Recommendations for roof rack

Hey all. I have to buy a roof rack in the next few weeks and just wanted to see if anyone had any recommendations for my 2009. I have searched here and unfortunately the rack that seemed to get the most kudos (by Saris) was discontinued quite a while ago. I'm looking for something decent and know that I will pay a few hundred bucks for it, but the whole way that Thule works and their pricing (the one that I priced was over $450) is a bit more that I want to deal with. Does anyone have any experience with Rhino Rack - I keep coming across them, but have not been able to find more than one or two reviews. Thanks.

 

I'm getting the rack because my family is going to be spending the next year out in Boulder. Most of our stuff will be staying in the Philly area so the plan is a roof box on my car and bikes on my hitch mounted rack. The bulk of our stuff though will be in a trailer that will be pulled by my wife's suv. So the rack would be used for the box and also for skis.

 

Great point.

 

A few reasons - with a 5x8 trailer we will be just about at the tow rating for my wife's car. We got a great deal on a 5x8 - to go even a bit larger would have cost over $1,000 extra. We also have a few big and fragile items that do not weight a whole lot but will take up a bunch of space and will need to be packed well. So with what we are planning we will be right at the load rating for both cars and will be able to fit everything that we need.

 

All I really wanted was to see if anyone had any recommendations for a roof rack.

I do not really feel like driving a U-Haul 2/3rds of the way across the country - I do not see the benefit versus the car that I own and like. We thought about getting a moving POD for our stuff, shipping the cars and then just flying, but we would rather rent a weekend ski condo for the season with the money saved.

I went with a Rhino Rack - with a Memorial Day sale I was able to get a significant discount from the list price - online pricing was $305 just about everywhere. I was able to get it for $235 shipped. While there were few Prius specific reviews the racks in general have good reviews. It has a 30 day return on it so if I do not like it I can return it and spend the $400+ for a Thule or Yakima. With that big of a savings I will not worry about resale.

I'll chime in with my thoughts on the rack in case anyone is thinking about a rack down the line.

 

Thanks for taking the time to chime in, but again I was really only looking for advice on a roof rack. We are only going to be in Boulder for 10-12 months. We have rented a furnished house there so all we are going to be moving are personal items and clothing which we can fit. Renting a U-Haul is not necessary and also leads to the problem of what to do with one car - do we have to get a dolly and drag it across country or have it shipped? What about coming back next summer? What about the fact that we do not have enough stuff to fill even their smallest truck?

Packing is not really an issue as we have rented our house furnished and we will need to have it empty of personal items anyway. Since we need to pull out what will go and what will stay means that hiring a company is not really feasible. We will however hire the college age kids of a few friends to give us a hand.

We have a roof box for my wife's car. It gets used a couple of times a year and I'll put it on and take it off as needed. I have never put a single scratch on the car - you need to be careful, but it is not hard at all. While the process takes about 25-30 minutes throwing a couple of old blankets over the roof adds just a minute to the process. It is a bit of a pain, but it is what kept us from having to buy a land yacht with a third row so it is worthwhile to us.

As for the trailer - we got a terrific deal on a good quality trailer. We will use it there, use it back and then likely sell it on craigslist and recover a significant chunk of what we paid. Same goes for the rack and box if I do not want to keep them.

 

All I was looking for was a recommendation on a roof rack.

 

I looked in the usual places (ebay, craigslist, here) and could not find one. I also looked places like Amazon's 3rd party sellers and found that while I could likely buy the parts from a couple of sellers it was not a great option as the descriptions and service were lacking. Oh well.

 

Thanks for the terrific response. While I did pick a rack I am able to return it for the next few weeks if I get feedback on the rack I went with or on a better option.

Do you know about the install on the tracks? Did your friend DIY it or have a shop do it - my fear would be leaks in the roof - as the owner of a car with a leaky factory installed sunroof it would be with great trepidation that I'd have someone drill into my roof.

 

sorry - double post