# Snowboard racks in the rain



## dave785 (Jan 21, 2016)

So I'm chasing powder and heading up from Los Angeles to mammoth mountain with the gf and a few others this weekend.

It'll be a five hour drive. It'll be snowing when we get there, but the first two-thirds of the drive will be in the rain...

If I put some snowboards on a roof rack (not enclosed) and drive 80mph in the rain for four hours... that would be bad for the snowboards (and the wax) right?

It sounds like a dumb question, how could it not be bad? But then I realize that snowboards are meant to be going through snow for hours and hours at a time... that's their whole purpose... I'm conflicted lol.

Maybe I should cake on some extra wax and then scrape it off when I get there?


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## strycker (Jan 28, 2015)

dave785 said:


> So I'm chasing powder and heading up from Los Angeles to mammoth mountain with the gf and a few others this weekend.
> 
> It'll be a five hour drive. It'll be snowing when we get there, but the first two-thirds of the drive will be in the rain...
> 
> ...



I saw someone post a similar question somewhere and things to consider are road rash and the salts and chemicals on the roadways that get sprayed onto the board. I think the wax idea (heavy one and leave it, clean off when arrive) sounds like a good one. I know around here on the east coast, they put down all kinds of wet chemicals and salts to prevent freezing. If it's raining and you're following cars with spray from the road, you probably want to get that stuff off as soon as you arrive.


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## dave785 (Jan 21, 2016)

Good point I hadn't thought about that.

Other option is to fold down a back seat and put the boards there but that means making one of the passengers take the tiny middle seat for a five hour drive


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## f00bar (Mar 6, 2014)

Also depends on the car. A mini is going to have a lot more issues than an SUV as far as road grime is concerned. Wax will help, but make sure get the side of the edges. 

Way back in the 80s they used to sell this stuff that smelled and looked like clear nail polish. But it came in something like the blotters the old people use for Bingo. Basically would run it over the edges and it'd dry. By the end of the first run it'd be all gone.


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## AgingPunk (Feb 18, 2014)

strycker said:


> I saw someone post a similar question somewhere and things to consider are road rash and the salts and chemicals on the roadways that get sprayed onto the board.
> 
> If it's raining and you're following cars with spray from the road, you probably want to get that stuff off as soon as you arrive.


saran wrap yo

seriously, it would probably work well

what's the worst that could happen?


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## freshy (Nov 18, 2009)

I drove with open air racks for yeas on a VW Golf, aside from a little dirt/road grime there is not too much to worry about. I was not too stoked about having that dirt on my base but performance wise it was negligible. That said I had a brand new setup during that time and I wanted to baby it so I got a thin board bag and that worked great for keeping the dirt off and being thin enough to still stack 2 boards base to base in bags and still close.


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## Tatanka Head (Jan 13, 2014)

I've done the thin bag before. It works, you next need to make sure that it is way longer than your board (ex. bag is a 175 and board is 165) to allow a bit of slack when closing the rack. I haven't tried the saran wrap. Could work if it is tight enough, or fly off somewhere outside of Temecula. The extra wax be good if you wax your own boards, but I wouldn't take them to a shop to do it just for the trip.

Really though, just bring a small towel and wipe them down when you get up there. If your boards are base to base then you will be fine. If they aren't, you'll be fine. 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk


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