Dagney mentioned roof racks in her Lifepod post. I pass a lot of them on the road, and most of them don't look very useful. They look like they could hold a couple of suitcases, but not much more. And it appears that the cargo sits directly on the roof of the vehicle and the rack is nothing more than a fence that you could attach a strap to. I would think that this would limit their usefulness.

Are there some decent, sturdy racks out there, maybe with their own metal mesh rack affixed to the frame that would hold a useful amount of weight?

Any good tips on types or brands?

The best of the best is Thule. Been there done that. I have one of their soft luggage cases that I have had for 5 years. It gets regular use and not one bit of trouble yet.

Thule..i put one on my car and it hauls everything from my canoe to the Xmas tree.it stays on year round-

Roof racks on cars are great. They secure things outside the vehicle so they don't become flying missiles if you ever get into a crash. Much safer than putting unsecured luggage on your back seat.

On SUVs and Trucks though, I was always a little leery of roof mounted cargo carriers. SUVs already tend to have a pretty high center of gravity. I don't really want to be putting a lot of weight up high unless I absolutely have to. For those vehicle, I prefer the cargo carriers that secure to the hitch, low on the vehicle.

One thing to keep in mind is the GVWR/GCWR your vehicle is rated for. Most passenger cars and even a lot of unibody SUVs aren't rated to carry very much weight. A full load of passengers alone can actually put some vehicles overweight before you even start adding stuff in the trunk or on the roof. One must ensure that they are not overloading their vehicle, both for legal and for safety reasons.

For example, my Envoy is rated for a 6,000lb GVWR. The truck itself weighs 4900lbs as it sits. That means, I can't exceed 1,100lbs between passengers, cargo, and the weight on the trailer hitch.

That may sound like a lot, but if I have five passengers at 180lbs a piece, I'm already carrying 900lbs. That only leaves me 200lbs that I can divide between the trunk area, a roof mounted cargo carrier, and a hitch mounted cargo carrier or trailer tongue weight.

That's not a lot at all and we're talking about a vehicle that is built on a truck chassis with the heaviest duty components offered for a vehicle of that size. A car is going to be significantly less.

I have found that the weight distribution and mounting points on most roof racks pretty much make it useful for carrying your lunch. I do know the purpose-built ones are great, like the ones mentioned above. If you look at the load rating on most of them they are pretty conservative. Back in 1986 I took the biggest carrier Sears offered, approx 6'x3'x15", and actually bolted it to the roof of my Aerostar. I used nine 1/2" or 5/8" bolts with 2" washers sandwiching the sheet metal. I didn't trust the screws that came with the carrier. That allowed me to load it up well beyond the 75 lbs the manufacturer recommended. I did this for my move to Alaska when I was in the Air Force. I needed baby supplies, a place for the rifles, dog food and sundry other items. Later I used the bolts to mount a dual antenna rack for a CB. Well I've taken up too much of your time. I'll stop.

Unfortunately for those of us that venture off-road the hitch mounted carriers are usually a non-starter. They knock your departure angle down to something similar to my wife's minivan.

I've seen folks chain them to trees and leave them in camp but securing anything on them remains problematic. A truck box bolted to one of the hitch mounted carriers is about as secure a solution as I have seen.

I believe a few companies also make models that are mounted up higher on the vehicle (roughly between a regular hitch mounted rack and a roof mounted rack in height) to increase departure angle, while still not being as top-heavy as a roof-mounted rack. Instead of having a big box to deal with right at hitch level, it's only a square steel bar. It's probably the equivalent of leaving a hitch mounted winch on.

I will say I haven't needed to secure very much outside my vehicle since 1995 when we bought a 2500 Suburban. If the Envoy can't carry it, the Suburban usually can, with room to spare. That thing is great.

I have a Yakima Loadwarrior roof basket that sits on the Honda roof rack (Thule or Yakima would be better choices for the rack).

