Question for anyone who might have the OEM cross members for the roof rack. I recently picked up a set and the owners manual specifies that the front rail should be 250 mm from the front of the factory rail to the center of the cross member. It then specifies that the rear bar should be 700 mm from the front bar when measuring center to center. This puts the bars around 27.5 inches apart center to center, which seems pretty standard from my experience.

Now, with that said, it still seems like the bars are fairly far forward on the car and leave a lot of the clubman’s longer roof and rails unused. All of the pictures in my manual also reference the F56, so I guess I want to make sure these measurements are correct for the clubman.

I have also noticed many promotional images from MINI show the bars much further apart, but I assume that is for aesthetic reasons for the press photos. Some examples:

This is how mine are currently:






Here is one of the promo shots, definitely further apart than 27.5 inches and almost lined up with the B and C pillars, which would be way out of spec with the manual:




and yet another promo shot that looks exactly like mine:




The manual very specifically says that the bars must be 700 mm apart. Is there any reason they can’t be spread further, say for a longer box, etc? Are the promo photos placed however it looks best and they don’t follow the manual? Of course I am overthinking all of this, but curious either way. Some bonus pics with box installed:

 

Well thought out post And very nice Clubman you’ve got there. I wear mine as the manual instructs but initially followed the marketing pictures of the white one you included where it was more inline with the B and C pillar and had no issue. Imagine it can bear the weight anywhere on the rails. It would be interesting to see what Thule recommends for their line since it’s not brand/model specific. I’ll try and dig them up.

 

Thanks for the response! Do you happen to have the manual that came with yours? I’m curious to see if the measurements are the same as my copy (250mm to middle of front bar and 700mm from middle to middle for spacing). I noticed your rear bar is still a good bit further back than mine. Great looking MINI btw, loving the green of course.

I also saw a few videos that had different measurements, for example 250mm to the front of the base and not the center, or 706mm between the bars but not center to center. I think with my box I would like the bars back just a few inches further, or at least have the rear bar pushed back a little, I’m hesitant to break with the specs provided by the installation instructions though.

 

Thank you! Green is pretty when it’s clean but doesn’t stay that way long.

I actually don’t. I did a quick look online and didn’t find it but if you need I can ask my Mini advisor tomorrow. I have the mini ski rack, bike racks and roof box. I most recently used the roof box and wanted to distribute the weight.

From what I saw Thule recommends 2” wider spacing on their bars than Mini does. Not sure why.

 

Hi, I have mine according to the manual and I to have always thought that they looked quite far forward.

I have used it for the roof box as well as carrying kayaks and canoes and so far no issues.

 

I ended up adjusting the box forward a bit on the cross bars today instead of messing with the cross bar placement itself. I’m pretty
happy with it and now the load looks like it will be carried more evenly.

I think originally the long flat roof was just messing with me as I felt like things should be further back. Looking at the placement of the cross bars, it seems like they apply the weight to the same area of the car where passenger weight is applied. I’m sure that helps distribute between the axles where it was designed to be. But a lot of bars have a 700mm spacing requirement, so I assume that compatibility with accessories comes into play on that spec.

Well, time to take everything off now that I have it set and ready for the next trip.

 

I am sure you might have thought about, but you can put small stickers in the doorway to mark where the bars go. When I had my F55 the MINI roof rack came with some stickers but the F54 one never did. When looking for some small stickers I came across a load of old apple ones from iPhones etc, the apple stalk made a perfect marker, plus it’s vinyl so should last ok.

 

That’s a great idea. I did something similar with painters tape on the Focus I had before this. Luckily these bars are much easier to install than the clamp to the door frame type.

On a side note, the little air spoiler things under the front bar get partially clamped by my roof box. Doesn’t seem to be a problem but they seem unnecessary.

 

Sorry can’t help you with those as I have the MINI roof box and it uses the channel with the t pieces. After a couple of years those wee things did fall off my R60 rack. Never made any difference to anything I don’t think.

 

I fiddled with the placement for hours. The factory location didn’t seem right to me either. Once I was happy with it (after a couple weeks) I etched tiny marks on the plastic roof rails so I could replicate the placement later. I can measure it in a few days.

I have it setup with a long Thule Ascent 1100 box.

 

Your box looks a little far forward, you don’t find there is a lot of noise? I imagine the Yakima allows you to move it front and back when it’s mounted in the rails? I had mine set like this when we went glamping, it was loaded to the max. I’ll measure the distance between my bars, but they were well positioned under the box to distribute the load.

I needed a wheel alignment as soon as I got home though. Not doing dirt roads like that again…

 

yeah I would like the box to be a little further back, but with the cross bars in the position stated by the manual, I felt like too much of the back of the box was sticking out past the back bar. I figured getting it more centered was better for weight distribution. I see your rear cross bar is a bit further back and they are spaced more than 700mm. That’s how I want to do it but hesitant since the manual says they MUST be spaced 700mm.

 

I measured my set up this morning. The tip of the front rail to the edge of the plastic casing on the front bar is 250mm and from edge to edge of the plastic casing between the bars is 702mm.

 

I made one more change this morning. I moved the front rail back to be 250mm from the front edge of the rail to the front edge of the plastic base like you have yours. The manual says 250mm from front of rail to center of base, but I think this is close enough to that and I have seen MINI videos where they measure rail to base like you have yours. I moved the rear bar back to still be 700mm center to center on the rails, so still maybe a few inches closer than your current setup.

Since so many rack manufacturers use 700mm spacing regardless of the car, I’m thinking that number has less to do with the specific roof and load bearing and more to do with accessories or something. Anyhow, I also adjusted the box on its tracks to move about 2 inches back, so the box is about 4 inches further back overall.

I thought about moving the rear bar back even more than the 700mm center to center, but the rail looks like it starts to slope down a bit more drastically and didn’t want the mess with the box angle too much. I think it’s a nice improvement overall and any further back would start to cover the rear antenna.

 

Okay okay, I swear this is my last adjustment, I do need to work today. Kept the front 250mm from front of rail to front of base, but slid the rear bar to have 700mm between the bars instead of center to center, this added another 2 inches or so of spacing. I used that extra space to slide the box back a bit further.

I think this is still within a reasonable amount of the manual instructions and I have to imagine the rails wouldn’t have the adjustability if they couldn’t handle different positions.

 

I was wondering the same thing - questioning the positioning. I found this retrofit manual over at MiniMania (https://www.minimania.com/pdfile/Roof_Rails.pdf).

Take a look at the parts diagram on the third page of the PDF (page 2). You can see where the mounting bolts are. They look like they're roughly in the 250/700 locations...maybe?

Maybe they want the crossbars to sit between each pair of fasteners for maximum load spread?

 

It looks well balanced, visually and in terms of weight distribution. The rails aren’t rated to hold much so once you factor in the weight of the box, you certainly won’t be loading bricks in there.

The Yakima box has a nice silhouette. The texture and color matches the arches well, and the logo is a nice call back of red. I’m starting to think that wasn’t an accident.

If it helps, I live much closer to my neighbours than you and I’m sure they think I am certifiable by now.

 

Mine are set up with about 842mm (33.15”) between the center of each bar.

The forward edge of the forward tower base is about 334mm (13.15”) from the front of the roof rail.

Hopefully I’ll get my Thule Ascent 1100 mounted in a few weeks for a photo.

 

Factory MINI rack and Thule Ascent 1100 Box