Methodology
How We Research
The most important page on this site, because it tells you exactly how much weight to give everything else on it.
What we do
Three things, and they are the whole of our method.
- Compare published manufacturer specifications. Load ratings, dimensions, mounting systems, capacities and materials, read from the manufacturer’s own documentation rather than from a retailer’s summary where we can get it.
- Cross-check fitment against manufacturer documentation. Vehicle roof types, published roof load limits and hitch ratings come from owner’s manuals and manufacturer fit guides, and we name the document.
- Synthesize aggregate owner feedback, and label it as exactly that when we use it. An aggregate impression is not a measurement and we do not present it as one.
What we do not do
We do not physically test every product we recommend. When we haven’t used something, we say so.
That sentence is the reason this page exists. Plenty of sites in this category imply hands-on testing they have not done, and the phrasing is always the same: “in our testing,” “after 500 miles,” “our testers found.” You will not find those phrases here, because they would not be true.
What we compete on instead is fitment accuracy. Correctly stating a vehicle’s published roof load limit, its roof type by model year and where that figure came from is verifiable work that requires no product budget — and it is more useful to someone about to spend money than another set of test miles.
What our scores mean
Every product we rank carries a score out of ten across four or five category-specific metrics. Those scores are editorial judgment on published specifications, applied consistently within a category. They are not measurements, they are not user ratings, and they are deliberately not marked up as review ratings in the page’s structured data — because a search engine reading a star rating would reasonably assume we had tested the product.
How products are selected
- Currently sold. A roundup recommending something discontinued is actively harmful. When a product goes out of production we replace it.
- Fits the stated use case. The best hitch carrier is not the answer to a question about a car with no receiver.
- Verifiable published specifications. If we cannot find real specifications, it does not go in.
- Meaningful owner feedback. Enough real-world use that consistent patterns are visible.
- Buyer-first ordering. Commission never decides placement. Where a cheaper product is the better answer, it ranks above a more expensive one.
How we handle prices
We don’t publish prices, because prices change daily. Every link goes to the current price on Amazon.
A price written into a page is wrong within a week and misleading within a month. Rather than publish a number that decays, we send you to the live one. Where you see “check price on Amazon” on this site, that is what it means — not that we could not find a price, but that we are not going to pretend a stale one is current.
How we handle images
Product photographs on this site are representative stock images, labeled as such on every product card. They show the kind of thing the product is; they are not photographs of the specific unit and we do not present them as such. No image on this site implies we own, have used, or have photographed a product.
How we handle things we cannot verify
This is where most of the value on this site lives, so it is worth being precise.
- Where a manufacturer does not publish a figure, the page says “not published by the manufacturer” and tells you where to look in your own documentation. We do not fill the gap with a forum number.
- Where two sources disagree — which on vehicle roof load figures happens more often than you would expect — we publish the disagreement and explain which we would work to. We do not average them or quietly pick one.
- Where a figure came from a secondary source rather than a manufacturer document, we label it unverified rather than presenting it as fact.
Our vehicle fitment pages mark every load figure as verified or not verified, with the document named underneath.
How often pages are reviewed
| Content type | Review cadence |
|---|---|
| Vehicle fitment pages | Every 6 months, or on a new model year |
| Product roundups | Every 6 months, or when a pick is discontinued |
| Comparisons and model reviews | Every 12 months, or when a model is superseded |
| Guides | Every 12 months, or on a manufacturer guidance change |
| Product availability | Continuous — anything no longer sold is replaced |
Every content page shows a visible “last reviewed” date, and vehicle pages additionally show a “fitment data last verified” date. Those dates change only on a genuine review, never cosmetically.
How we handle being wrong
We will be wrong sometimes. Manufacturers change specifications, model years overlap, and documentation contradicts itself.
If you find an error, tell us — especially a fitment error. Point us at the manufacturer documentation and we will check it and correct the page. Write to janet.hoyo@yahoo.com or use the contact form.
Corrections are made to the page itself and the last-reviewed date is updated. We do not quietly delete pages that turn out to be wrong.
How this site is funded
Affiliate commission, through the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you buy through a link here we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Commission does not influence what we recommend or the order we recommend it in, and there is a disclosure above the first affiliate link on every page that carries one. The full statement is on our affiliate disclosure page.