Review after a road trip - cargo box and Yakima rack

Hi folks -

Just wanted to share with you guys and gals a short review of a BIG cargo box and Yakima roof rack(s).

Planning for a road trip with 8 days of camping and 1600 miles with 4 adults and a baby, we knew we'll have a serious shortage in space.

After some searching on eBay I scored a Yakima Q system rack from the older model (105).
Bought the correct clips and set off to install it - what a complete PITA!
The thing would not go on the car properly no matter what we did, the angle of the tower doesn't allow the locks to swing into the latches.
I battled the dang towers for 3 hours and then decided to fork out the $160 for a new Q system set (model 124), which proved to work much better and was on the car within 30 mins.

The cargo box was purchased ahead of time on Amazon after reading a bunch of great reviews -http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B000UULZO0?tag=priuschatcom-20 was everythng I expected it to be - big, easy to install (took maybe 10 mins with lining up perfectly where needed for the yakima rack), priced right and a fairly solid piece once closed.

Those extra 18 Cu.Ft. of space came very handy - we managed to fit in them a large carry-on suitcase, 4 sleeping bags, 2 folding chairs, a small baby stroller (umbrella), 2 big packs of diapers, a small webber BBQ (top handle needed to be removed), something like 8 pairs of shoes and hiking boots, a big baby carrier / backpack and some other random things.

Driving with it made me somewhat nervous in the first stretch of the trip and I did pull of the freeway a bunch of time to make sure that everything was holding up well, but the box was very solid once closed and never gave me any trouble even though the size of it is really more of an SUV fit than a small passenger car.
We had some rain showers hitting us for about 200 miles stretch of the road and not even a single drop made it into the box.
Definitely a great deal for the money.

The only situation that was tricky was when we got hit by serious side winds going through the Nevada desert.
It would have been enough without the box on top, but with the box the Prius was just all over the place... hwell:

Enjoy the pics, cheers!

Moti

 

We averaged about 37 MPG.
This is with the car stuffed to the max, tire pressure set at 42 psi all around, cruising speed of upper 70's and serious changes in elevation between sea level and high 8K ft. at Bryce canyon national park.

Moti

 

You guys are welcome.

Efusco, to tell you the truth I was pleasently suprised as well, I expected it to drop to the low 30's / high 20's.

My guess is that the box is somewhat more aerodynamic than it looks like, because I also expected the car to wonder a bit more on the road and it didn't (other than the very windy part).

EDIT to add -
There was one part of the road that the car suffered from the load.
Anyone that has ever driven from Barstow, CA to Las vegas knows the pass that is pretty much a straight climb of ~16 miles.
With the heavy load and outside temps over 100F, the cooling system got a good workout and the engine lost some power even though we did turn the AC off.

Moti

 

I prefer the roof over a trailer.
With a trailer your legal speed limit is 55 anywhere, without one you can legally drive 70-75 MPH in many of the interstates.
Makes a big difference when you're trying to get to places that are some hundreds of miles away...

Moti