Rooftop Car Carrier?

[FairyGodmotherJen]

We're driving to WDW from Indiana in less than a month. With the five of us and all our stuff it's a pretty tight squeeze, so I was looking at rooftop car carriers. DH has a few concerns, though. None of the threads I found when I searched the forum dealt with them, so I thought I'd ask some of you seasoned experts.

- I would prefer a soft carrier, but would need to be sure it was secure. Anyone had any experience with this? We'd be spending the night in Georgia on the way down.

- DH says he won't be able to sleep with our belongings attached to the car. How easy are they to remove and put back up on the vehicle? I don't want to add to our time...we tend to leave late from wherever we are, anyway!

- Anyone have any recent experience with car-top carriers? Now that there are 5 of us, we'll be taking more and more car trips (ticketing five people in order to fly is just too expensive!). Are they worth it?

Thanks in advance!

 

[vicki_c]

We have a hard roof top carrier and have been using it for over 10 years. I questioned the expense at the time, but it's really been a great thing for us. I drove around with it on my car for a month or two once we we moved and didn't have a house to put it in yet!

I prefer the hard carriers myself, mainly for weather reasons. Plus they lock with a key, so theft isn't really an issue - we left our Christmas presents in it for a week at Disney so our kids wouldn't see them before Christmas. It is rather a chore to get it on the roof though - we would never try to take it off and back on anywhere - it just stays on the car the whole time we are traveling. Maybe the soft ones are easy to put on and off. I'd guess it takes my DH at least 30 minutes to get it on the car the way he wants it to be (we have roof rails - it actually screws into the roof rails).

It's definitely worth it for us -- we are only a family of 4, but we needed it because our dog takes up the entire back of our van when we travel anywhere with her.

 

[TinkIthink]

Hi, I am new to the board, and we are doing our first family disney trip in September with 4 year old twins, one very special needs. More about our trip later.

Roof top carriers: I have used a hard top and a soft top. My preference is the hard top. 2 reasons. 1) It is pretty weather proof. 2) It has a key lock.

Now, a very industrious person can pop the keylock if they want too (or a very PO mom who has got the van with car carrier stuck in a parking garage...a story for another day)

I would go with the hard top, a little more pricey, but good resell on Craig's List, just take it from me and stay out of parking garages.

 

[roadtrippin2wdw]

We are a family of 5 and have used our soft carrier for the past two years. We put 2 big suitcases, a stroller and something else (I can't remember.) We arrive in Orlando a day early of our Disney stays and always pull the stuff out and fold up the carrier and lock it up in the car overnight. It doesn't really take long to hook back up...15 minutes. When not in use it folds up and goes back into the box and out of the way! Very handy and pretty inexpensive, ours is a Samsonite. Have a great trip!

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

Thanks for the information...we're still on the fence, but I'd like to do it. Last night I also looked at the ones that almost look like a backpack on the back of your vehicle - they say it causes less drag, and I wondered if it'd be easier than him trying to get it off the top of the car at night.... Lots to think about!

 

[Pembo]

We used a soft top for our trip to Disney. We needed it for the stroller and pack-n-play. I suggest you wrap your items in garbage bags before you put them in a soft top carrier. We got into a nasty rain on our drive down and I'm very glad we had used the trash bags.

We took it off the car at night (threw it in the back of the van) and put it back up in the morning...very easy to do. Just do some trial runs at home. Once at Disney, we just left it in the car.

 

[heatherwillmom]

We have had a soft top car carrier for 10 years & we love it. We've never had a problem with weather problems. When we got ours, it came with instructions that said to put the zipper area to the back so that rain couldn't get in. It is a 12 hour drive to WDW for us. We have been caught in the rain before without a problem. We actually tried something that has helped. We put beach towels around the edges to even out the load & soak up any rain. We would be taking the towels anyway. Although we have never had anything stolen, we have never left it over-night at a hotel. We have, however, left it loaded all day once we reach WDW. We usually get there early morning, before we can go to our rooms. We go on to a park, leaving our SUV loaded. My husband says it takes a taller man like him to be able to get into it easy. Maybe we are just trusting but we've never had a problem. After we get everything out, it just folds up & we put it the cargo area of the SUV.

 

[chartle]

Do you have a trailer receiver hitch?

If you do you can get a shelf that goes into the hitch and it will give you a ton of extra room.

Benefits are that its less drag and its easy just to unload the stuff and put it in your hotel room over night.

You can get soft side type bags for them also.

 

[heatherwillmom]

My niece has one of the trailer hitch carriers with the soft sided holders. they have had good luck with that.

 

[beccab]

We too had a roof-top carrier. It was a hard one (but I've also used a soft one). We got a lot of use from it. We used it for camping, moving and transporting stuff when DD went off to college. It served us well. We never took it off for the duration of a trip. It did lock but it wouldn't take much to pry the lock off. That being said when we traveled to Pittsburgh for DD college (not the nicest area) we never had a problem. However, it was a monster to store.

 

[skiingfast]

FWIW, I know only a few people who use them and a couple who have had the contents stolen. Both times they were camping stopped in a city for the night and next morning their gear was gone.

It's also the worst thing I can think of to do to your car regarding milage.

You might reconsider what you are bringing and if it really is nessacary and will be used. Worse case you may have to do a couple loads of laundry mid trip.

