We have a 2016 Fit LX. My major disappointment with the Fit is that while it can hold a lot of stuff, it does not have a roof rack or even side rails. I also used to drive a Corolla wagon and it was old enough that it had all kinds of ways you could attach things to the inside and outside (such as a separate bumper to loop a rope around) to tie things down. I live about 5 miles from a hardware store but if I want to buy something longer than an 8 foot pole I can't figure out how to do it. I don't like driving with the hatch open but I did it once or twice with my Corolla and it wasn't too bad since I only had to have it open a few inches and wasn't going faster than about 25 mph. I haven't figured out how to do this with our Fit. I guess there's the shipping ring under the back bumper but how would I attach it to the back hatch to keep it down? I don't need to do this often but the last time I needed to buy a screen door I had to pay somebody else to get it for me. It was about 4" too large to get into the Fit.

 

They sell after market roof racks.

 

All the racks I have seen have relatively narrow attachment points, gutter grips, and seem to be designed for short and lighter things such as skis or bicycles. The attachment points are only about 2.5 feet apart because they have to grip at the tallest part of the driver's door and tallest part of the passenger door. I don't know that moving a 12' 2x4 or a screen door would have a lot of stability on that. I don't know how one would tie it down anyway since anything long, wide, and flat would cause antenna interference and have nothing to tie down to at the front and back to prevent it see-sawing. My wagon had a roof rack but the attachment points were a good 3.5 feet apart because they were anchored to the roof and not just gripping the gutters. The roof racks are also pretty expensive given that I only need them every other year or so.

 

Antenna is a no-brainer, it screws off in a few seconds.....if you only need to haul occasionally, rent/borrow a truck

 

I bought a used 5'x8' (or is it 5x7?) open-frame utility trailer from a friend and use that if I need to haul stuff. The trailer itself weighs about 250 lbs, so I could put maybe 700 lbs worth of stuff. Not much, but the space is there. It's open-frame, so no ceiling to get in my way.

I wouldn't do long drives, but t's fine for a quick Home Depot runs and what not.

 

Yes, the crossbars would not be that far apart but a screen door or 2X4 doesn't weigh much. If you tie them down properly you should be okay. FYI Tying down properly does NOT mean wrapping a rope around the things in a circle. It means cinching them down properly. I use tie-down straps and way more than I need to.

It's also not terrible to have the hatch open a bit and things sticking out, if they have something tied to them so someone doesn't crash into you. Also be sure sure sure to drive with windows open if the hatch is open so you don't suck exhaust gas into the passenger compartment with the hatch open.

 

Having the hatch mostly closed on the long objects was the way I did it with my other car (plus keeping the windows open and not having things stick out more than a foot or two). If it was a couple of boards it only needed to be open a couple of inches. The problem I have with the Fit is there is no way to tie the hatch closed. On my Corolla I would run a rope from the roof rack down and around the bumper. The Fit has an integrated bumper so there's nothing to wrap a rope around unless I go to the shipping tie-down eye on the bottom of the car, and there's no roof rack. I could maybe devise some complex system of a rope through the rear windows and then a Y arrangement to the back of the car over the roof. Alternatively maybe use the rear middle passenger seat belt attachment as an anchor, then up around the gap at the top of hte hatch when it is open and then down the outside... I was hoping somebody else had tried things before and would let me know what worked for them.

 

Your Fit doesn't have a roof rack because it's an economy city car designed to maximize interior space while still getting good fuel efficiency. If it came with a rack or rails from the factory it would likely get 1-2 mpg less every day of the year and then folks would complain about that.

As someone already pointed out, if you need to haul long cargo a handful of times a year, rent a truck or borrow one from a friend. If you're shopping somewhere like Lowe's or Home Depot they have rental trucks on site that are very reasonably priced for short duration trips and perfect for hauling stuff you can't or don't want to put in your Fit (e.g., lumber, plywood, compost, 80-lb bags of concrete, etc).

Or (sarcasm!), just do what most 'Muricans do: push your Fit into a ditch and buy the largest truck you can get a loan for and be absolutely ready for the four times per year when you need the cargo capacity. Get a RAM 3500 Limited Cummins diesel dually (call it $100K) and a 30 foot gooseneck trailer (there goes another $30K) and your long cargo worries will disappear.

