Seattle Sports Sherpak Elite 20 - Weather Resistant Cartop Storage Cargo Bag Carrier for Car Rooftop

I purchased the Sherpak for a trip from Maryland to New Mexico. It was a four day drive of around 8-9 hours per day. I was able to put a lot more than I thought would fit in the carrier. We used space bags for some of our clothes and bedding, duffel bags for our luggage, and I had two large Rubbermaid totes for some items I didn't want to throw away but the movers wouldn't take (aerosols, glues,paints etc).I purchased some non-slip drawer liner (around $7.00 at Wal Mart) to place between the carrier and the roof so it wouldn't slide around in transit. I cut the roll in half and it was just longer than the Sherpak, so it worked great. The carier did not side around at all. I also bought two camping sleep pads to place inside the Sherpak to protect the roof of my vehicle from the weight of the boxes in case there was any bouncing, these were $10.00 each and I will use them while camping.It took a bit of experimenting with packing configuration to get the best fit, and-as I told my wife would happen-by the morning of the last day, we finally figured out how to pack it so it had the lowest profile and best fit.I had also purchased a set of ratchet tie-downs in case the included straps were insufficient. This was completely unnecessary. The straps that came with the Sherpak were very strong but a little dificult to adjust.I would say the only hassle with the carrier is that it is necessary to unpack it every night because it could easily be cut open with a knife and all your stuff stolen. When we unpacked the carrier we simply placed all of our non-essential items in the car and took our luggage inside. It only took about 5 minute in the evenings and 10-15 in the mornings. Not bad at all.During our whole trip, we never encountered anything more than a light sprinkling of rain so I can't attest to how well it did (or didn't) protect the items inside from moisture. However, I noticed that depending on how we packed the Sherpak, the top cover would sometimes cover more of the sides than at other times. If I had one suggestion for the manufacturer, I would suggest that they put straps/buckles from the top of the cover to the bottom of the lower half of the carrier in order to keep the sides in tight. At one point when I thought we were going to hit some rain I got out and duct taped the top half to the bottom to ensure no water could get inside. The tape also peeled off easily and didn't leave any sticky residue (I removed the tape the same day I had put it on).Overall I feel this is a great product (more expensive, but far better than any others I looked at). The material is very tough and seems like it will last many years of occasional use. I would say its only disadvantage is that it is not lockable so it has to be removed at the end of every day if you are on a multi-day trip.

This was large, but too hard to get things in and out of it once it is on top of the vehicle. You would need a step stool to be able to reach to all parts of the storage. We ended up not using it, but could not return it.

This does not work without a roof rack. Assembled and attached per the instructions, the top moves all over the place. It bounced and dented my roof. I needed to use straps to tie the entire thing down at an additional cost. This literally moved about 1' down my roof requiring constant stopping to adjust the carrier. It even began unzipping at one point in the drive. DO NO BUY THIS. Get a hard sided roof carrier.

It's a well made product but it didn't fit our BMW very well - it was too big for the roof rack bars and flopped around a lot. It would have been useful to know what size was more appropriate.

Fit our Highlander very well and kept everything dry in several hours of rain. Well constructed, sturdy material, good straps, has storage bag. Able to put several suitcases and two underbed storage bins in it. Used and stored it several times moving daughter back and forth to college. Easily assessable, can be put on by one person, but better with two.

Great product. Solid construction and heavy duty materials. Took this on a trip to Key Largo. It rained most of the way down and most of the way back. All luggage was kept dry. The secret is the extra cover that envelopes the top on bottom half of the container once they're zipped together. The straps were all long enough to fit around the luggage rack on my Sequoia. With 8 attachment points, the cargo wasn't going anywhere. No unacceptable noise levels from the straps or cargo container itself at 80+ MPH on the interstate. It held luggage for a week long trip for a family of 4 with lots of room to spare. I paired this with a non-skid rooftop mat to prevent scratching the paint.

I like this whole category of rooftop bags (I own 2 different ones now). I also have a trailer-hitch based storage box with built-in brake lights, but I prefer the bags because it keeps the car shorter in length. And the bags are much cheaper.This bag has straps that are strong enough that I don't feel the need to add bungee cords (which I do with my other roof bag).This bag did keep the contents dry on my first trip which was through driving rain, even though I had not actually put it on the roof correctly. However, I did lose one of the strap clips because I didn't notice that they are removable, and must have popped it off by mistake. My other bag doesn't even have strap clips, so this bag is more "complete".

Wrong photo, it is ugly GREY not BLUE! appears to be well constructed, we'll see after the trip