Thule vs. Yakima?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Acadiaphile @ Sep 10 2007, 01:40 PM) [snapback]510158[/snapback]</div>

I would just drive the minivan. You will never make back the hundreds of dollars to buy the racks and cargo box with the fuel savings.

I have Yakima racks for my bikes and skis. I haven't had them on the Prius but when driving with loaded racks with our previous SUV and Truck we got about 20% lower fuel economy.

Also from an aerodynamic standpoint if you do get a box the round end should go towards the rear of the vehicle and the blunt side towards the front. This is opposite of conventional wisdom and what I see on top of vehicles. The reason for this is because aerodynamically the rear of a shape is more important the the front. If you take a brick and round only the front you will reduce the drag about 33%. If you take a brick and round only the back you will reduce the drag about 66%.

 

I just got back from a 1,400 mile round-trip to the beach with my Yakima SkyBox 16s on the roof of the Prius and was very pleased. Of course, the car took an MPG hit with the cargo carrier, but the 37 MPG I averaged was a far cry better than what we would have gotten in our SUV. The 37 MPG was obtained by averaging a speed of between 70-75 MPH for the trip, which is about how fast I drive. Normally, I would get in the 48 MPG range for a trip on the same kinds of roads (very hilly).

The SkyBox 16s is a bit shorter than most of the other Yakima boxes, so it fit perfectly on the top of the Prius. The rear hatch opened fully without banging into the cargo box at all. The only thing I had to remove was the antenna. No big deal there, as we listened to satellite radio the whole trip anyway.

Adding an extra 16 cubic feet of cargo space was great, as we needed the extra space. Without it, we would have been forced to take the SUV. I managed to fit a set of golf clubs, a stroller, three kites, and two duffel bags into the cargo carrier, and could have squeezed in even more.

 

Inno has a box that is a far better fit for the Prius or any other short-roof car. I'm very happy with the Inno box but would get the Thule feet and either Thule or Inno bars (they're the same), or maybe the Thule Aero bars (the Inno bar-clamps will fit the Aero fine).

A rear-hitch cargo basket can take a lot of bulk out too.

The rear "cargo" space behind the back seats is our "doggy zone" for a pair of 20 lb dogs. Trips up to 1800 miles have worked great with 3 adults plus 2 dogs but are still a bit tight for 4.

 

I prefer the Thule Spirit Box. It is only 16 cu ft but sit low to the car (lower than the Yakima), aerodynamic, locks on both side and can be opened from both sides. Also the feet are adjustable so you can slide the box up so it does not hit the rear hatch. Also the feet clamps can fit any bar, oval or round.

And I disagree with the way the box should be facing. The more air that is disturbed the more air drag. Having the box facing backwards would disturb more air and thus add more drag. Most air drag depends on the frontal cross section. What was described above may be for low speed drag.

If that was the case then most vehicles would have a big square front end. The latest research on Big rigs suggests making their front ends more aerodynamic (cone shaped) to reduce drag to save fuel. Not to mention race cars would have big brick front ends. It has been 12 years since my last aerodynamics and fluid dynamics classes but I do not think I slept through them that much to miss that point about drag.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tadashi @ Sep 10 2007, 10:39 PM) [snapback]510398[/snapback]</div>

Based on your description, the Yakima SkyBox 16s is exactly the same size and offers exactly the same features.

 

Yes it is exactly the same size but it sits lower than the Yakima. I have yakima bars and the front wind breaker would not fit on but I did not notice any noise so I guess I did not need it. Although I did not realize it slid back and forth like the Thule. The other issue for us is that my wife has Saris racks for her Prius and the Yakima guy said we would have to pay extra for the lock cores and for the feet adapters to grip the elliptical Saris bars.

Instead of removing the antenna I put on the shark fin. Looks great. I almost put my XM radio antenna under it also but figured I would be in trouble if I had to replace the XM antenna for some reason.

 

Yes it is exactly the same size but it sits lower than the Yakima. I have yakima bars and the front wind breaker would not fit on but I did not notice any noise so I guess I did not need it. Although I did not realize it slid back and forth like the Thule. The other issue for us is that my wife has Saris racks for her Prius and the Yakima guy said we would have to pay extra for the lock cores and for the feet adapters to grip the elliptical Saris bars.

Instead of removing the antenna I put on the shark fin. Looks great. I almost put my XM radio antenna under it also but figured I would be in trouble if I had to replace the XM antenna for some reason.

 

Our family of four did a 7,500 mile cross country camping trip this summer in our Prius and averaged 49.7 mpg (actual). We have the Saris rack, which is great, that we got used on eBay and the Thule box in the picture. However, for this trip we packed everything that went onto the roof into dry bags and layed them on a pad directly on the roof, tucked between the racks front and back and between the bike rails on either side, also tucked under the air deflector on front. A great solution if you don't mind the extra effort in packing.

PA P

 

Our family of four did a 7,500 mile cross country camping trip this summer in our Prius and averaged 49.7 mpg (actual). We have the Saris rack, which is great, that we got used on eBay and the Thule box in the picture. However, for this trip we packed everything that went onto the roof into dry bags and layed them on a pad directly on the roof, tucked between the racks front and back and between the bike rails on either side, also tucked under the air deflector on front. A great solution if you don't mind the extra effort in packing.

PA P

 

Warning- Yakima Changed Pads

I have a 2005 Prius and I bought a Yakima rack a few months ago to carry surfboards. I had trouble getting it to secure properly to the roof but figured this was operator error. I had various friends try to do it with me, but we could never get it as secure as it seemed it should be. I figured I was just being picky.

The rack functioned fine with just one stack of boards (one or two boards on top of each other) but the first time my surf crew and I went out together carrying 5 boards, in two stacks, the front rack pulled back while we were crossing the Richmond Bridge in the Bay Area (cross-wind?). I assumed we must have messed something up. We reinstalled, but the same thing happened the next time I tried to carry two stacks of boards.
Long story short, it scraped the heck out of the roof of my car.

Finally, I went back to REI this week to plead for help. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong with the installation. Their install guy figured out, first, that the clamps were permanently bent out of shape, and when we went to get a new pair, discovered that Yakima has changed the pads they recommend for the front of the car.

Moral of this story- if you have a Yakima rack that was installed with 2 pairs of the Q124 clips you should take them back. They now call for the Q5 clips in the front, and the Q124 in the back, for all post-2005 models.

I have not given it a test run with a double set of boards yet, but I will try soon and will post an update if it fails again. I also paid for the install this time since I just didn't want to mess with the paint job anymore.

 

Re: Warning- Yakima Changed Pads

I couldnt get the q5's to fit so I took back the whole mess. I wont be using yakima on my prius.