Creating a Helpful Resource for Others
This site is the result of a really bad experience I had during a road trip with my family. My goal in creating this site is to help some other road tripper from falling into the same trap I did. If you want the whole story, read on…
My Story
When I was planning a long camping trip with my wife and 4 kids, I quickly realized, even with owning a Toyota Sienna minivan, we would not be able to fit everything in the van for our road trip.
So, what did I do?
Well, trying to save money, I figured I could just wrap the extra gear in a blue tarp and strap it to the Toyota’s roof rack. That was a mistake.
As you might guess, after a few hundred miles, I started to hear some noise overhead. So, we pulled over into McDonalds and I checked out the gear on top as my wife and kids went in for a burger.
The tarp was ripping, not just in one spot, but in 3. (This was not good.)
It was nice outside (summer time), so I figured, who needs the tarp anyway? I then proceeded to remove the tarp and toss it in the trash dumpster in the parking lot.
The family showed back up, handed me a burger and coke and off we went. All was good again.
Until the clouds rolled in.
You guessed it, a rain storm. I had that sinking feeling in my gut… our gear was going to get wet… I mean REALLY wet. And that is exactly what happened. For the camping gear, that’s fine, it would dry out when we set it up. But the suitcases were a different story. They were not set up for the elements.
I pulled over and grabbed the 2 sleeping bags from the top, and then re-secured the entire load. (Wet sleeping bags are a disaster.)
When we arrived at our campsite, the rain had stopped. I unloaded everything and could see that some of the suitcases were soaked… which meant the clothes inside were also soaked. My wife was not happy.
It was right then and there that I decided the price of good gear would be well worth it. So, I made the decision to buy a car top carrier.
Selecting a Car Top Carrier
Now, it turns out the decision to buy was the easy part. The actually research process was WAY harder than it needed to be.
If you are like me, then you know how great it is to buy on Amazon.com. Lots of products and review and, as a Prime member, the shipping is amazing. (I’ve met other Amazon “addicts” like myself…. great business strategy.)
Anyway, what I really needed was a resource that would highlight the good and bad points of all the different rooftop cargo carriers out there.
But that didn’t exist, anywhere.
So, we created it. And now you are getting the benefit of that hard work.
On our site you can learn about the best car top carriers and what makes them so great (and what some of the challenges are too!). We’ve also included hitch cargo carriers as well, in case you have a truck or want to double up with a car top carrier and a hitch based carrier as well.
We’ve put a lot of time and research into this site and hope you find it helpful. Please note we pay for the costs of this site via the Amazon Associates program, so we do make a small commission when you buy from one of our links. Of course, it doesn’t cost you any more. It just lets Amazon know we sent you.
Good luck with your research and, if you think we can help, send us a message via the contact us form.