 

[heatherwillmom]

We usually use our carrier for the stuff like strollers or if it's a beach trip, beach chairs,boogie boards. stuff like that. There are times when an extra storage is necessary.

 

[kidd_freeper]

We're travelling to WDW this July from CT and have chosen NOT to use a rooftop carrier. We are six travelling in a Ford Windstar.

We might have borrowed a hard shell carrier from a friend, but our friends will be using it. So our choices were:
a) Buy a soft carrier
b) Buy a hard shell carrier
c) Don't use a rooftop carrier at all.

We chose (c)

Reasons:
1. We will have a condo with a washer/dryer. Four days of summer clothes doesn't take much room.

2. Our gas cost round trip is going to be $400. If we lose 10% gas mileage with a carrier, our gas will cost another $40. I would guess that its higher than 10% though, especially for a soft carrier.

3. The expense of a rooftop carrier, especially the hard shell carriers. We are driving to save money.

4. Most soft carriers are not waterproof, just water resistant. And if not secured right or filled up right will make noise.

5. Our minivan has pretty good storage in back, and because are kids are young enough, their foot room can be used for storage as well.


*** Change of mind: See Post #20 ***

 

[capecoddisneyfamily]

We were on the fence, we finally decided to get one. I have to say it was a GREAT decision, it saved a ton of room. WE packed small bags for each day of travel and small toys and snack inside the van, the rest went up top not to be seen until WDW. Alot of research was done and we got the Sears extreme sport on sale for 250.

 

[mamapajama]

We are looking at a soft one from roofbag.comhttps://roofbag.com/OrderProducts.asp
We are ordering the set of duffel bags that slide into the bag. This way we don't have to load our stuff directly into the carrier. When we stop for th enight, we just remove the 3 duffels and brin gthem into our hotel room. The company swears they carrier is waterproof but I think we will put the duffels into trash bags first, just in case.

Edited to add: I'm being a realist about "paring down" our stuff, LOL. We have a 2 year old so she alone has a lot of accessories. Plus we are bringing the stroller and an air mattress for when we get to OKW so my older kids don't have to kill each other in the pull out!

 

[heatherwillmom]

I really agree that there are times when a rooftop carrier is necessary, especially if your children are small. It seems as though the smaller the child, the more stuff they need. We traveled to the beach in a minivan with 2 adults, a 2 y/o & a newborn. We had the back of the van full & still needed the rooftop carrier for strollers, etc

 

[mamapajama]

I really agree that there are times when a rooftop carrier is necessary, especially if your children are small. It seems as though the smaller the child, the more stuff they need. We traveled to the beach in a minivan with 2 adults, a 2 y/o & a newborn. We had the back of the van full & still needed the rooftop carrier for strollers, etc

We have about a foot of space behind the 3rd row in our truck but we need the stroller in the car not on top so that will take up much of that area! I don't want to load up the passenger area and make everyone miserable! So if it costs me an extra $40 in gas, I am ok with that. We are saving a ton of $$$ over flying with 5 tickets, parking at the airport and the 1 day rental for the grocery stock up when we get to OKW.

 

[bear_mom]

We have a hard sided one that we use frequently, in the winter it is used for skis and such in the summer it is used for camping equipment.

Emily

 

[englishteacha]

Mainer here. I think I'm the only person I know without a rooftop carrier! I don't ski! The skiiers/snowboarders all have Thule brand boxes on the roof. Very low profile, but expensive. The Sears ones are often for sale on Craigslist around here...generally the ad says, "Kids are older and we don't need it anymore!" My sister had one for years for trips with her 3 boys. Way cheaper than buying a bigger car! I'd say to get a hard one. You could also drill a couple holes in it and put padlocks on if you wanted, or straps with locks just for extra security. (edit: 3 Sears cargo boxes for sale on Maine Craigslist right now. I'm sure there are some for sale in your area!)

 

[kidd_freeper]

We're travelling to WDW this July from CT and have chosen NOT to use a rooftop carrier. We are six travelling in a Ford Windstar.

We might have borrowed a hard shell carrier from a friend, but our friends will be using it. So our choices were:
a) Buy a soft carrier
b) Buy a hard shell carrier
c) Don't use a rooftop carrier at all.

We chose (c)

Reasons:
1. We will have a condo with a washer/dryer. Four days of summer clothes doesn't take much room.

2. Our gas cost round trip is going to be $400. If we lose 10% gas mileage with a carrier, our gas will cost another $40. I would guess that its higher than 10% though, especially for a soft carrier.

3. The expense of a rooftop carrier, especially the hard shell carriers. We are driving to save money.

4. Most soft carriers are not waterproof, just water resistant. And if not secured right or filled up right will make noise.

5. Our minivan has pretty good storage in back, and because are kids are young enough, their foot room can be used for storage as well.

I changed my mind.
I found a good quality hard shell rooftop luggage carrier through Craigslist for $50. It more than doubles our minivan's storage space. I put it on the roof this past weekend to road test it. No noise whatsoever.

We will take a hit on the mileage, but a previous poster noted that they were saving a ton of money by driving and that another $40 in gas would be worth it for the comfort of the passengers.

Having the carrier will allow the kids to put pillows and blankets in the back when they don't need them.