Also have a Yakima bag designed to fit in that space. Have mostly used it for bulky lightweight items, such as sleeping bags.

There is another consideration: others who have measured mpg carefully find that on the Element, the empty Loadwarrior basket will cost gas as it reduces mileage by 2 mpg.

The Loadwarrior is popular with Element owners because it's among the, if not the, lightest roof basket.

A roof rack is useful for bulky, light stuff - sleeping bags, etc.
Pack them in waterproof bags and strap a tarp over that.

Roof racks a love hate thing for me. I Installed a Thule MOAB on our Tuscan. Wind noise has gone up just a hair... but with the average factory stereo, it will easily overpower the little noise it adds. IT does make the car top heavy. But for a family in a entry level SUV, it makes camping ALOT EASIER, and for the average family camper I think they are perfect. For fathers day I was able to place 6 Wiggys bags, 1 sping bar family camper 7 tent (poles and stakes were in the vehicle, it was just the canvas up there... the middle greenish bag in the photos below), 3 camp matress, Coleman 2 burner stove, A Coleman 8-D cell and a northstar propane lanterns, 30" bowsaw, A handpump for the mataress, Spring bar footprint ground cloth canvas thing, a pair of welcome mats to "wipe yer feet" before getting in the tent, GSI Basecamper large cookware set with GSI 10" skillet, 14cup perculator, and a few other little things all up in the MOAB. I had to weigh each bag prior to loading. The factory bars are rated to 165lbs. The rack weights 28, I had 152 lbs including the rack and hardware up there prior to heading out.

But having this stuff up there made for a deal of room in the vehicle for a 5gallon bucket for girl potty time, the cooler, 2 5gallon USGI water cans, food, and other things the girls brought. Without this rack I would have had to follow in my car.

The hate part.... When on, even when empty, you lose 2-3 MPG. When it rains, you better have planned waterproofing before. If it is raining and you have to pack you are screwed... had to load as much into the car as I could, drive home, off load the family, off load the equipment into the garage, drive back up there, tear down the rest of camp and head home... WET. Fathers day camp out was cut short almost 24 hours due to a down pour. After the first 5 hours, the girls wanted out of the wilderness. Hence I found out how bad this sucks to do when raining cats and dogs.

If going the route of a rack, I recommend the elastic spider web net retianer deal. Plus a few packs of bungees from Walmart. Also be sure to get the locks for the basket and bars if needed. Overall I like the rack. More so that Backcountry.com had it for $150 less than anywhere I could find... PLUS they shipped from the warehouse to their store for free, then let me pick it up, they have a customer for life. Due to the size of the box, UPS wanted a $99 freight charge for resident delivery.

I am about to pick up a FJ and will be equipping it with a bajarack that is rated to 300 lbs for SHTF, roof tent possibilites, and just because. The rack for the FJ rack is reviewed here: http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/forums/ba...ack-review.html

As for our current...


and loaded pretty well.

> And it appears that the cargo sits directly on the roof of the vehicle

Let me talk about that. I had a roof-top carrier that did indeed sit directly on the roof of my car. I recommend against that. It collects water when it rains, which seeps up into the carrier, and it abrades the roof something awful.

My understanding of a roof rack is that it us supported on structural components of the chassis and does not rest on the roof. There may be rails, or the rack may attach too and rest on the gutters, but the load is not supported on the roof itself. The metal (or whatever car roofs are made of these days) is not intended to support heavy loads. (I used my carrier for sleeping bags (how I found out water seeps up into the carrier) and for dirty laundry (yeah, I found out about seepage that way, too, but I didn't sleep in my dirty laundry).)

> Are there some decent, sturdy racks out there, maybe with their own metal
> mesh rack affixed to the frame that would hold a useful amount of weight?

