Versatile rack for all kinds of stuff?
I have a little Accord Coupe but I'd like to transport a lot of stuff. It's my first car so I'm looking for suggestions. I've seen specialized racks for bikes etc, but I need:
- bikes
- skis/snowboards
- surfboards
- 50 lb loaded hiking backpacks (2 will fit in the trunk, but would like to take 2-3 more)
- general IKEA junk
Seems like two cross bars on the roof would allow me to tie down most of the above one way or another? Soft or hard? Should I add a hitch to combine rear racks with roof racks? Any other thoughts or ideas?
Posted Sep 14, 2016, 5:59 AM UTC
16
Any set of Thule or Yakima feet and crossbars plus whichever accessories you need. You can usually fit a luggage box and a ski/snowboard rack on at the same time, then switch out the ski rack or luggage rack for the bike racks and board rack when the seasons switch. Add a hitch and you have even more options. It depends entirely on how much you're transporting and how often you're doing them. Roof/hitch racks and their accessories aren't cheap, either.
TL;DR There are literally dozens of options for every individual use case you have and you can usually fit more than one type of rack on most systems at the same time.
Yeah, that would work, but it would be pretty expensive to get all the custom attachments, and I'd like to avoid having to reconfigure the rack too much for different things. In California, seasons are kind of moot and I might be skiing and surfing in the same week.
Well too bad, you won't avoid that. They're different attachments for different items. If you can't take ten minutes to change them out then you should buy a van.
Huh. There's gotta be a better way to do this. I think if I just put some soft pads on the roof, I could tie/strap down anything with sufficient webbing or rope. It's just a matter of making it a little easier and safer without throwing on a bunch of expensive unitaskers.
I mean, you could do that, but I personally wouldn't attach anything valuable to anything else valuable that way. Pretty much all roof rack accessories and hitch racks are unitaskers.
If you got seriously wide load bars you could probably fit 1 or 2 bike racks, a surfboard rack, and a ski rack on there with one of those cargo bags underneath, but that's going to be damn near $1,000 worth of kit. Not knowing anything about boards or skis you might be able to get away with just strapping those down and keeping everything kosher, but there's no way I'd do it with a bike that's worth anything.
That would be far less efficient, both for space and gas mileage. You're also far more likely to damage your vehicle and gear. If you don't want to swap things out then either get fewer hobbies or buy a van or truck.