Roof racks · Cargo boxes · Hitch carriers
The trunk is full and the trip is tomorrow
Trusted roof rack and cargo carrier guides, organized by the thing that actually decides your purchase: what fits your vehicle. Published load limits, the real mpg cost, and how to load it so nothing moves.
- Vehicles covered
- 12
- Load figures verified
- 12
- Cited sources
- 23
- Products we claim to have tested
- 0
This year’s picks
The top pick from every roundup on the site. Prices are checked on Amazon when you click, never quoted here.
Best for SUVs
Thule WingBar Evo
8.6The bar most owners wish they had bought first, because wind noise is what makes people stop using a rack.
Best for trucks
Thule WingBar Evo
8.2With the Evo Clamp foot pack and a truck-specific fit kit, this is the quietest and most widely supported way onto a bare cab roof.
Best for bare roofs
Thule Evo Clamp foot pack
8.3The foot pack that turns Thule's Evo bars into a bare-roof system, with the widest fit-kit catalog of anything here.
Best cargo box for SUVs
Thule Motion 3
8.6The box most SUV owners should buy: dual-side opening, a low-profile XL option, and the mounting system that gives you the least trouble.
Best rooftop cargo bag
RoofPax Car Roof Bag
8.4Ships with door-hook straps, so it works on a bare roof as well as on crossbars — the most flexible option here.
Best roof basket
Thule Canyon XT
7.8Expandable, well finished, and with tie-down points where you actually need them rather than where they were easy to weld.
Best for SUVs
CURT 18153 Folding Cargo Carrier
8.5The folding shank is what makes this the right basket for an SUV with a tall rear hatch.
Best with a ramp
Black Widow AMC-400
8.1Aluminum, 400 lb rated, with a ramp that stores flat on the carrier instead of living in your trunk.
Best for RVs
MaxxHaul 70108 Aluminum Carrier
7.8Aluminum keeps the empty weight down, which is exactly what you want when the receiver rating is the constraint.
Best hitch bike rack
Kuat Piston Pro X
8.7Hydraulic pistons clamp the tires rather than the frame, which is both gentler on bikes and faster to use than anything else here.
Best without a hitch
Saris Bones EX
7.7Injection-molded legs shaped for hatchbacks and spoilers, and no metal part touches the car.
Best for e-bikes
Thule EasyFold XT 2
8.6Built around e-bike weight from the ground up, folds flat for storage, and takes a loading ramp.
Best for four bikes
Thule T2 Pro XTR
8.4Two bikes plus the two-bike add-on gives you the most versatile four-bike platform, with the widest tire range of the group.
Best kayak rack for SUVs
Thule Hullavator Pro
8.0Gas struts drop the cradle to waist height and take about 40 lb of the lift — the only real answer for a heavy boat on a tall roof.
Best with no roof rails
Malone AirFlow2
8.1A full aero crossbar kit from a paddlesport brand — bars, towers and fit hardware in one purchase.
Best for two kayaks
Malone Stax Pro2
8.4A folding vertical post with all four straps and the bow and stern lines included — the complete two-boat solution.
Best kayak setup for trucks
NRS Heavy-Duty Tie-Down Straps
8.7Cam straps are the correct tool for a hull. The bed already gives you tie-down points; these are what goes through them.
Best ratchet straps
Rhino USA Ratchet Straps (1 in x 15 ft)
8.3Four 1-inch straps with S-hooks and soft loops at a sensible strength for roof and hitch loads.
Best cam buckle straps
NRS Heavy-Duty Tie-Down Straps
8.7The paddlesport standard, and the strap most instructors use on their own boats.
Best cargo net
Rhino USA Cargo Net
7.9Heavier bungee cord and steel hooks, sized for a full-size basket rather than a trunk.
Best gifts for road trippers
Rhino USA Ratchet Straps (1 in x 15 ft)
8.3The safest gift here: four proper ratchet straps with soft loops, for someone currently using whatever came free with something else.
Best gifts for kayakers
NRS Heavy-Duty Tie-Down Straps
8.7Proper cam straps with a padded buckle, for a paddler still using whatever came in the box.
Start with what you are carrying
Six categories, each a destination rather than a list — how the category divides, what decides price, and the mistake buyers make.
Crossbars & systems
Roof Racks
Crossbars and the foot packs that hold them on. Start here if the roof is bare or the rails have nothing bridging them.
Top pick: Thule WingBar Evo
Boxes, bags & baskets
Cargo Boxes
Hard shells, soft bags and open baskets. The volume answer when the trunk is full and the bags are bulky rather than heavy.
Top pick: Thule Motion 3
Rear-mounted cargo
Hitch Carriers
Load at waist height, carry real weight, and keep the fuel penalty far below a roof box. Usually the better answer.
Top pick: CURT 18153 Folding Cargo Carrier
Carrying bikes
Bike Racks
Hitch, trunk and roof. Which one you can use is decided by your car before it is decided by your budget.
Top pick: Kuat Piston Pro X
Boats & boards
Kayak Racks
J-cradles, saddles, stackers and load assists. The right one depends on your boat, your roof height and your shoulders.
Top pick: Yakima JayLow
Straps & nets
Tie-Downs
The cheapest part of the load and the part that fails. Ratchets, cam straps, nets and bow lines.
Top pick: Rhino USA Ratchet Straps (1 in x 15 ft)
How this site is different
Vehicle first
Fitment data, not adjectives
Roof type by model year, the published load limit with the document it came from, and how to measure your own crossbar spread. Where two sources disagree, we publish the disagreement.
No testing theater
We say what we have not done
We do not physically test every product we recommend, and when we haven’t used something we say so. What we do is compare published specifications and cite every factual claim.
Honest about price
No numbers that go stale
We don’t publish prices, because prices change daily. Every product link goes to the current price on Amazon so you see today’s figure rather than one we wrote down months ago.
Read these first
The four questions that decide almost every purchase in this category.
How this is funded
Roof & Route is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you buy through a link on this site we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Commission never decides what we recommend or the order we recommend it in, and every product we link to is one we believe is currently sold and genuinely suited to the job described.
We do not publish prices. Every link goes to the current price on Amazon. Product photographs on this site are representative stock images, not the exact unit.
68 products in our registry, every one currently sold.
73 indexable pages covering roof racks, cargo boxes, hitch carriers, bike racks, kayak racks and tie-downs.