Prius v Five, ATP & roof rack

Rackmount is irrelevant to glass as that is not where it 'grabs'...Here is a great article on the subject:

Toyota Prius v: longer, taller, wider and more rack-able « Rack Attack Portland’s Blog

Let me know what you get as I am in research mode on this...need a roof rack myself.

 

The worst the roof rack will do is affect your air drag, I think, which you probably know and if you decide to put something the roof rack can't support.

 

Not with a Prius or Prius "v," but I've seen roof racks "ripped out" out of roofs at a body shop that a friend of mine owned.

And, these were OEM roof racks on Dodge mini-vans.

 

I have seen a lot of conflicting data on this. Several racks say "not for use with panoramic moonroof." Is there anyone out there currently using a roof rack with the Five's Advanced Tech Package with the panoramic moonroof?

 

Thule makes one for the v with ATP. I have it. Works great. It does not touch the glass.

Just ordered a bigger cargo box since the addition of our 3rd dog (Great Dane /Black Lab mix) will take up all the cargo space. So, that's 2 adults, 2 kids, 3 dogs and all our stuff. Don't miss the old van at all!

Still get 38+ MPG with all that.

 

Thanks a lot, that is great to hear that it works for your panoramic roof setup. Cool photo, and I am relieved to hear that there are options and it's working for people.

 

Here are two pics of the cargo box / Thule roof rack. The feet don't touch the glass. Hoping the new box will help achieve better MPG. It's much more aerodynamic. I'll let you know...

 

Thanks a lot for the additional pics. I had a very in depth / stressful convo at the dealer when I bought the V Five with the tech package. We were debating a roof rack and a hitch, and they said they don't install hitch's on the Prius Family at their dealer. We looked up the info in the manual which shows that Toyota essentially "doesn't recommend" a hitch for any purpose, but I know a lot of people on here have hitches. Further, they weren't particularly familiar with roof racks, and I stressed that Thule makes one that doesn't touch the glass. In the end, I feel better for warranty issues, to go with the roof rack from Thule, and avoid the hitch at this stage. My understanding is that the only real risk with the panoramic moonroof is having any direct weight on the moonroof, so as long as good companies like Thule make racks that achieve that, I believe this should work out fine.

Does anyone have explicit warranty experience with hitches? I am looking forward to getting the Thule roof rack on just to know for sure that this works well with the moonroof. Thanks for the info on this.

 

I have to say I heard about this Thule rack and it seems like the go-to choice - but please be careful. Your roof can scratch so be cautious about something scraping it while it's on the rack. But, it's absolutely correct that where the rack grabs is very important.

Hitch? As a dealership, we don't install aftermarket parts (ie. that aren't Toyota or made FOR Toyota to offer) so we wouldn't install any hitch to Prius either but I have referred many to a bolt-on hitch at a few different websites for bike rack usage.
Just fyi..

 

Thanks a lot Dianne, that is good advice on the scratching. My previous experience with roof racks has shown that once it's on, it should be secure and not move where it is not supposed to. Getting things off and on would potentially be the time to accidentally hit the moonroof, and something to watch carefully.

That is very interesting on the hitch, and makes a lot of sense. I am glad to hear from a very knowledgeable dealer like yourself, that it isn't heresy to think about a hitch! Thanks for that info. In your experience, would a dealer / Toyota look at the hitch as a potential warranty issue?

Thanks for the great info.