Roofrack Travel Pack??

[Tamazon19]

Has anyone had any experience with the canvas type rooftop travel packs? The ones that look like a backpack for you car and tie onto the roof rack?

 

[Mishetta]

I was hoping for an answer on your thread too since I'd be interested in one of those for our van! We have so much baby stuff we want to take along that it seems like it would be convenient.

Hopefully someone will have an answer!

 

[RNMOM]

We spent about an hour helping our neighbors put one on in the dark last weekend. They rented an SUV and borrowed the roofpack. It was tough to put on but might work okay. One thing the owner told them to do was wrap the excess straps with duck tape or it drives you nuts. Rick said he was right because he stopped after a short time to do it. They flapping of the straps against the canvas is annoying.

 

[Tamazon19]

Thanks for the tip on the straps. My husband was concerned that it would scratch the roof of the van. We are hauling a lot of baby stuff with us for our DL trip in November. Target has them on sale for $25 and I was wondering if it would work. Thanks.

 

[jamsmom]

My sisiter and BIL used theirs a couple of years ago...went through a HEAVY rain storm and some things got wet. They said they should have put the suitcases inside large garbage bages to be safe. But, they said that had never happened before

 

[Toodles524]

I used one on top of my van several years ago when we moved. I had to have something because there was 2 weeks between the time I had to get out of my house and the time I could leave. Those 2 weeks included Christmas and my dd's birthday. I also had a dog. The thing that I didn't like was trying to get everything up there and then back down. I didn't even try to get it down when we stopped at the hotels. Unloading and then loading it back up was too difficult. I had to crawl up and down myself and my van didn't have an access ladder. I got up on top and had someone hand me everything I was putting in it. I used to think I was tall! But I know better now! It served it's purpose, but I wouldn't use it for vacation and plan on loading and unloading it, unless I had an easy way to get to it. Even if I had a ladder, it's difficult to get everything on top of a van. Oh, and it is a mini van. Hope this helps.

 

[mike80124]

We bought one at target for our trip it was fine to load up and put on our car . While we were driving it got a hole in it and riped open also going thru vegas it was in the 100's and the plastic clips got soft and would not stay cliped together . I took it back to target in vegas went to sears and bought a hard top much better...

 

[AspiringCindy]

We used one last summer on our trip to WDW. Never again! It kept opening, the flaps kept hitting and we had to remove it at night during our stopover.
A funny story though: We were traveling through Georgia trying to make up for lost time when a car pulls up next to us with people waving. It was like a scene from Tommy Boy or Trains, Planes and Automobiles! We started waving back!They were waving at us because the canvass roof pack was wide open and things were flying out. We purposely didn't have valuables in there because of all the problems. We wound up losing 2 packages of diapers and some food! But, we joke about it now!

 

[Mishetta]

Gee, I know this wasn't my thread but after reading all the comments, I doubt I'd get one of these now! Maybe we'll opt for the hard top kind, if we get any at all!

 

[house_of_princesses]

We have a hard top carrier. Sure helps on space! And if secured properly, very difficult to steal off the top. The only thing I don't like about it are the bugs that collect on the outside after driving. For us short people, it is a minor challenge getting in and out, but then you typically don't have to do it frequently anyway.

 

[Carmanp]

We just bought a hard top for our trip to DL in June. It was wonderful. We put our large suitcases up top and packed overnight clothes for our stopover night in a motel. Ours locked. So that way we didn't have to unload everything for one night and reload it the next morning.

I can't imagine how we did it all these years without it. It was a great investment. And will be used again in April for another trip back to DL!

 

[Gette88]

We used one last summer on our trip to WDW. We had no problems with it and DH put it on himself. The straps tapping on the roof sounded like rain. We would of used it again but we traded in our mini-van and now we have a car. Hope our trunk is big enough for our trip in April.