Thule Cargo Boxes

Following from the great success of Thule’s towbar mounted bike carriers, the Arcos range combine a towbar mounted platform with a cargo box, giving you lots more room for storage, up to 400 litres more! Comprising of a hard shell and the supporting mounting base, including towbar mount.

The BackSpace range is based around the VeloSpace bike carrier, converting the rack from a pure bicycle carrying system into a multipurpose one, depending on your needs.

By using a towbar mounted system instead of roof luggage you lower the centre of gravity, meaning the car is likely to handle as normal, and you also don’t have to purchase additional roof bars or rails to be able to mount it. Loading and unloading can be considerably easier than a traditional roof box or roof bag purely as it’s located just below waist height, rather than on top and in the middle of the roof, which can be increasingly difficult for taller SUV’s and campervans.

What are the benefits of a cargo box?

If you can free up room in the boot and in the cabin of your vehicle, you can either choose to carry more, or have more room for passengers to be comfortable. A cargo box system proves very useful in safely storing your belongings in a hard shell case at the rear of the vehicle, this can be tilted for access of most car boots, and can quickly be removed should you need to access the rear of a campervan or for ease when you have reached your destination.

Due to the design, most people will find that roof luggage can cause lots of additional wind noise as you’re increasing the surface area of the vehicle from the front, giving the wind rushing over the car more gaps to whistle through. A cargo box system sits directly behind the car, minimising wind noise and drag, which will contribute to lower fuel consumption too.

What do I need to mount a cargo system?

The only accessory you’ll need to be able to mount a cargo box is a suitable towbar (alko ball or swan neck will work fine) and a 13-pin electric connection, lots of vehicles already have towbars fitted, and can be fitted relatively easily if they don’t.

Once you have the towbar and electrical connections fitted, installation takes a matter of seconds to attach and adjust before securing in place. The lockable handle ensures that once it’s fitted, it can only be removed with the key, the cargo box is also lockable for safe storage of your belongings.

Is the BackSpace or Arcos better?

Realistically it will depend on what you require the system to do, if you will ever find yourself needing to carry bicycles, then the VeloCompact and BackSpace combination is a winning one. Being able to swap out the luggage carrying capacity for bikes whenever you want give flexibility that other systems cannot offer. The Arcos is designed purely for cargo, and with a much larger hard-shell construction does allow for more security.