roof racks?

i have a thule set available for sale if you're local, OC/LA area. Its the complete base kit, bars, mounts, adaptors.

If you're OC/LA area, i do cash/pickup

 

Absofreakinglutely. Was mandatory.

[Broken External Image]:http://www.darelldd.com/ev/images/prius/racks/cargo_box02.jpg

Show here is the Yakima solution. More details about it here:
http://www.darelldd.com/ev/prius_racks.htm

And if you hang on a moment, I'll put up my latest pictures of the Saris solution.

 

I've updated my racks page (linked above) with the new Saris pictures and info as well.

I've now done both Yakima and Saris. For the cross bars, I definitely recommend Saris.

 

Just FYI, I'm getting a 404 error on the saris_rack01.jpg picture. The rest of the images seem to load just fine, however.

 

Fixed. Thanks for catching it.

Simple explanation... I'm an idiot.

 

I was hoping you'd reply to this.

As you notice, you run into problems with the antenna. You can either remove it when the roof rack is put on, or get a sharkfin antenna.

 

Just curious, since they are aerodynamically looking, do you think that they provide any lift to the car?

 

I saw a guy the other day running around with a giant box on top. He just let the box bend the antenna down, and didn't worry about it. Of course I could never think of anything as brilliantly simple as that. I was (among?) the first to order the official PriusChat Shark Fin antenna for this very reason. Of course it has taken this long to get one that was painted correctly...

 

This isn't a joke, right? Sometimes I can't tell....

Please... lift is the least of your worries with a cargo box on the roof. Mostly it is just plain ol' drag - and it'll screw up any flow you had over the car as well. In my experience it'll knock about 2-3% off your mileage. Nothing I'm gonna lose sleep over since my other option was to buy a larger, more fuel-hungry car to begin with.

Lift? No.

 

We do Yakima cross bars with a Thule Evolution box. I agree with darelldd that the Yakima cross bars are a PITA to setup. When I have to setup a new set of bars, my wife clears out of the house when she sees steam coming out of my ears. I've also been a longtime Yakima fan, but believe they have lost some of their design edge over the past several years. When you do a Yakima setup, the towers end up locking in place by turning a cam inside the tower such that it pinches the bar. As you rotate the cam, it sometimes makes the tower move along the bar so your carefully setup dimensions change on you. You end up having to compensate for this "cam induced travel" which is inexact to say the least. The other gotcha is that once you've actuated the cam completely, the cam puts an impression in the plastic coating on the bar. If you didn't get it in the 100% correct position, once that happens, it will always want to fall back into that same position on subsequent attempts because of the impression on the plastic coating. I've never seen the Saris roof system, but by darelldd's description it sounds great! Other than the cargo boxes, can you attach Yakima or Thule accessories to a Saris roof rack?

The Thule roof boxes are very nice. They can open on either side. I believe Yakima has finally copied this feature on some of their new boxes as well.

 

I hadn't heared of them either! The cross-bars are aero-shaped like most factory cross bars you see on SUVs. any of the Yakima or Thule accessories will fit if you use the right snap-arounds.... or... and this is the best part - you can just slip a carriage bolt into the provided slot on these bars (threaded part facing up) and attach just about ANYTHING directly to that bolt. You can make your own fixtures, or attach your box with just that bolt on four corners.

The weak part for me on the Thule boxes is the mounting. Yakima has finally made a superior mount, but they're making them somewhat poorly (the slots aren't cut straight). Yes, the new Yakima boxes open both ways with a single latch/lock on each side. I bought a new Yakima box, but sold it and kept my classic rocket box that is a superior configuration for me (big enough, and long and skinny so I can fit a kayak up there too). I like the long skinny ones since the frontal area is the most important for drag.

 

Glad to hear Yakima has improved that part of their system. It's hard to imagine a cargo box mounting design any easier than the Thule Evolution (now replaced with the Atlantis line). The mounting assemblies are on movable tracks inside the box. Just place the U bracket under the load bars and into the mounting assembly from below and push down the locking clamp. Takes about a minute to mount a box. When I had a Rocketbox years ago you ended up adjusting the load bar placement to fit the rack rather than the otherway around. It was always a PITA along with the four threaded U brackets requiring you to thread and tighten 8 wing nuts.

 

Yeah, I hear you. My old Rocket box has that issue for sure, but it is also a fail-proof method to hold it on there once it is on!

