Sport Jr

This car top carrier was great! You do not need rails on top of the car to use this, but you do need extra straps and the non-skid roof pad. I drove from Cincinnati, Ohio to Seattle, Washington with this on the roof of my mid-size car, and it did great. It got a lot of abuse along the way. I drove freeway the whole way, so high speeds, there were very intense winds, downpours in the rain and snow on the drive. It came off the top of the car every night to go inside the hotel, which was a bit of a pain but with it to prevent the potential of theft. The bag got a little dirty with all of the weather and bugs hitting it on the drive, but it doesn't have a rip to show for it. A little hosing off took care of the dirt and it looks nearly new. When you get it, put the skid-proof pad on the top of your car. This is necessary. It protects your car and prevents the bag from sliding around. Trim the excess padding. It will drive you crazy within minutes of hitting the freeway if you don't. The pad flaps around in the wind and makes a very loud noise. Just trimming the extra off takes care of that. The straps were not long enough for my car. I stopped at a store and bought extra straps to tighten the bag down. You absolutely need longer straps unless you have a very small car. My car is mid-sized, average. Maybe if you have a Smart Car or Prius or Fiesta you can get away without strap extensions, but otherwise just go ahead and get some. This bag fits a lot. I was worried at first, I didn't think it would fit as much as I needed it to. Once it was loaded up, it fit a ton. It fits more than the roof of my car could take, so I had to rearrange things and put lighter things in the carrier, but it was great. There are only a few rooftop carriers out there for cars without roof racks. Luckily this one is excellent quality, holds a ton, and stands up to weather.

I used this to carry lightweight items on my camping trip to the Grand Canyon last year. Planning and packing for a week stay at the North Rim was no easy task when you are traveling in a small car. I placed this on top of my 2008 Kia Spectra and it worked like a charm. I did purchase the Rightline Gear Non-Skid Roof pad and Master Lock 3060DAT 12 foot straps - probably didn't need it but I was a little paranoid about the clips coming undone- and losing my bag somewhere between California and Nevada. This bag survived an 8 hour drive (each way) to the Canyon. and unfortunately for me it proved it's waterproof abilities when we got caught in a very bad thunderstorm. I arrived home and all my items were perfectly dry. I only used it for one trip but I think it did a great job and I am very happy with it. I recommend buying the Rightline Gear roof pad and cutting it to perfect size (I tried to leave a little room for movement and it made a lot of noise). Also if you use the extra straps like I did make sure you tie them off and then put the loose ends inside the car. I tried to tie and wrap the "extra" onto the bag around the straps and soon the wrapped loose ends just came undone and they started flapping around. Also if you are worried like I was about lifting the weather strip on your car don't be. I easily lifted it placed the hook under it and then covered it back with the weather strip and shut my door. Even during the thunder storm no water leaked into my car. The strip did lose its shape a bit and I was worried about that but after a couple of days it went back to normal.

I used the carrier during my cross-country trip from Washington, DC to Southern California. The Jr. size fit quite well on the roof of my 2003 Acura CL-S (a 2-door coupe) and I was happily surprised at just how much stuff fits into 9 cubic feet. I don't have a roof rack and unfortunately the clips that are supposed to hook onto the door frame didn't fit on my car. Thankfully, my mom had some extra straps from her windsurfing days so we were able to secure the straps through the car instead. I also purchased a car top mat (cut down to just under the carrier's dimensions) which provided something for the bag to grip onto. Between the straps and the mat, the carrier felt very secure and I reached speeds up to 95 mph--aside from some extra noise, there were no issues. As for the contents While leaving DC we encountered snow, in Virginia there was salt and ice, there high winds in Arizona, and then a bit of rain once we got into California--despite all of this, the contents of the carrier stayed clean and dry. The bag itself emerged from the trip relatively unscathed as well--no rips or tears. I've attached a picture of my car after getting through Virginia to illustrate what a mess everything was. Security When filled, the bag itself was too heavy and unwieldy for my mother and I to maneuver (we're both around 5'3) so we put the empty bag on the roof, filled it, zipped it up, velcro-ed it shut, and strapped it down thinking we would have to empty it every night and go through the whole procedure again in the mornings--what a pain, but a necessary evil. However, after driving the whole day, we were just to tired to want to deal with all of that, so we asked the hotels about security and were assured that we would be fine. We tried to park under a light and hoped for the best. We stayed in hotels for 4 nights and had no problems. Cons As other reviewers have stated, the instructions are minimal, but I went to Rightline Gear's website where they have a lot of useful information. I also came across RoofBag's site and they have really helpful illustrated instructions with the correct angles for the straps. My biggest problem was when I tried to contact the company about the clips not fitting on my doors and didn't get a response. The product itself is great, but if I couldn't attach it to my car, it really wouldn't have mattered how great it was--thank goodness we had extra straps. I would have preferred they had a choice of straps rather than automatically bundling the Jr. with the clips.

