Customers Reviews
2010-08-30
Great carrier and you don't need a roof rack!
We purchased this rooftop carrier for our week long trip to the beach. With two kids we knew it would be difficult to get everything we needed into the trunk of our Oldsmobile Alero. This carrier held the kids' wagon, beach toys, an umbrella stroller, beach umbrella, beach towels, blankets and an AeroBed Sleep Away Inflatable Bed for Kids for our preschooler and a Kidco PeaPod Plus Indoor/Outdoor Travel Bed - Red for the baby. We were able to attach it to our car using the included car clips. The bottom of the carrier is lightly padded and made of a soft material (not the canvas that the rest of the carrier is made of) so we felt no need to purchase an additional roof mat to go underneath it. We simply cleaned the top of the car well. We did not get any scratches.
We drove through some light rain and, as far as I could tell, nothing became wet. I did, however, place anything fabric in trash bags beforehand just in case. We did encounter some noise thanks to the straps which is why I gave the carrier 4 stars instead of 5. The faster we went the louder the noise. Fortunately we were mostly on back roads. Our time on the interstate was brief - maybe 30 minutes. While the noise wasn't the ideal situation we gladly put up with it because it meant we were able to take much more with us.
We stopped several times along the way - what do you expect with two little kids? While we did tighten the carrier each time I don't feel it was really necessary. We were just being cautious. The carrier stayed put beautifully. We didn't notice any wear on the carrier, either, and the umbrella stroller was longer than the carrier and pushed a side out adding extra stress. We would definitely buy this carrier again, especially for the price!
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2010-08-30
Bag flew off the roof w/o roof rack
I purchased this bag after reading a couple reviews that said people had no problem using this bag without a rack. That's exactly what I was looking for, a bag that could be used without a rack. I followed the instructions and put the clips on my car. The clips weren't exactly flush against the car door, but there was nothing on the instructions clarifying how flush they should be. Plus, it didn't feel like they were going anywhere. So, I thought this must be normal. I'd never put anything on the roof of any car before.
I did one test run with the bag strapped to the roof at about 50 mph with no problem. One day later, got on the turnpike and the bag flew off while doing 65mph on the turnpike. By some absoulte miracle, the bag landed in the shoulder and didn't cause an accident or worse. The rooftop bag gods were watching over me that day.
I'm giving this 2 stars instead of zero for a couple reasons. First, strictly speaking as a bag, it seemed like it would work fine if securely attached to a roof rack. Second, I'm willing to admit that maybe I didn't attach the clips properly or maybe they just don't fit my car correctly (Honda Civic). But, if so, the directions certainly weren't very helpful in instructing how to secure correctly w/o a rack.
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2010-08-29
Great car top cargo carrier!
We ordered this cargo carrier just before a 3000 mile trip. We loaded and unloaded 5 times in the last 4 weeks and it was very easy to work with. Stored very small when we emptied it during our trip. It held 5 wheeled carryon suitcases plus a few soft things. We were very pleased. I had read the reviews and we did use safety pins to keep the straps from flapping. It worked well - no noise at all. One thing we were very happy about was the nice padded bottom of the carrier. It protected the car top well. The carrier did not move at all - we have only the vertical bars on our Explorer. It secured easily. We weren't sure about the weather we would be going through so we did use an old plastic shower curtain laid part way on the bottom and then brought up around the front and tucked in on the sides. We figured we would be hitting rain head on so this was the vulnerable area. We did hit one hard storm for a few minutes, nothing was wet inside but when we were going to fold it up there were water droplets on the inside of the top cover of the carrier. It was hard to tell if it was from the rain or if it was condensation. But with the shower curtain in place none of our belongings got wet. We would highly recommend this cargo carrier!
We were surprised that the zipper and pulls weren't heavier duty - but they did not give us any problems.
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2010-08-22
Sturdy
We bought this bag to use with an after-market roof rack on our Honda Fit for a week-long trip in the Rockies. We didn't realize at purchase that the roof rack was, perhaps, not needed. With our roof rack, the load shifted very little. I used seam sealer on all of the seams before our trip. And the bag's dryness was tested again and again as it stored our extra gear while we were camping. The only places that allowed water to seep in were the corners, I think through the zipper and where water was able to puddle on seams.
We ended up with a small wear spot where the bag ended up with friction.
I would buy this bag again. Its black, not green as the picture shows.
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2010-08-21
Nice Roof Bag
This is a very nice roof bag. Just what I needed for the camping trip. It had enough storage for my extra things on my trip. The bottom part of the bag had a built-in foam on it which was nice and the straps are easy to install.
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