Looking into roof racks with a cargo box for various trips in our Mazda CX7. Looks like the factory Mazda rack is the best price ($200), the rack fits into pre-existing attachment points in the roof and the bares are quite aero. Looks like Thule makes some nice cargo boxes but man they aren’t cheap. How do the brands stack up - what to look for? Yakima? Others?
Thanks
I asked on here about a year ago, Thule or Yakima - I didn’t get a ton of responses but everyone who did had a Thule.
We just put our Thule Atlantis 2100 on the van for summer vaca. It’s huge (took a Chariot double running stroller, no problem) but not cheap. We used our once a year REI savings on it.
I got a Yakima SkyBox, the more expensive (+ ~$100) “Pro” model w/ the silver reflective finish vs the plain black (supposedly doesn’t heat up as badly in the sun, but more importantly it looked better w/ my dark blue car). It wasn’t cheap, but I waited until I got one of those periodic 20% off REI promos so basically that covered the “Pro” upgrade. The way I rationalized it is that we only need the extra cargo space for maybe 1 trip out of 100, so the other 99% of the time around town we’re more than offsetting the cost by having a smaller car. Bonus, it fits the factory rack with no tools.
We just got back from a 10-11 day road trip vacation, where the SkyBox is perfect for bulky but fairly light/soft items like sleeping bags, pillows, thermarests, tote bags full of extra shoes & towels, etc. The trade-off is that with the factory rack, it doesn’t fit my bike mounts left from our previous car (nor is there enough room with the cargo box on at the same time anyway), and even if I did get the aftermarket Yak adapters to mount the box+bikes the additional height means it wouldn’t clear my garage door anymore (it just baaaaarely clears as it is now) so I couldn’t just leave it on all the time like I do now.
Thanks for the REI tip. Too bad they still stick you with $60 shipping even if you’re an REI member. Most everything I’ve found on Ebay has “pick up only” so there are no deals to be found. Nothing yet on my local Craigslist but I’ll keep looking.
Check out the Sears X-Cargo. We’ve had one for a couple of years now, and saved a bundle over the Thule or Yakima. If you’re brand-conscious, the Sears logo on it is a sticker that comes off easily. After you do that, only you and your wallet know the difference.
Well I cannot really share any real life experience since we do not have an cargo box. However in the near future we might consider one.
Some of them are definitively not cheap, however keep in mind your investment over the next 10 years+.
Cheers,
Ferd.
I bought a Thule 1600 about 6 years ago and absolutely love it. We use it on almost all our family vacations because the big dog goes in the back of the SUV so there’s no room for luggage. The aero shape of the box is nice … . it makes less noise when the cargo box is on the rack as opposed to when it’s just the rack bars or bars and bike tray only. I store the cargo box in my garage when not in use and I expect to get another 10+ years of use out of it. It still looks brand new.
The one thing I would mention to you if you haven’t pulled the trigger yet is in regards to the factory Mazda rack. When I bought our Toyota Highlander, I placed the cargo box on the standard Toyota “aero-shaped” skinny bars, and the thing rattled around like crazy and made a ton of noise. I ended up buying a Thule foot kit to place my heavy steel Thule bars on the Toyota rails and it works fine now. The factory bars that go across the Mazda may not work well with a cargo box, so be prepared to pay extra and buy the foot kit and bars too. (I’d also add that I’ve seen this same set up on other people’s factory roof racks).
Here’s a link to the foot pack I bought. Also, it takes only about 5 minutes total to put the foot pack, bars and cargo box on the car. Well worth the money in my opinion.
You might look at the soft cargo bags that thule sells.
They are awesome.
Easy to install, and more importantly, you just rool them up and put them away in their own bag when your’re not using them, just like a tent.
We have used ours in raining weather and it worked perfectly.
The price is great too.
They work best storing soft bags of luggage etc. and can hold quite a lot of gear.
I’ve outfitted a CX-7 with everything: Thule, Yakima, factory.
Factory is the cheapest and maybe the cleanest looking. That said, the factory bars are laterally loose (by design, it would seem) and rattle when nothing is attached. Not good for most bike racks, if that means anything.
The Yakima I employed didn’t use the factory mounting holes (things might have changed), but it was otherwise solid as a rock. No complaints. Not cheap.
Thule base rack uses the factory mounting points and is awesome. Very nice. Not cheap.
Whatever you do for a base rack, you can only carry 100-150 lbs on top of the thing, so you don’t need a massive box. I have a Thule Atlantis 1200 and love it. Compared to a ten-year-old Yakima Space Case, the Thule is 25 years more advanced. Not cheap, but it gives my little SUV the capacity of a MUCH bigger vehicle. Note: I hear the latest Yakima stuff is also awesome, but I have no personal experience.
Haven’t pulled any triggers yet. Visited a dealer today, they had 4 sizes of Thule Atlantis and 4 sizes of Thule Ascent to look at. It’s hard to judge the size of these unless you see them in person - I think the Atlantis 1200 model will be plenty big for what we need.
Thanks to BF for the Sears tip, I’m off to look at one there. Which is pretty close to my Mazda dealer, where I’ll check the factory bars for stiffness. Yes they appear to be much more aero with nothing mounted on them than the Thule bars but that’s no good if they are too thin.
Thanks for the REI tip. Too bad they still stick you with $60 shipping even if you’re an REI member. Most everything I’ve found on Ebay has “pick up only” so there are no deals to be found. Nothing yet on my local Craigslist but I’ll keep looking.
Do you not live close enough to an REI to order for their in-store pick-up? I do that a lot as our nearest REI is one of their smallest stores so only stocks a fraction of their on-line inventory, especially extra-large items like roof boxes, kayaks, etc, and off-season stuff.
My closest REI store is 217 miles away. 
As it turns out though my local store that carries Thule is way cheaper anyway - he quoted me $414 for the Atlantis 1200 over $100 less than REI’s price.
I didn’t like how the Sears Xcargo mounted. Also after being at my local store I may go with the Thule mount and bars instead of the Mazda - close to the same price but they look a lot stronger. The Mazda bars are more aero but Iplan on taking them off in between trips anyway since it’s so easy to do.
You’ll need to check with Mazda regarding the limits on the factory mounted racks - the horizontal members in particular. Some of these are quite flimsy and have very low max load weights.