of the load bars or supporting elements 2, a natural stop is obtained to secure a load 8 laterally, e.g. a roof box 9 or a ladder, said stops is normally an accessory to now existing straight load bars or supporting elements 20 as can be seen in fig. 4, said supporting elements 20 when mounted on the car are situated at a great distance 19 from the vehicle roof 7.

In order to obtain a maximum load area 3 between the lowering parts 1 on the supporting elements 2 the length of the supporting elements 2 can, as shown in a second embodiment of the invention in fig. 3, be adjusted in relation to the width of a vehicle roof 7 by telescopically sliding adjustment parts 14. A maximum floor or load area 3 between the lowering parts 1 occurs. The length of the lowering parts 1 can also be telescopically adjusted to regulate the height by help of adjusting parts 15 for achieving the desired lowering of the supporting elements 2 depending on the construction of the rack mounts 5 and the design of the vehicle roof 7 in question. The telescopic structure of the adjusting parts 14 and 15 comprises a smaller tube 21, which runs into the tube the supporting element 2 consists of, to which the tube 21 can be steadily mounted to one of its parts or looked by a threaded sleeve. To lock the adjustment parts 14 and 15 of the lowering parts 1 in a position that fixes the support elements 2 at a minimum distance 11 from the roof 7 of the vehicle a lock pin or other locking device that reduces the size of the enclosing material in order to achieve a clamping function can be used. The lowering parts 1 and the supporting elements 2 can after mutual adjustment and locking by preferably locking-screws bolted through the longitudinal direction of the supporting elements 2, obtain a fixed length adapted to different widths of vehicle roof 7 and appropriate distance 11 between roof racks and the roof 7. The ends 10 of the supporting elements 2 can be adjusted by sliding and be fixed relative to the fastening points 16 at the rack mounts 5. The ends 10 are also adjustable by sliding at a selectable distance 18 in openings of the rack mounts 5 and can be locked in this position by an adjustment of the width of the roof rack 6. Alternatively the ends 10 of the supporting elements 2 can, by their locking in the rack mounts 5 be enclosed by their material 17. The elongated supporting elements 2 may further have location-oriented underlying grooves, to be locked in the fastening points 16 of the rack mounts 5 after that the supporting elements 2 have been adjusted to the actual width of the vehicle roof 7. The adjustment of the lowering parts 1 to the distance 11 between the roof 7 and the supporting elements 2 may cause that various large or high rack mounts 5 must be used to suit the specific design of the actual vehicle roof 7. Finally, the elongated transverse supporting elements 2, in which the telescoping adjustment parts 14 run, can be clothed with plastic/rubber to provide a protection against dirt and give the supporting elements 2 a more uniform appearance.