rooftop luggage carriers

[mancub]

does anybody have info on rooftop luggage carriers-good quality good prices

 

[stephenjohnsilver]

Try Sears or you might have a friend who has one?Good luck......sorry it wasn`t that much help

 

[mowsluver]

We bought a hard plastic one, rather alrge, in GREAT condition at Salvation Army for $20. I gave it a good cleaning at it was perfect! We have used it for the past two years and let friends borrow it. So check out the thrift stores in your area!

 

[ErinC]

We got our soft canvas bag type carrier at Target. I think I got it on clearance for $29. It worked fine and when we got to WDW we folded it up and put it in the car. My only complaint is that it made a lot of wind noise going down the road. I've never used a plastic type, they might make noise too, not sure.

 

[8 Ears]

Do not recall $$ but we got ours at Sears as well. You could also try Advance Auto Parts if you have one nearby.

Sorry, not much help with your question either

 

[4fordisney]

We bought one last year before going to visit family. It was softsided and we bought it from K-Mart....about $40 I think. That evening we packed everything into it and had the van gassed up and ready to leave at 5am the next morning. We had to leave the van outside the garage because it wouldn't fit inside with the carrier on top. About 10pm it started hailing....we NEVER get hail...but it started hailing really big balls of hail. We thought "oh well, this will show us how weather-proof it is". When it stopped hailing my dh went out with a flashlight and discovered the hail had beaten the carrier full of holes! He duct-taped them and we traveled with it like that. When we got to our destination we discovered a few wet things. We had to throw it away....didn't really even get one use out of it.

Oh yeah, it did make noise too...but like someone else said, I haven't used a hard carrier so they might too.

We are going to borrow a hard carrier for our May trip. I'm wondering if we'll get hail again?!

 

[RichieGraciemom]

ski and bike stores have them, we bought ours at one and it comes in handy, hard covered .

 

[soccermom5]

my dh went to advanced auto and priced a hard top for 80.00 pretty good price

 

[swilshire]

I had a hard topped carrier for several years until a tree fell on the shed it was stored in and smushed it.

I bought a soft one at the Samsonite outlet for around $50. It turned out to be an excellent solution for us.

When we flew to Denver a couple of years ago, we took the carrier in the box inside a suitcase. The box is maybe 16" x 12" x 4". We went to the rental car company, selected a van with a roof rack, and installed the carrier on top. Lots of space for all our luggage when travelling from place to place. When we landed in a resort for a few days, we just took it off. When we finished our trip, we piled luggage in laps on the trip to the airport because we wanted to wash the carrier (think bugs .... so bad that we even washed the rental van once) and pack it up the day before. Back into the box and suitcase it went.

My husband tugged too hard on one of the straps and broke one of the latches. (Plenty safe with the others. Didn't miss the one.) When we got home, I went back to the store with it to try to buy a new buckle. They insisted on giving me a whole new carrier.

The box got put away with our luggage and we use it anytime we need overflow space. My husband and son have the installation down to about ten minutes.

We've been through many rainstorms with never a leak.

I haven't tried it, but supposedly it can be used even without a roof rack.

Sheila

 

[Southern4sure]

I have a hard top carrier. We use it with our Grand Caravan. It makes no noise whatsoever and holds alot of stuff. We have never had a leak. We went on a 2 week driving vacation once and never had any issues. I cannot comment on the soft carriers (I know nothing about them) but I think you would be happy with a hard top.

Southern4sure

 

[jenr812]

We bought a LARGE hard top carrier about 6 years ago or so from Sears. I think we paid about $150 or so. It works wonderfully. Ours fits a pack n play, golf clubs, luggage, etc. VERY roomy. My SIL bought a soft top one that was supposedly weatherproof - all her stuff got RUINED in the rain (even the things that she thought to put in plastic first). We've never had a problem. There is a little noise (wind getting under the carrier or blowing through the straps. But nothing that interfered with other passengers' sleep or the ability to hear the radio/have a conversation. HTH!


Always be sure the case is closed and locked before going anywhere

 

[momxx5]

Hardtop cargo carrieer from Sears. We got the largest size - large family of 7.

We love it - toss everything up and off we go.

We used to have a soft sided one that was SUPPOSE to be water proof but that was not the case.

 

[becky7953]

We purchased a soft one from walmart (in the automotive section) it was around $35. It works great! When not using it doesn't take up much space in the garage When you use it we always put our luggage in trash bags, it is not waterproof. I love it. When traveling with 2 infants it was great to take on trips.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

We bought a soft one that was supposed to be weatherproof from ebags for about $70. It fell apart, a strap came off of it and it had holes worn into it from some snow and rain while it was parked and that was the first time we used it! And like the other posters said, it makes alot of noise, I definitely would not recommend it, when I buy another one it will be a hard one, it would be worth the money.

 

[momxx5]

While storing the hard cover one can be a pain - we are planning on "hanging" in in the garage.... another great use for them is - to hide stuff from the kids.

During December I was able to shop while the kids were at school and store all the Santa stuff in the top pack

 

[thelittlemermaid]

Question, when using these carriers, hard or soft, do you notice a different in your gas mileage?

On our trip to WDW DH and I saw so many of the hard carriers that we wondering how the gas mileage would be having one on top of our Voyager for our next trip.

We took out the third seat so we could put everything in the back of the van, boy was that a pain!! To find something had to pull everything out cause usually what someone wanted was on the bottom of the pile.

 

[goingquackers]

You defiantly will have a decrease in gas mileage with the rooftop carriers. I have a Pontiac Aztek with a meter that measures your instant miles per gallon.

We loaded up the soft canvas carrier on the roof rack and the mileage was down to 21mpg at 70mph. We stopped about a 1/3 of the way to WDW and stuffed everything in the car and continued on at about 27 mpg the rest of the way. So to answer your question, yes, there is a considerable about of gas lost because of the wind resistance. It is probably worth the extra money for the more aerodynamic hard shell carriers.

 

[Southern4sure]

We didnt see any difference in our gas milage the two weeks of traveling from southern Alabama to Boston. We drive a Grand Caravan with a hard top carrier.

Southern4sure

 

[believe]

Dick's sporting goods had the hard type on clearance for $70.00, plus there was a $10 off coupon. We bought one last week because DH had a $100.00 gift card and I am tired of taking seats out of the van. No help with gas mileage or noise since we haven't used it yet.

 

[WDWorld2003]

We have a Thule and love it - purchased it from Galyan's Sporting Goods. It's a hard case and locks.

I don't think our gas mileage was much different with it. We've been on several trips out west and locally and it has never leaked. I think we paid over $300 for it but it does have great resale value and should last forever. The difficult part was storing it but my husband put in a pully system and it hangs in our garage. We buy a decal from each place we travel with the Thule on and decorate the case - the kids love picking one out. We purchased a larger one than we thought we needed and we're glad we did - it's always full!