That's what I would look for - a rack or support system that attaches to the frame and which has a basket for the load that keeps the load on the structural parts of the vehicle. "Useful amount of weight" is in the eye of the beholder. I have seen several cars along the side of the road on the way to Burning Man which had tipped over and spilled the contents of their roof rack into the bar ditch. I suspect a combination of speed and swerving to miss a cow or rabbit. Heavy loads on the roof definitely cause stability problems. You may not want a useful amount of weight on top of some vehicles that are reported to be tippy. Be very careful.

I have quite a few roof racks for my vehicles, and like anything else, there are different racks for different purposes, it really depends on what you're carrying and how much you're want to spend.

What you are probably seeing on the road are just factory roof racks which are just like you said, basically a fence to keep the stuff on the roof and give you a place to strap things to. IMO, they're useful for a quick trip to Home depot or to strap something on short term, but more for looks than utility.

Then there are the cargo baskets by Thule, Yakima, and many other which use the factory roof rails. I keep a small yakima basket on my daily driver because it's relatively unobtrusive and I rarely have a need for it, but I like it there just in case. Most of the time I'll use it for stuff that's large and bulky, or if I'm transporting things I don't want in my car (i.e. leaky trash bags, fuel, or other smelly items, etc). It's small enough that I don't notice any drop in fuel economy or stability issues, but since it uses the factory rails it is only as strong as the factory rack.

A couple of examples of a cargo basket

Yakima Basket
Rola Basket
Thule Basket

At the upper end are the heavy duty roof racks that you'll see on a lot of off road vehicles. INTI makes a really good roof rack of this style, or the (now discontinued) Con Ferr is probably the most common I've seen. These racks are very large and heavy (75lb-100lbs or more), putting them on is at least a two person job. These racks will hold anything you can put on top of it, including a couple of guys standing on it while loading. I rarely use mine because you can really feel the weight up there while driving, your gas mileage drops by quite a bit, and personally I just don't like having that much stuff on the roof. But when I need to carry a lot of stuff over long distances, that's the rack I use. I have exceeded the factory weight limit many times, though I think that's more of a legal disclaimer than actual rating. A vehicles roof should be able to support the entire weight of the car if loaded properly, but the stability while driving will suffer even with a minor load up there.

Examples of a heavy duty roof rack
INTI roof rack
Con-Ferr roof rack

One reason I do not like to use roof racks is there is really no way to secure anything up there short of having a cargo box, and even then those boxes aren't that secure. Plus you really have to be careful about low overhangs and parking. structures. I only use it if I'm absolutely crammed full inside the car, and only then I'll try and put the bulky, non-important items up there.

I prefer my receiver hitch-mounted cargo rack to putting a roof rack on my Jeep. My Jeep spends a lot of time offroad where I don't want anything on top of it. I guess if I spent more time on pavement than offroad that wouldn't be such an issue, and I'd be okay with a roof rack so long as everything was securely sealed for protection from getting wet.

I dont know, I kinda like having my roof rack. I dont have any pictures of it loaded down, but when I need the extra room that a Jeep does not afford, it comes in handy. I have put as others have said more bulky stuff up there. It can hold a few hundred pounds of extra gear. Yes it makes it top heavy but if you know that going into the trip, then you know not to take corners like you are in a sports car. All in all it is a handy tool for extra tools.
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I use a Rola rack that's mounted to the existing rails on my Subaru Outback, leave it on all the time as it's a bit of a pain to take on and off and even more of a pain to store it.

It affects my gas mileage a bit but I can live with that.

Very useful as it allows me to shift stuff from the back of the car to the roof when I have passengers, I've also got some very bright back up lights mounted onto it. I've made myself a dual 5 gallon gas can carrier and a full sized spare tire carrier that attach to it that are used when needed as well.

I keep a bag of bungie straps and ratchet straps in the car all the time for attaching things to the rack.

I've thought about getting one of the hitch receiver type of trays but I don't really want to have a hitch on the car. The Subaru's main issue with offroading is it's approach angles, a hitch would make that even worse plus I have to have access to the cargo area in the back all the time and the hitch type of tray would interfere with that.