Roof racks or Rear-mounted Options for Carrying Gear

I am also looking for a luggage rack for the Prius. As opposed to a car topper I would like to mount a custom luggage rack over the hatch similar to years ago one could get a luggage rack for the trunks of cars.

if anyone knows of a custom shop that would do this kinda thing I would appreciate it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pepe @ Apr 24 2007, 09:33 AM) [snapback]428969[/snapback]</div>

So what?

The distance of those trips are trivial in comparison to all the other miles you'll drive without a rack. Recreational opportunities are far to rare to miss. Don't worry about it.

36 MPG was a bitter pill for me to shallow. But I did. And carrying my 2 kayaks on top were well worth it.

 

I found a way to mount a roof rack that comes off by pushing 4 buttons so the MPG goes back up when not using it. It's a Thule system with TP54 tracks bolted to the roof (Yakima has identical system partially used by DarrelDD). It just depends on how seriously you want it to drill into your roof. I wouldn't have done it any other way.

 

Never a big fan of roof mounted racks, why:
1. Aerodynamics, or lack there of;
2. Whoa look out low bridge, no bike (seen it happen)
3. Boy, after a good hard ride, long hike or other, what I really want to do is lift a bunch of heavy crap over my head and above the rather delicate structre of my roof paint job!

Big fan of the trailer hitch mounted luggage carrier, or small trailer. Also good for bike racks and it keeps the bikes out of most of the airstream.

Go with the Curt or U-Haul hitch, they have a better design and construction and are less expensive than other hitches!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Devil's Advocate @ May 2 2007, 12:51 PM) [snapback]434087[/snapback]</div>

Don't even need a bridge - a garage is more than enough and no it's not funny ! Yakima racks are sure sturdy tho.
W

 

Everybody covered it nicely already!

Just ignore your mileage when you need to carry some thing on the roof. At WORST you'll get twice the mileage of your Ford SUV. And the other 90%+ of the time you'll get WAY better mileage. It just isn't even a consideration for me. The worst I've ever done with a fully-loaded roof is the mid 30's. The rest of the time I'm above 50mpg.


I highly recomment the permanent mount solution. But it isn't for everybody, certainly. Makes taking the cross-bars off just trivial, however. So there's no need to leave them on when you aren't using them.

And there are plenty of options when you add a hitch. I use a combination of both the roof and the hitch.

I agree with the fears of scraping my bikes off the roof! Scares the bajeezers out of me. I've seen the rack survive and the bike destroyed.

jgills - If I had to do it over, I'd probably use tracks instead of just the landing pads. Live and learn. For sure I won't start off with clip-on racks for the next car (twice!) before doing it "right."

 

If you're carrying a canoe or four bicycles and their riders, then no, you can't just fold everything up and stuff it in the back. But if it's just 'luggage', I'm impressed how much will fit inside. I've carried two bikes and a week's worth of camping gear with the seats down. Another time our 'little big car' carried 4 people and a month's worth of camping gear inside for a cross-country trip, nothing on the roof. Next time, we'll take less stuff, but it all fit. Fridge, stove, tents, sleeping bags, teddy bears...The weight was more of a concern than the space.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pepe @ May 4 2007, 02:04 PM) [snapback]435601[/snapback]</div>

I got 'em off Ebay from a Toyota dealership in the midwest. You can also get them from any THULE authorized dealer - on order. Oh, and they're TP54 and 54" long, not 50. my mistake.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jgills240 @ May 10 2007, 05:55 PM) [snapback]439533[/snapback]</div>

I am also having a little trouble finding these tracks. Do you happen to know the exact model number (if TP50 isn't the number) and possibly some measurements of where you installed your tracks. I am assuming the install went well as the racks look great.

One other question... I would be using the tracks/racks for a cargo box primarily. Do you anticipate any issues with the way a cargo box would connect to racks given the angle of the domed room? It seems as though Yakima racks may work better in this situation due to their round bar design, as opposed to Thule's oval/rectangular shape.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Steve

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(steve-o @ Jun 10 2007, 01:17 AM) [snapback]459063[/snapback]</div>

You can find the Thule TP54 tracks and installation info here:

http://www.thuleracks.com/thule/product.as...69&sku=TP54

The guide says that you shouldn't install these on a car w/ sunroof. Therefore,
if a sunroof is something you might want later on then consider a different option.

