We bought a 2009 Fit Sport (hubby wanted a manual) – its our first NEW car and we are thrilled with it!! Spring is here and we are gonna embark on a bunch of home improvement projects so we need a ROOF RACK to enable some hauling from the local home depot and back. As great as the cargo capacity is, you can’t stick a sheet of drywall inside it.

Why doesn’t Honda sell their OEM roof rack in North America? It looks great!! I would buy it in a heartbeat if I could figure out how to get it. Why, oh why???

Anyways from reading other threads the choices seem to be:
1. Inno
2. Thule 2199kit/400xtr
3. Yakima’s Q towers.

My understanding is that all of these compromise the door's weatherstripping somewhat. I’ve ruled out the Inno because I’ve read the space between the hold bar are quite narrow.

Looking for some comments/pros/cons as to which ones might work better for us – does any of these systems say, not clear the antenna on the roof if we tried to put a flat sheet of wood on top? This is for the occasional haul (not something we would leave on the car – although hubby keeps talking about taking up kayaking!!)

Thanks in advance!

 

I can't comment on the roof rack offerings. I'll only suggest you put what you can inside the Fit- which can fit a lot. Anything like full sheets of wall board and such, I'd rent the HD pickup and haul the lot home that way. It's cheap and makes things a hell of a lot easier. Just know what you need for your oversize haul and get it all in one trip. The Fits roof is rather weak and I certainly wouldn't trust a heavy load, roof rack or not. Good luck whichever way you choose.

Dan

 

Last time I checked Toyota rented trucks to do such a thing. I don't know the rates, but we had to do something like that when we bought wood for a bed frame that was almost two feet longer than we could shove into the car. Uhaul rents vans for something like 19.95 plus mileage which isn't too much more on top of that.

 

NO, NO, NO, forget hauling anything like drywall,plywood,and anything of large surface area that will grab air on a roof rack of ANY car. #1- 2 sheets of depending what size & thickness drywall will weigh more then rack capacity. #2-Moving Air will be directed up from the windshield up under the dry wall,plywood,etc and will snap or may lift the rack clean off the roof,providing the dry wall doesn't break first. Racks are made to carry positive weight{down pressure} not severe uplifting pressure. Trust me, been there done that{different car, years ago}. The Fits roofline is canted downward in the rear making the front high and making it a nearly perfect lifting surface. Not only will you damage your car, the flying "whatever" could fly directly into the windshield of the person behind you. Those materials are best carried tied down in the bed of a pick up truck,or in a rental truck or van. 2X4's, ladders,pipe can safely be carried because they have no lifting surface area,unless spread accross the rack to create a lift surface. Please Don't Do It !

PaFitter

 

I would take that advice to the bank! Like I said, most home depots have rental pickup trucks for this very purpose. Very well worth it, in my experience.

Dan

 

This is what I purchased my Yakima with Q towers for originally. It worked for a bit but then nearly go ripped off the car, cause several hundred dollars worth of damage to the edges of my roof. I would consider other options if you're thinking about hauling anything larger than 2x4s and such.

 

Hello Guys,

I've been searching all over the internet and I found this sites eCarRoofRacks.com and it gives me more information and different style in Car Roof Racks.
Can you give me some tips in how to choose a Car Roof Racks in my car.

Thanks
Steve

 

The best tip is to contact a reputable rack retailer like ORS Direct and let them help you choose what you need.

 

I agree with shockwave and others.............

Roof is flimsy, large sheets catch BIG air........

Menards rents pick-ups for $19.95, At a local Budget I can rent a 16" box truck for $39 a day......THIS is cheaper and wont hurt your car.

However I DO use my Fit for sheets of material, but I use my 4.5 X10' aluminum snowmobile trailer. That works fine as the trailer takes the load weight, not the car.

FYI 7' 2x4's do fit in the FIT, but that is about max length.

 

To all of you saying that the drywall would catch air... just how fast are you driving?!? Goodness!

I've hauled drywall in the bed of a pick up truck. on top of SUVs/vans... even on top of sedans... and short of going full speed on a highway, there's little chance of "catching big air."

I guess the real reason is... I don't even go "full speed" on local roads. I'd go at MOST 35 mph.