What I don't like about the Thule system is that you still have to reach under and over at the same time. With the new Yak system, it is all done from inside the box. You never reach under. Anyway - they're all getting better. I simply could not find the perfect configuration in ANY of the newer boxes, so I suffer with the old mounting system to have the actual box that I want. Could be worse.

 

Having it all happen from above as you describe sounds pretty cool. Luckily my arms are long enough that I can reach the inward clamp on the Thule so holding it from below while clamping isn't that bad.

Regarding the Saris load bars...

I see that some Yakima retailers (like Rack Attack) list a whole bunch of MightyMounts in their online catalog. Do you know if any of these are designed to fit the Saris bars? They do sell a Universal MightyMount, but a custom fit mount sounds better if it's available.

Just curious...

Have you compared the Thule 400XTR Rapid Areo roof system to the Saris? It seems like they have some similar features. It appears like the Saris is "fitted" everytime you install it via the simple hand knob. The Thule gets fitted in a traditional way, and then you use the clamp levers to put it on after that. The Thule uses the same landing pads and adapters from the non-areo line. It seems like the Saris is customized via the brackets and the landing pad is universal. On the Prius, does the pad sit flat on the roof? Unfortuneately, the nearest Saris dealer is about a hour away so it's not so easy for me to see it in person.

 

Hi all,

I'm also looking for a roof rack/box solution for a family trip this summer. I’d also like to be able to use the racks for skis, a surfboard and couple of bikes (not all at the same time--- :blink: ). Also, it would be nice if the racks themselves were not too hard to remove and reinstall, so I could keep the drag on my car at a minimum, when I don’t need the racks.

Reading this thread leads me to believe that I should go with the Saris racks and the Thule box. Is this assumption correct? Can anyone recommend specific models?

Thanks!

 

With respect to the cargo box...

If you have a REI store nearby, they usually have a good selection of current Yakima and Thule models to check out. They both have their unique advantages.

With respect to the rack...

The Saris rack sounds nice. Their distribution isn't as strong in the area where I live (near Boston). Only some smallish bike shops a fair distance away seem to carry them. If I need a part or accessory for Yakima or Thule, there are lots of stores nearby. Although I haven't seen a Saris roof rack, I do have two points of concern from what I've learned. They use customized clips for each car, but the landing pad that sits on the roof is universal. Both Yakima and Thule have customized clips and pads to create the best possible fit. For the Prius it may not be an issue, but I view a roof rack as something that gets setup on multiple cars over the years so the more exact customization of Thule or Yakima may serve you better over time. Although it sounds like you can place a bolt in the track on the Saris, and that offers some interesting options for adapting accessories, there isn't a great way to adapt Yakima or Thule bike/ski/water accessories to the Saris. In contrast, most all Yakima or Thule accessories will fit on the other's system. That gives you lots of choice, and the intense competition between the two companies makes for better products overall. You *might* be able to adapt to Saris via the Yakima universal Might Mounts, but neither Yakima nor Saris could tell me if that would really work and if it did, how well it would work. Saris wants to sell you Saris accessories. Cargo boxes should pretty much work all around without issue.

 

Thanks for your reply. You’re giving me a good direction to start looking in. I live in a pretty small area, with just one Thule dealer near by, so unless I go Thule, I'll be getting most of what I need via the internet. I jumped into this thread because trying to actually see what I want to buy, and how it will attach and look on my Prius, via the internet is a pain.

 

For what it's worth, I've had a Thule rack system with the largest sized Thule Cascade box for a year and a half. It's fairly easy to mount and remove, and absolutely solid. If you can't find the needed accessories, you can order them at thule.com. I don't have experience with other manufacturers so I can't compare, but this works fine. And it holds a HUGE amount of stuff.
For those who argue that having the rack/box defeats the idea of a Prius, I say it's just the opposite. If I'd gotten a vehicle with the inside capacity for skis, snowboards, bikes, etc., that I need to carry maybe 5% of the time, I'd have ended up with a small or mid-sized SUV, paying a significant mileage penalty 100% of the time. Yes, my mileage drops with the rack on, but I put it on only when I need it. I hang the rack/box combination on ropes from the garage ceiling; I pull the car in and drop it on the roof to install, do the opposite to take it off, it takes only 2 or 3 minutes each time. I haven't noticed any effect on handling, except for one time when there were very strong (~40 mph) sidewinds and I was on an exposed bridge. That, I could feel, but there wasn't any problem.