 

Mileage hit for me is maybe 3 mpg. Hard to tell because the top box always goes on second: we start with a Coastal Tech 20x30 basket on the back 2" hitch, and load that up before adding the roof rack and box. But between trips, with just the empty box up top, average highway mpg seems to be down by only 3 mpg, a small enough increment I consider it "lost in the noise", ie my driving patterns aren't consistent enough for a 3mpg variance to matter.

Cargo box will have no trouble attaching to the bars at just about any angle. I'm using Inno with their rectangular cross bars and the angles aren't severe enough to do any adjusting.

Track systems are a nice second step once you get used to the carrier up there. I chickened out last year and went with landing-pad type clamp-on's. It's a 2-person job even though the Inno box/bar/clamp system is very light, because the clamps are a bit ungainly. This year or next, I'll probably upgrade to a track system.

Cheers,
Bob

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Devil's Advocate @ May 2 2007, 01:51 PM) [snapback]434087[/snapback]</div>

Who makes hitches come in a 2" configuration? Both Curt and U-Haul only have 1-1/4" hitches. Most hitch mounted cargo platforms are 2". Any ideas?

 

This makes me wonder if we should be allowed to call the Prius a sports-utility vehicle.

 

Hi All,

In preparation for a family trip next week in the Prius, my solution to adding to the cargo capacity was to purchase the basic Yakima rack and build the cargo basket out of Baltic Birch Plywood. Here are a couple of pictures of my solution.

Thanks,

Pat

 

If I had it to do all over again I would have installed the track system. It took the two service people about a 1/2 hour to put the other system on my car. I don't think I will take them off until the summer is over. Without my kayaks I get real close to 45MPG. With both kayaks and the bike it drops down to 28 on the highway With one kayak and no bike it's in the mid 30ies. The racks also add extra wind noise. I found I needed the fairing. It helped quite a bit.[attachmentid=9437]

 

I've brought my Prius from the US to Germany and have been having it serviced by a local dealer. In the product literature for the model sold here, there is a stock mounting system that can be, it appears, adapted to hold bicycles, snowboards or any of the other things that get strapped on top of autos. But with the current exchange rate, they are very expensive. Are these available in the states and could you put me in touch with a dealer that could ship it to me?

Thanks

Ed




I've attached pictures from the product literature of the roof rack system sold by Toyota for the Prius in Germany.

Thanks

Ed

[attachmentid=12417] [attachmentid=12418]

 

This is quite timely. After reading Darrell's web page about 10 times I had determined that I would just go with the Saris racks. I already have a complet Thule setup with the quick connect based on my other vehicle but I don't really feel inclined to drill in the roof of my nice pretty Spectra Blue roof to install the black tracks, maybe in a year but not now. Ruling out the drill in the roof solution, it seems that the Saris load bars may be the way to go. I am debating between the 50" or 59" load bars as well as between the short or long tray bike racks. I prefer the short tray racks so I can install the load bars individually. Based on the pictures above it looks like the short tray racks will work fine.

Q: 50 or 59" load bars?

 

I have a Yakima roof system on mine. On a trip from San Francisco to Moab, Utah, the mileage was about 33 mpg (fully loaded with a cargo box and a mt bike). With just the rack I get about 42 mpg (compared to about 48 mpg with nothing at all). Road noise is bad. The Yakima Windjammer helps (I used to have a fairing on but I think it actually diminished my mpg).

I love the rack even though the mileage isn't as great. But it's a pain to put on/off. After looking at jgills240's track rack, and if I could do it all over again, I would totally go that route instead.

Oh, and I used to drive a Nissan Pathfinder with a Yakima rack as well. 14 mpg. So even with the rack on the Prius I still get 3x what I used to get! Plus it's a lot easier to load/unload since it's not as high off the ground. Good luck!