Short of 40 mph winds, all you really need is to drive with some sense (caution).

 

seriously.......

Dont need no van -pick up- or s-u-v
cuz those guzzlers aint for me
You can haul tons of shit
on the roof of a Fit

 

I love the little pieces of Home Depot string in the picture. I'll bet just one more piece of string tied to the wiper or mirror would have been enough to hold it all together!

 

thule, thule, thule. i love mine, but i dont carry building materials on mine.

 

Hey Goober,

Grab a sheet of plywood,or drywall,hold it over your head,tilt the front edge up some,and run with it,you'll see what I mean. That is the force the roof rack has to deal with,and not designed to handle. It will almost break your wrists with lifting force. Now multiply that by even 10mph and you probably have enough lift to almost fly. Anyone attempting hauling that on the roof of a Fit with ANY roof rack made, is less then intelligent. Darwin would be proud.

PaFitter

 

That being said... I guess I need to add to my previous post...

Be a bit reasonable with the AMOUNT you are carrying.

Though, I guess I should admit, I've had my fair shares of "overburdening" a vehicle.

Ever try hauling TWENTY 50lb cases of chicken? Unfortunately, the chicken wasn't the only thing I had in there... I had cases of soda, bags (each being 50lbs) of salt, sugar, flour and starch. I was shopping for my brother's restaurant. I don't remember the entire count... but the Toyota Sienna I was using at the time had it's back end look like that Jetta. Acceleration from full stop, with "the pedal to the metal"? You could out walk it. Even though I didn't have far to drive... it took forever!

After that, I vowed to be a bit more reasonable. A couple of smaller quick trips are easier to deal with than one huge/heavy/slow trip.

 

I was nervous putting a xmas tree on my GD3 roof HAHAHAHA

 

To be honest... I'd disagree.

a) If you managed to run fast enough to get lifting force... you'd more likely simply lift up and be unable to continue running that fast to begin with. The force, would cause your arms to stretch out... and if there were a big enough gust of wind at that same time... only then would it affect your wrist if you can't maintain a grip on it... but if you could, it'd more likely pop your shoulder.

b) Depending on your placement onto the roof... you can minimize the lifting force and air resistance created. By moving it further back and propping the far back end slightly up, you can create a vacuum effect instead. And since you're probably not going 250 mph (250 mph is the speed where even a Bugatti Veyron can lift off if it doesn't have it's spoilers out to create the down force), or even close to 100 mph... any lift on the top side of the drywall sheets should be countered by both the vacuum and the weight of the vehicle. Of course, the bigger reason for propping up the back is to make it more level to begin with... to AVOID the lift force.

c) it also depends on your tie down points. If I were to use a Fit... unless it was a factory mounted roof rack/rail, I'd more likely loop the front ropes through the interior of the Fit. I would NOT tie it to a 3rd party, user added rack. The only purpose of the rack would be to provide a flatter surface (than the Fit's curved roof)... and to avoid scratching up the the Fit too badly.

With the proper placement, leveling and tie-down (and obviously avoiding gross over weight/speed)... I'm sure even you would realize, Darwin would do it TOO!

 

That's the way I always tied down our tandem kayak on the Accord. I figured, why take chances?

 

One time (true story) trying to make my way to a borrowed pick up with a freshly Home Depot purchased 4 x 8 plywood sheet On a windy day I sailed right past Office Max and ended up at Petco

But I still contend that catching air just cant happen.

 

I thought I would post this picture because it's somewhat along the lines of the original question about a roof rack for occasional Home Depot trips. I have a house in another state and keep a cheapie K-mart rack there to use on rental cars. I works fine for short trips to the kayak launch, and I haven't scratched or dented any car roofs with it, but I do carefully clean the roofs before I install it. I run the straps through the open car doors as suggested earlier - you can see the front strap through the windshield in the photo.

I wouldn't use this for frequent hauls (I have a good Inno rack for my Fit). But used carefully, these universal racks can work fine too.

Note: For anything further than this half mile trip at 20 MPH, I would rig up a front tie down too. And I would definitely want a front tie down on anything that might tend to lift. I also would not put a lot of weight on this type of rack for fear of denting the roof, but I think it would be OK for hauling a few 2x4s.