451 Roof Rack

Smart 451 Roof Rack

Yep, you read that correctly. Look down, you see that correctly too.

For when you have a sensibly small car and nothing larger but need to carry something bigger than usual.

Fitting The Roof Rack

The photo below shows you what you’ll get.

Take the key, put it in the lock, give it a twist…

…and slide off the end covers. Repeat on all ends.

This reveals the business ends.

We now need to fit the custom brackets. They are labeled on the back.

Use the supplied allen key to remove the long grub screw.

Place the narrow end in…

…and pull the bracket down into position.

Replace the long grub screw…

…paying attention to the rear. Make sure the end of the screw goes through the hole in the bracket.

Fit the rubber protector to the foot…

…and press it in place.

Repeat for all of the other ends.

Also supplied are some 3M sticky backed rubber squares.

Peel off the paper and stick it on the inside of the brackets as shown. These protect your paint.

Place the completed front beam onto the front edge of the roof.

Pull the door rubber down…

…and push the bracket between the Tridion and the rubber door rubber.

The foot should sit more on the metal than the roof.

If you need to adjust the width of the beams to fine tune the fitment, peel back the top rubber insert, loosen the screws, adjust the foot and retighten the screws.

Tighten the grub screw with the supplied Allen key until the foot is held down tightly. Slide the end cover back onto the end of the beam…

…and lock it off.

Repeat for the rear beam and you are done.

The beams have a non slip strip along each beam to help secure anything you strap down to them.

They are rated to 75kg maximum load (165lb whatever they are), which is easily enough for most use cases.

The design is aerodynamic so there is no noticeable noise over the sound of the stereo and there was no noticeable drag so you can leave them on if you want.

Fitting takes less than 10 minutes once you have assembled the kit. Removal takes about 3 minutes plus the time it takes you to find the keys that you put in a safe place.

After fitting onto a dirty car, loading something very heavy on it (you’ll see in a bit), on removal, there was no damage to the paint, no marring, no scratches and no deformation of the rubber seal.

Smart forthree? For the record, I weigh considerably more than 75kg. This was not comfortable.

Give Me Inspiration

You can buy bike racks that connect to roof racks. That’d make it easier to carry some bikes.
You could fit a roof box and increase the storage if you are going camping (like a weirdo).
You could attach advertising boards for your business.
Skis, snow board, your step ladder, your real ladder, door, wardrobe.
Your poorly planned trip to Ikea.

And for slightly more oddball ideas, you could fit spot lights, light bars, recovery flashers or a spare wheel.

Regular Checks

Aleksandr K rightly points out that you should check the tightness of the rack regularly and also visually check the hooked pieces of metal that hold it to the car. Although they are sturdy pieces of metal, it is a Chinese product and people overload roof racks. Continuous pressure or lift on the hooks could deform them, especially if abused, overloaded, badly loaded, over tightened or left on all the time.

OK, Where Do I Buy This And How Much?

Have a look on AliExpress. Click here.