I traveled to and fro the first tri of the season this past weekend, and with both my wife’s gear and my gear stuffed into our car, we looked like the Beverly Hillbillies.
So I’m looking to purchase a roof rack-mounted luggage box for storing loose items when we travel to races - things like wetsuits, helmets, bike pump and tool box, small bags, maybe a duffel bag or two. It needs to go on the factory rack and be compatible with both my Outback and my wife’s RAV-4. It needs to be easy to mount, remove, access, etc. Simple is important to me.
I checked out Thule’s Web site and see they have many models (and I see enough of their products around that I suppose they make decent quality). Anyone have an experience with Thule or another manufacturer’s products that they’d be willing to share? Any recommendations?
Two in my family has a Thule roff boxes and one of them also has a Thule bike carrier for towbar mounting. Thule are excellent quality, here in Denmark where I live Thule is the most common one, but they are also made in our neighbour country Sweden, so maybe that’s why everyone uses them. Mont Blanc racks are also common here, I think they are same quality as Thule, but I don’t know them.
We considered Thule but went in a very different direction: a soft canvas (water repellant) on top carrier - works great on our Explorer. Best part is that it can be tied down to secure the items inside - no rattling around.
I did all the research a year ago and found that Thule and Yakima were very comparable. We got the Yakima simply due to the local retailer preference. Works great!