When you are ready to hit the road and travel you want to load and go quickly and conveniently. One popular way to carry gear is with a roof mount carrier. Before you invest in a roof mount system do your homework, there are significant drawbacks.
Roof mount boxes, trays and racks have major issues. The main problems are aerodynamics, installing, loading, storage and cost.
First and foremost all roof mounted systems ruin vehicle aerodynamics, robbing horsepower and gas mileage. On long trips or repeated travels the drag penalty adds up. Independent consumer tests have shown an average of 20 percent mileage loss with roof mount carriers. The aerodynamic penalty can add 20% to your fuel bill.
Mounting gear on your roof makes your vehicle more top heavy and makes it susceptible to cross winds. Have you every been suddenly hit by a gust of wind and had to quickly adjust? It really gets your adrenaline going. Roof mounted boxes act as a sail and catch cross winds, making your drive tricky in windy conditions.
Installing a roof mounted carrier, requires special hardware and lifters, that add up. The big boxes are bulky, cumbersome and require 2 people to lift into place.
Mounting on your roof top is a real nuisance, that requires lifting luggage and gear above your head. Or using a ladder, and carefully lifting and loading everything.
The big hard shell boxes need to be stored between trips. They are long and take up a lot of space in a closet or garage.
Then there is cost. A full roof box system (lifters, cross rails and cargo box) can set you back 0 or more! The price alone makes you think twice.
So after you do your diligence you find: roof mounted boxes are a pain to load, rob mileage, make the vehicle top heavy, create wind drag, need to be stored and will cost a lot. So you ask why do I want a roof mounted carrier?
With that same question in mind new rear mount alternatives have come on the market. They are like a back pack for your car, where they mount out of the wind stream, virtually eliminating aerodynamic drag, with virtually no drag or gas mileage penalty.
They can be loaded on the ground in minutes, quickly mounts directly to the lift gate, without a rack or special hardware or rails. They carry a lot of gear and folds up flat for convenient storage in your trunk.
If you are looking for a solution that is more aerodynamic and easy to use than roof mount carriers look at rear mount cargo carriers.
