Photos of Prius with roof rack. Anyone?

[Mr. Tuco]

I know Thule and Yakima make racks for our cars, but I have not found a single picture online of a prius with one. If anyone here has a picture of one, would you please post it?

[bgdrewsif]

I have not seen any pictures of a prius with a roof rack either, although I would suspect that a roof rack would create a significant drag and reduce MPG, and thus, the whole point of driving a prius would be negated....

[Emma]

I'm guessing that a Prius with a roof rack carrying bikes/kayaks/skis would still get better gas mileage than most other vehicles with a roof rack carrying the same cargo...so the whole point of driving a Prius would not be negated...fuel economy would still be better.

Oh yeah, and you'd still be living your life and having fun. I think that's worth a heck of a lot, too.

I used a trunk rack on my Honda, but I'm seriously considering the hitch mount bike rack for the Prius. I'm still investigating my options. The only reason I'm not crazy about the roof racks is that I'm short and it's a pain to get the stuff up there if I'm by myself.

[Mr. Tuco]

Originally posted by Emma@Mar 11 2006, 11:10 AM
I'm guessing that a Prius with a roof rack carrying bikes/kayaks/skis would still get better gas mileage than most other vehicles with a roof rack carrying the same cargo...so the whole point of driving a Prius would not be negated...fuel economy would still be better.

Oh yeah, and you'd still be living your life and having fun.  I think that's worth a heck of a lot, too. 

I used a trunk rack on my Honda, but I'm seriously considering the hitch mount bike rack for the Prius.  I'm still investigating my options.  The only reason I'm not crazy about the roof racks is that I'm short and it's a pain to get the stuff up there if I'm by myself.

[snapback]223532[/snapback]

Emma, you're right about not negating fuel economy. Plus, I plan to install it on the day I need it and uninstall it the same day. I'm hoping though, that it won't be to difficult to do that.

Anyway, can someone who has tried this on thier Prius tell me how tough it is to install and uninstall the darn thing?

[espoafd]

I know darelldd has installed a Yakima rack to his Prius.

I believe that this link should get you a picture.

Yakima rack

[landstander]

Originally posted by Mr. Tuco@Mar 11 2006, 12:35 AM
I know Thule and Yakima make racks for our cars, but I have not found a single picture online of a prius with one. If anyone here has a picture of one, would you please post it?

Here 'ya go! The load bars and rack for the "normal" bike are from Saris, while the tandem is using an ATOC Tandem Topper. We haven't yet noticed a decrease in mileage, but so far have only used this setup for short trips around town. We're planning a trip to the Katy Trail sometime next month, which should give us a pretty good idea of the typical impact... it's a round trip of approximately 200 miles.

[jupitercrash]

For those with roof racks, do you keep them on all the time? I have a Yakima rack on the car I'm trading in and it was a real pain to put on balancing the tension, so I've never taken it off. It definitely has a negative impact on gas mileage, even with no bikes. So if I got one for my Prius to be, I would want it to be removable. Perhaps it would make more sense for me to just move to a trunk mounted one, but I am weary of those due to a bad experience on a bumpy highway where the rack fell off and I dragged the bikes for several yards until I could manage to pull over.

[darelldd]

You want pictures of racks on a Prius? I've mounted three to mine.
http://evnut.com/prius_racks.htm

http://evnut.com/prius_racks.htm#saris

http://evnut.com/prius_rack_pads.htm

No, I certainly don't leave the racks on my car. Takes me about six seconds to install or remove the bars, so there's VERY little reason to leave them on.

[landstander]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jupitercrash @ Feb 19 2007, 03:55 PM) [snapback]392972[/snapback]</div>

For those with roof racks, do you keep them on all the time?
[/b]

Mine are only present when in use, but the Saris roof racks are exceptionally quick and easy to remove/install. Unfortunately. they're also no longer available.

[darelldd]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Emma @ Mar 11 2006, 07:10 AM) [snapback]223532[/snapback]</div>

I'm guessing that a Prius with a roof rack carrying bikes/kayaks/skis would still get better gas mileage than most other vehicles with a roof rack carrying the same cargo...so the whole point of driving a Prius would not be negated...fuel economy would still be better.[/b]

And I always like to comment on this when this (common) question comes up.

I don't give a damn if the Prius got 10mpg when I have the racks on with cargo. The other 350 days of the year, I get over 50mpg so it REALLY doesn't matter. My other option is to buy a car for the 1% of my needs, and waste that capacity the other 99% of my trips - you know... like MOST people.

The fact is, the worst I've ever done in the Prius is about 34mpg. And that was totally overloaded, with cargo box and kayak on the roof, heading to altitude. It isn't gonna keep me up at night. The racks come off when I don't need them, so my 34mpg SUV becomes my 50mpg sedan again. Something I can't do with an SUV. (well, maybe with a plasma torch, but still...)