Not exactly tri related, but I know many of us travel for races. I have a third child arriving in October, so we need some extra storage room.
The cargo box is the most convenient. Looking at Thule Force/Motion or Yakima Skybox. Very expensive and difficult to store when not in use, but also easy to attach and load up. The rack/bag option is more time-consuming to load but easy to store when not in use. Also, half the price.
Since we are not doing cross-country trips, anybody have any other advice or pros/cons to either setup?
I have been looking on Facebook marketplace, hoping to find something used. They either sell really fast or are 3+ hours driving.
When we had our 3rd child (18 years ago) we got a Yakima Cargo box (I think similar to the current carbonite 18, maybe 21) with cross rails that fit on the rails of our Honda Odyssey van. It was a perfect solution for us. If you are doing much traveling over the next number of years I highly recommend this type of solution.
I bought a Thule cargo box over 15 years ago and its been one of the best purchases I’ve ever made, and I still use it multiple times a year whenever we go on any trips. I’m amazed at the amount of stuff that can fit in it. I store mine in the garage on top of one of those 4-5 shelf plastic shelving units when we’re not using it. Although it can be moved by one person as they’re light (but bulky), it is MUCH easier if you have an additional set of hands to help you load it. I bought the Thule bars and roof rail mounting system and it has worked on all of our SUVs over the years because I make sure to always have roof rails on all our vehicles I can attach/detach the rails and the box in less than five minutes. I don’t have any experience with the cargo bags, but you can’t go wrong with a cargo box. As you noted, even if you end up not liking it, they have great resale value.
Also of note, I can fit only one bike tray on my Subaru Forester with the cargo box so if you’re going to transport multiple bikes at the same time, you may have to have a hitch rack.
Not exactly tri related, but I know many of us travel for races. I have a third child arriving in October, so we need some extra storage room.
The cargo box is the most convenient. Looking at Thule Force/Motion or Yakima Skybox. Very expensive and difficult to store when not in use, but also easy to attach and load up. The rack/bag option is more time-consuming to load but easy to store when not in use. Also, half the price.
Since we are not doing cross-country trips, anybody have any other advice or pros/cons to either setup?
I have been looking on Facebook marketplace, hoping to find something used. They either sell really fast or are 3+ hours driving.
…convenient, but might not be most comfortable for the kid
We went with box over bag… More secure (lockable, hardcase, etc.). A few too many stories of bag contents getting wet on rainy rides due to insecure packing or soft-covers flapping and blowing off at highway speeds from makeshift tiedowns.
Also, choose what’s best during transport, rather than best for storage when not in use. A box can be stored efficiently w/out taking a lot of space in the garage by mounting a towel bar type thing on a wall. Then attach the box to that in the same way that you would attach it to vehicle cross bars. So it’s vertical, instead of horizontal. In fact, I use an old thule cross bar, but a dowel rod or broomstick could do as well.
I have a bag. Hated it when my wife bought it. The family packs in duffle bags, and I can really pack it well for long trips. I have grown to like it for a lot of the reasons you mentioned. Storage is a huge plus.
We have Sears SportRack or something like that, mounted to standard Yakima round bars. We have the longer version (not the longest) of the yakima bars, so we can fit 3 bikes on the roof with the sport rack box. We also managed to fit a horse water tank on top. Mostly for transporting water to the RV, but also doubles as a portable water fill station and shower.
I recently picked up a nearly brand new Thule Motion off Craigslist. I searched out a Thule over a Yakima Skybox based on how the Thule clamps down on the roof rails. The Thule just seems better designed in my opinion. Immediately took it on a 20 hour rode trip from Oregon to Idaho and back. Worked great.
I have a bag- Yakima Farout Pro. After my first road trip with a jogging stroller and baby stuff i ran out of room quickly in the back of my Prius wagon!
This one is good since I don’t have roof racks. Only Bummer is as was mentioned in another reply- it’s not waterproof. But it fits lot of stuff and folds down for storage.
I got a box, so gotta vote for box! In addition to being waterproof, the box is nice if you need to also pack something more fragile in the box. Say for instance a second set of wheels that don’t fit in the car. You can tie everything down separately within the box and make sure whatever is fragile doesn’t get smooshed.