We purchased this bag on an emergency whim due to us moving from California to Maryland and needing the extra storage space for our Honda Accord - so therefore, we have no roof bars. Despite the instructions we did purchase a mat for the roof, but we took the advice of a previous reviewer and purchased a yoga mat for $10 which worked perfectly folded in half - just to give the roof a little more protection. We also purchased some ratchet straps, again, just to be on the safe side due to the distance we were driving, these only cost us about $25 from a Napa Car Parts store. With the journey we took we got quite accustomed to taking the bag on and off the car every day as we stored the bags for our clothing and for our dog who rode on the back seat - overall it was quite quick to rig up and we used the straps through the car door as the supplied hooks did not fit an Accord. This worked perfectly except for when we were driving through torrential rain; the straps I purchased then acted like a wick and the dog did get dripped on a little! (But only a little!) If waterproof straps are available anywhere this would be a better option. Suffice to say, driving from CA to MD and going through 13 States, we literally went through EVERY type of weather; from blazing sunshine to a snow storm and also through the edges of a major storm where we hit very heavy rain and wind - the bag itself proved itself to be very much waterproof - not a drop got inside the bag and everything remained as dry as a bone! The material it is made from is certainly hard wearing, and very easy to clean (essential considering the front of the bag will end up being a bug board!) I have noticed a few people ask and comment about noise; I found that as long as the straps were tight, the noise was minimal, if they are too loose then they will vibrate and make a noise. I also noticed earlier people comment about the fuel consumption on their car being improved with this bag fitted: this is utter rubbish! There is NO WAY your fuel consumption will improve with this bag fitted and full! The aerodynamics of your car are being massively altered. You will notice (depending on your vehicle and the load within the bag), that the handling of the car will be different at higher speeds and higher wind speed, this you will no doubt easily adjust for as you get used to driving with it fitted. Overall, despite this being an emergency purchase the only thing I can fault it on is the wicking effect of the straps if you feed them through the car and end up driving through torrential rain, but like I said above, if you can get hold of some straps that are waterproof then this won't be an issue.

The carrier itself is quite sturdy and roomy (we put it on top of our Prius and drove it from the midwest to east coast, in the winter, and it both snowed an rained) and kept everything dry. I bought a cheap yoga mat as an anti-slip guard, but it probably would have been fine without it. I suppose that having the yoga mat potentially kept air from getting underneath it and causing road noise, but honestly, the was some weird, vibratory noise coming from what I think is the strap, that fairly drove me crazy until I messed with the shape and straps enough to get it mostly abated. I also considered turning the radio up to drown it out, so depending on where you are and what's on the radio, that may or may not be an option - I can only stand so much talk radio. However, it's hard to believe that thousands of years of evolution could not have resulted in a better strap system and it's clear there was no intelligent design in its creation. There seems to be some debate over whether or not the "clips" are included. Mine did come with clips. BUT, they did not fit the door edge of my Prius and trying to use them almost certainly would have resulted in a broken arrow scenario on the highway, so I had to run the straps through the car itself. This was, in my opinion, needlessly complicated, and I was not able to understand the instructions sufficiently for them to be of any value. Rather than purchase a larger car, I jerry-rigged the straps and will just purchase something more functional before my next trip. Basically, the straps are long enough to go through the car, but only just. In order to get the strap through the ring on the carrier, you have to take it apart (or at least I did), and trying to re-assemble it, and then tighten it up, required a patience I don't possess. I am a college graduate, (top 25% of my class) who can put together puzzles, models, legos, ikea furniture, and complicated childrens' toys and likes to do basic home maintenance projects, including wood and some electrical work. In short, I consider myself to be a standard-issue dad with basic, average American style, problem-solving abilities. "Can we fix it? Yes, we can." I am not, however, an engineer and this strapping thing drove me crazy. So I can recommend the carrier itself, but also recommend buying some sturdy rope or better straps, just in case. Also, the carrier generates a fair amount of road noise and I spent the entire drive compensating for strong cross winds. I've never used one of those surf board looking carriers (the Prius' antenna makes that impractical, I think), but exercise caution when driving of course. Or minimize and don't pack so much stuff.

Got this for a 6 hr road trip and it worked great! Super easy to install - there is a video on Youtube from the manufacturer that I found helpful. Only downside is that it does make for a noisy car ride (wind resistance against the carrier) but we got used to it after a while. We got the smallest version but it held a ton of stuff. It only lightly rained during our trip, so didn't have a real test of water resistance, but the carrier seems very tough. The zippers are enclosed in rubber so I can't imagine water getting through. Very happy with this purchase as it adds so much more storage room for trips in my small car!

This item held: A large garment bag Two medium suitcases Two large lawn bags of clothing and had room for a couple of small items. We drove from New York to Florida over 3 days in pouring rain with no real problems. I secured this with straps through the windows and had no problems on the trip. The carrier stayed in place with no real requirement for adjustments. This is NOT waterproof but weather resistant. We did have some water in the carrier at the end of the trip. If security is a consideration, this is heavy cloth. Even if you lock the zipper, a knife will open it. Overall, this is a very good item for a car without a roof rack. It is stable, has a good capacity and resists weather. I recommend the no slip pad.

This carrier works great, it fit lots of stuff and stayed securely in place on my vehicle. The pass through strap instructions are very poorly written unfortunately, and the different straps are not clearly labeled to help the reader understand which straps they are supposed to be working with. So, let me help you with some helpful tips for people doing the interior pass through, NOT the clamps. First things first: set aside the straps with the clamps. You will not be needing them. Now you should have four straps which do not have clamps laying in front of you. Your first step is to pick up two of those straps, momentarily setting aside the other two straps. On both straps you picked up locate the sewn in loop. It is about 3 inches in length and at the end of the strap. Open one of the sewn in loops, and pass the other loop through it (like threading a needle). Next, for the loop you passed through the open loop, you'll now want to open that passed through loop's loop. Once it is opened grab the tail of the same strap and pass it through it's own loop. Congrats, you have combined two straps to make one very long strap. Set it down, and do the same thing with the other two unconnected straps. Now you'll want to throw the straps over the carrier that is on top of your car and pass it through the D-ring on each side of the carrier. Then pass each end through your open vehicle doors. At this point you'll need to thread a strap's lose end into a buckle, just a hint, start with the loose strap end entering the buckle through the center slot, and have it leave the buckle in the outer slot. Now using the buckle, pull the lose end until the line is very firmly taut.