I decided I would need a MINI Cooper roof rack system when Sue Ann and I were planning to take our epic trip out west and I realized that we would need more cargo space than what we had inside of Buster. This meant I needed to store stuff on the roof, which meant I needed the MINI Cooper Roof Rack Railing Carrier or something like it. Even if I didn’t use the MINI Countryman roof box, I still needed the roof rack system.
I talked to several people in the MINI clubs that we belonged to and posted some questions online and what I found interesting is that virtually without exception, regardless of whether they used the MINI Cooper roof box or an aftermarket, a basket, bag, or a rack MINI drivers had on the roof rails, the MINI Cooper roof rack system itself was almost always the actual MINI products.
Yes, some people use the MINI Cooper roof rack system because they bought them with their car, but a surprising number of people bought them aftermarket as I did.
There are two things I have found about accessories made by MINI; they are not cheap, and they work very very well. Heck, even their sunshade I bought for the Countryman was worth the extra money because unlike every other sunshade out there, the MINI one didn’t just kinda fit, it fit exactly perfectly. So I opted to try the MINI Cooper roof rack system.
In true MINI fashion, they not only fit absolutely perfectly but had lots of little details making them really nice to use.
The MINI Cooper roof rack system includes locking covers built right in so once they are attached to your MINI they would be very difficult for a thief to remove.
They use a captive hex bolt to tighten and loosen to attach them to the roof. This makes it easy to tighten and finally torque them to specs. Yes, they include torque specifications to make sure they are tightened exactly right. You don’t want them coming loose while driving down the road, do you?
MINI included a removable and adjustable rubber piece that slides into a groove on top of the bars making sure that the connection between whatever you are mounting to these rails is secure and does not slide around. This also helps keep stuff from vibrating or banging around in the wind. Nice touches are everywhere on the MINI Cooper roof rack system.
I really like the MINI Cooper roof rack system and have used them many times with my roof box (not a MINI roof box) for trips all over the country. For trips where I will be doing drives such as MITO, I get to camp and set up, then remove the box and rails storing them inside the tent vestibule while we are there. Then when it is time to go I put it all back on, MINI Cooper roof rack installation takes me about 15 minutes.
I can’t speak to the quality of this MINI Cooper roof rack system versus the competition, but I can say that I am very happy I bought the MINI Cooper 82-71-2-148-014 Railing Carrier that I did and have never had a single problem out of them, so five of five stars.
I hope you like my review of the MINI Cooper Roof Rack system!
