Rightline Gear Sport 3 Waterproof Rooftop Cargo Carrier for Top of Vehicle, Attaches With or Without Roof Rack, 18 Cubic Feet, Black

We planned on taking a trek down to Phoenix from Provo (and back) for Christmas with 7 people in the minivan. With luggage and winter gear, that doesn't leave much room in the van for everybody, much less presents!After looking around, I decided on this particular carrier (I actually saw it at Target.com under a different brand name and then searched for it on Amazon.com) due to it being the largest carrier I could find, being soft-sided, waterproof and reasonably priced (especially compared to some hard carriers). Before buying, though, I read the reviews here, especially in regards to it needing to be full. I was impressed the vendor took time to reply to a few comments and that the current version of the carrier resolves some of the older negative concerns (such as it not being waterproof before).Long story short, I was very pleased with it!:* It's absolutely huge - it held luggage for 7 people, a few pillows, blankets and even some kids sleeping bags.* "full up" - Because I had read about it needing to be full, I tried packing it as full as I could, but it's so big there were still a few empty spots in corners, between cases, etc... Generally speaking, though, it was as full as it could be for me to comfortably zip it up. We tied it down very tightly between the crossbars on my roof and pushed in the corners. We then drove from Provo to Las Vegas at 80MPH (there are several stretches in Utah where 80 is the legal limit, btw) in some pretty good wind. The case performed perfectly, didn't appreciably lower our gas mileage, didn't create any unbearable wind noise, stayed perfect stable (we did buy the mat to go underneath, but it wasn't really necessary) and was in perfect condition when we arrived in Vegas. After going down to Phoenix and finally back up to Provo (about 1400 miles, round trip), the case is still in great condition!* Weatherproof - we didn't get too much chance to put it to the test but the little rain we did get didn't get in the caseAll-in-all, we absolutely loved the case. It's easy to put up, holds a ton of luggage and was a great value. It was exactly what we needed for our trip!One note - if you do use the non-slip mat underneath, only use it under the back half (or so) of the carrier. We found once we hit certain speeds (especially since the speed limit is so high on I-15) that if any air got underneath the carrier at those speeds the mat would vibrate against the roof and would be incredibly loud.

We purchased the Rightline Gear Sport 3 Car Top Carrier (18 cu ft) to haul equipment for a trip and it worked great. It held a LOT of stuff, without it we would have had to rent a trailer. It installs and removes easy, and I really like that it folds down into a small bag (I didn't want to store a hard roof rack). Zippers worked great (I added the provided lubricant), and can be padlocked, however I wouldn't leave stuff in it unattended for long because it's soft-sided. Using it for the first time I was concerned it would loosen or fall off, that never happened. I stopped a couple times before getting on the highway to tighten the straps, which was necessary as gear had settled and the sun warmed and expanded the material. We didn't get a drop of rain so I can't attest to its water durability, however the material is quite thick and looks to be fully waterproof. To protect the roof of our vehicle I placed a furniture pad under the carrier, that was really more for peace of mind versus necessity. It wasn't noisy, however we did hear wind resistance from one strap, but not loud. We drove over 600 miles with the carrier packed to full capacity- on highways, freeways, windy roads, bumpy roads, you name it, at speeds up to 80 mph- no issues. The carrier stayed securely in place and at points I forgot all about it. We recommend this product, it works great.

I would not recommend this carrier. To go one step further, I would explicitly recommend you don't buy it. There are several reasons that bring me to this conclusion, which I will list below. Note that we packed this item back up and returned it...1) The tie down straps that it comes with are useless. The tie downs are long 1" wide straps, with loops at each end. The practical use of such a strap is, well, there is none. I messed with it for 15 minutes before realizing this. Fortunately, I have straps with ratchet ends that I keep in my truck. Using these, we were able to secure the carrier to the luggage rack of our 2015 Honda Pilot.2) The zipper is terrible. Not only does it function poorly, but ours broke on the first use. The zipper is supposed to be water/rain resistant. The practical reality of the design, however, is that it is very difficult to operate. The zipper has a weather shroud - little pieces of flexible plastic along both edges of the zipper used to keep water out of the zipper. This shroud makes pulling the zipper closed very difficult, especially since zippling it closed happens after you get the carrier loaded and on the roof.3) The construction is terrible. To follow on point 2... We loaded this up to go on a ski trip. When I went to load it back up for the return trip, the zipper shroud had cracked all to pieces in the cold weather. (It was only in the 30's.) Along the entire length of the zipper, those pieces of plastic were all broken and cracked, which made closing the zipper an exercise in patience. It probably took me 15 minutes, going inch by inche around the entire length of the carrier.Then, as if to punctuate the shoddy construction - when I got to the last foot of zipper (again, packing on the way home) I found that the zipper itself had become separated from the carrier - the stitching had failed. I doubled up my straps (fortunately I brought extras) because we drove home with a foot-long hole where the zipper had torn from the carrier. Note: The tear was not due to my forcing the zipper. When I noticed this, I had not yet even "worked" on that part of the zipper to get it closed.4) The design is flawed. A soft top carrier is a nice idea, but don't get it wet. It is weather resistant enough, but when the rooftop is wet - or as we experienced had ice on it - the soft top carrier slides all over the place. Again, this came down to tie downs. If we did not have our own set (and extra set) of ratcheting tie downs, we would have had to pile all our stuff up around and under the kids to get home.We even bought a "skid pad" for like an extra 15 bucks. It was just a 30" square piece of fabric. Well, it worked great as a non skid pad when the roof was warm and dry, but cold and wet it didn't do anything, and may have exacerbated the slipping of the carrier - again, thank goodness we had our own tie downs.5) It is noisy. On our first trip the carrier was quiet until we got on the highway. At highway speeds, the straps vibrate and cause all kinds of noise. Keep in mind, we used our own tie downs and had the TIGHT. Even still, the straps vibrating was just awful on a 5 hour trip. We stopped on the side of the road twice to make sure it was still secure.Don't buy this. It is not only poorly constructed, but cheaply constructed. If you go on a trip with this loaded and it breaks as mine did, you may not be able to use it and find yourself with more stuff than you have cargo room for.