Rooftop Cargo Box/Bag on Prius? Rent one?

Don't know about rental. As far as mileage, my rack with 2 kayaks on it I lose about 20ish mpg at highway speed.

 

Wouldn't work on my solar panel, sun roof,

So in 67 days and 1 hour I will cruise from NY (actually Bayonne) to Canada and New England. Nova Scotia is one of the stops!

I will take my Prius from Richmond to Bayonne.

 

For just about all of the cargo boxes you need a roof rack so factor that into the equation. You might be able to find one of the bags that will attach directly to the roof, but many of them also require a rack. We have a Sears box that we use on my wife's car and it is a real pain to get on and off and as you mentioned storage is also a pain. As to your question about installation - it is not terribly difficult, more unwieldy. Luckily we need it rarely and can live with it taking up space in the garage that is never used for cars.

If I were doing it, and price were not much of an option I would get something trailer hitch mounted. Once you have the hitch you can get a box, but they are pretty expensive ($500 ish +) or simply a metal platform that you could strap bags, boxes etc onto. This could be done for $200 or so - $125 or so for the hitch and $75 or so for the platform. I have a hitch on my 09 and installed it myself in well under an hour. I bought mine from etrailer.com and was very happy with them. If it were me, I'd pair it with a giant, rugged, latching Rubber-maid type container.

As for your question on rentals - not as far as I know but if you find a place chime back in.

 

If possible, ship some of your stuff via UPS.

 

As far as price. Yakima roof racks is going to be a little cheaper than Thule. And they have the q-clip design. It clips on and off in seconds. It's the setup I use. Have used the same rack for 3 different cars now. Just needed to order different q-clip adapters

 

You will need a set of racks and a box, and I feel it allows Prius to carry almost as much as a mini-van.
I have a Thule Cascade XT1600 box and Saris roof racks, but this is useless advice as these are not available anymore. But equivalents would possibly be Thule Ascent or Atlantis roof box and Thule Aeroblade roof rack.
You will observe approx. 5-10 MPG hit as low as 35 MPG w/ box on, so I do not consider it too much eco-better than taking my "new" minivan which gets 25 MPG on a long trip. But when I had a clunker old minivan, I relied quite heavily on the Prius for vacations. You are probably talking min. $250 for racks and $350 for box but I thought it really augments usefulness of Prius.

I guess you need something like the Thule Rapid Traverse foot to attach to vehcile for the Aerobaldes. Closest thing I can see to the older Saris system that was popular among earlier Gen-2 Prius owners .

 

If you're planning to travel with a number of passengers and a considerable amount of luggage, then I would check the door jambs of both of your vehicles and see how the weight capacities compare. I too prefer to take long trips in my 2010 Prius but have opted out when my planned load clearly exceeds the specified 825lbs. for the Prius.

 

I think it would have to exceed it by quite a bit. That is a very conservative estimate made with lawyers looking over shoulders. I honestly think you could probably go up to 1100lbs. and probably be fine.

 

On the other hand, there are priuschat.com members who are in the throes of installing shims to correct rear wheel misalignment that clear indicates a permanently deformed rear axle beam. Just search "alignment shims". I won't be conducting an 1100lb. experiment with my Prius.