cmarshack

I have never seen it in person, but it looks like a great system as well. The good thing is it looks like it has a built in riser which should keep the exhaust from blowing directly on the rack-causing the type of damage that I spoke about above.

Give it a try and let us all know!

cmarshack

Not to highjack my own thread but this is the set-up I used over the holidays. I brought my mountain bike with me so the hitch mouted rack was out of the question.

I bought a Thule Evolution 2100. 21cubic feet of storage==plenty of room!

The only major issue is our crappy factory racks. They are supposed to be able to hold up to 150lbs, but with the Thule rack completly empty (40lbs) the whole thing was bouncing around like mad. There is just too much flex in our factory cross bars.

I loaded it up any way and then used two sets of load straps (not in the photos) to sinch it down to the more rigid racks that run fore and aft. This solved the bouncing problem and gave me a little extra piece of mind that not only would the rack not fly off the car, but now there would be no way for the box to fly open as well.

Salvator

Hmmm... Interesting... I have the Thule 16 box (IIRC) and don't remember experiencing any bounce... I made the sure the latches that attach it to the crossbars were good and tight, but other than that, no other precautions seemed to be needed... The 21 box must be wider and /or taller than the 16... maybe this had something to do with it...

cmarshack

Did you center it in the middle of the rack, or have in toward one side or the other? I have noticed that many people have thier boxes to one side or the other to make loading easier. If it were on the side, as opposed to the middle then I am sure that it would not bounce as much. There is a lot of flex in the center of our factory racks.

Also, the 21 is longer which causes more overhang on both the front and back...this can also lead to the bouncing that I am getting with the 21.

Salvator

I had it centered... It would have made more sense to pull it to one side or the other, but I can't stand to have things look unbalanced like that... I'm picky that way... Assuming it is longer, that would probably mean alot as well... also, I put mostly lightweight stuff up there... the heaviest item was a childs playpen... maybe 20 pounds?

Most recently, I had six people inside, and needed to be able to carry purchases, so I created a temporary version of the Rola or Swing Away (although it didn't swing)... I have one of those trays that attach to the hitch mount, and bungee-corded one of those big white boat coolers onto it... The cooler kept my purchases out of the weather and still relatively eaily accessible (but not lockable)... Worked well for what I needed it for!

pump142

I just dont want to have something tied to my roof, but thats just me.
Roof warts are harder to load than bumper warts. I also an going to be traveling in some windy canyons and dont want the increased vehicle profile that a roof wart produces.