I have a old spacecase and it’s really nice, I put down carpet on the bottom to limit stuff sliding and that box has been down Baja, across the country and never been a problem. BUT I also have a roof basket which is handy to put stuff up when you need just a bit more room of you bought more than you expected. For example we went rock hounding in NW Nevada and I put the duffel bags up there with rocks in them. Freed up space in the Jeep and I didn’t care if they got wet (they didn’t since this is a high desert).
I do, once a year, wax the case to give it some UV protection since it sits outside.
They are pricy but it will stay with you forever. (I got mine in the 80’s).
I’ve had boxes, both hamburger style and full width ski carrier types, and now I’ve had a bag for the last 5 years (Keeper brand, highly recommend). The boxes are quite a bit easier to load, but for something I use two to three times a year, I much more appretiate the fact I can put the bag away in a cabinet in the garage rather than having to hang a box up over the trainer.
My concern is how often I will use it. Right now I have no idea.
I think this is exactly the question.
We have a box and it is on our car roof from Nov-March for ski’s and then random times during the year. Takes 5 minutes to put it on the roof (or switch between cars) when not in use and holds a ton of stuff - particularly long, awkwardly sized items and as 40-Tude mentions - lockable and secure. We also like it for wet items as we can throw them in there and just ignore it until we get home. We do not have kids, but I can imagine that if you left it on all the time, you could put strollers etc in it and leave them there.
Also have a rack but no bag that we use for other items. Certainly cheaper than a rack/box combo but if we were using with a bag would be more of a pain - loading/straps/water intrusion/etc. If I were only going to use it once or twice a year for extra cargo room, would do this.
In the end, while the box is longer, you still have to store the rack and it will take up more space than you might think.
And then made something similar myself (not as fancy, of course but still workable). It lets me store it in the ceiling of my garage so it’s well out of the way. A couple of 2x4s screwed to the joists in the ceiling with some pulleys was enough to get it out of the way. If I put more effort into it then I’d be able to drive the car into the garage and just lower it onto the roof of the car, but that means I’d need to keep the garage cleaned up which isn’t going to happen.
I got a cheap bag from Amazon. It has worked out great. You get far more cubic feet from a cheap bag than you do from any box. I can’t find the one I bought on Amazon, but it looks pretty similar to the Amazon Basics bag. I’ve used it a couple times driving across Texas and New Mexico. Completely waterproof.
… so we can fit 3 bikes on the roof with the sport rack box. .
Do you drive the Jeep with all that stuff up there, or just tow it? I’m needing a similar solution (minus the horse tank) to fit 3 bikes and a Sears box on top of our Toyota minivan, but I’m a bit hesitant to drive with all that up there!
… so we can fit 3 bikes on the roof with the sport rack box. .
Do you drive the Jeep with all that stuff up there, or just tow it? I’m needing a similar solution (minus the horse tank) to fit 3 bikes and a Sears box on top of our Toyota minivan, but I’m a bit hesitant to drive with all that up there!
Yep, we drive it with all that up there, plus water, plus hitch rack. Miles per gallon takes a little hit, and top speed goes from 90+ to about 80mph, but other than that, all fine.
We did finally replace the jeep with a RAM 1500 for a little more water hauling capacity though. That roof rack is currently unused and separated from the Jeep, which was sold to @monty on this forum. Location of roof rack = address at bottom of this website.
Not exactly tri related, but I know many of us travel for races. I have a third child arriving in October, so we need some extra storage room.
The cargo box is the most convenient. Looking at Thule Force/Motion or Yakima Skybox. Very expensive and difficult to store when not in use, but also easy to attach and load up. The rack/bag option is more time-consuming to load but easy to store when not in use. Also, half the price.
Since we are not doing cross-country trips, anybody have any other advice or pros/cons to either setup?
I have been looking on Facebook marketplace, hoping to find something used. They either sell really fast or are 3+ hours driving.
If you are planning on doing a lot of motorway traffic the bag will be destroyed very quickly. We found the high speed impacts degraded the material very quickly.
I can attach/detach the rails and the box in less than five minutes. I don’t have any experience with the cargo bags, but you can’t go wrong with a cargo box. As you noted, even if you end up not liking it, they have great resale value.