 

A roof rack on a short car carrying long items is not a problem. Kayakers do it all the time.

 

And, to hold the hatch down, just replace one or more of the license plate mounting screws with eye bolts. They're M6 thread on my '09 fit and probably the same on a 2016.

 

Great suggestion Ultrawolf! From there I could go to the anchor point under the car at the rear. I don't need to really crimp down on the thing, just enough to stop it from bouncing up and down while I drive 5 miles on city roads.

Is the front line on the kayak also going to the front plates, or are you using the shipping anchor behind the circular port on the bumper?

I know I can rent vehicles from big box places. I did it once when I bought a 32' ladder, 6 4x8 sheets of OSB and 6 sheets of 2" insulation. It's just that if I need a single 10' 2x4 it adds appreciably to the cost, plus all the hassle of renting and returning.

 

For my front tie down, I was able to feed a loop of webbing in through a slot in the grill (below the bumper) and anchor that to the framework that holds the hood latch mechanism. But it's much easier to use "hood loops". Just search for "kayak hood loops" on Amazon. I would not use the license plate method for the front tie down as that tie down needs to be pretty strong.

 

+1
And if you need to haul large items more often, then maybe a Honda Fit isn't the right vehicle for you.

But if he did that, he'd probably be complaining about the poor fuel economy.

 

Okay, okay, enough going on about buying pickup trucks. I only need to carry large items once every two years or so. And by large I am not talking about 500lbs of cement or 4x8 sheets of plywood. I am fully aware (before even posting here) about buying king size cab pickups, and renting vehicles. You don't need to keep on going on about it. I am talking about the times when I need to buy something like a 10 foot long 2x4 that weighs a few pounds. My Corolla also wasn't designed to hold a 10 foot board but I could stick one into it with about 2 feet hanging out the back. I could then just lash the hatch down with it barely being open a few inches and get the board the 5 miles to my house. No renting a truck for $40 to carry a $10 board. No turning getting a board into a major expedition or having to mount a roof rack to the car (and then remove because when I drive our Fit I get better mileage than many people on this forum report).

No I do not know anybody with a pickup. I would have to rent one or have to pay the store to deliver it which would probably be $50 (the last time I checked 4 years ago) for a $10 board.

No, I do not need a pickup except maybe 30 minutes every 4 years. I do not want a pickup. Please stop suggesting I buy one. I have used a smaller car to transport this kind of thin in the past. I was just hoping somebody had suggestions (like Ultraawolf did) on ways to secure things on the outside of the vehicle.

Roof racks are okay, I would just find it easier (and cheaper) for most things to simply stick it into the back and lash down the hatch for a short distance. Again, I ONLY DO THIS ONCE EVERY FEW YEARS. I DO NOT NEED A PICKUP. Okay BMWguy22?

 

Okay, have you considered planting a tree, waiting for it to grow, getting a chainsaw, cutting down the tree, getting a table saw and making your own 2X4?

For what it's worth I've transported 2X4s sticking out of the hatch of my 2010 and 2016 Fits with no problem. The store is about five miles away but I live in a very hilly area so that complicated things a bit.

 

@Brain Champagne Did you have a way for keeping the hatch mostly closed while doing that? I've had one suggestion so far but would welcome others addressing that specific issue. Right now using a ring bolt to the license plate bolt hole and then connecting this to the shipping anchor ring under the car seems to be the only way. When my wife gets back with the car I could see if it might be possibly to instead attach the upper connection to the middle passenger seatbelt, over the top of the hatch, then lead it down the outside of the hatch to the shipping anchor connector. It used to be a lot easier with the old style bumper where I just looped the whole thing around the bumper. These new ones may help with reduced drag but you can't tie anything to them.

 

I bought a 4' x 8' trailer from Harbor Freight and installed a hitch on the car. I love the size for plywood and drywall, etc. When I bought floor joists at 12' long, strapping them on the trailer was a no brainer.

I'm interested in some of the ideas shown but I don't like the idea of making the license plate mounts do that much extra work. I also have a problem with the hood attachments shown. They are neat and I like the ingenuity of them but I don't want extra stress pulling the hood up especially on the highway. Again, I like the thought into these ideas but I wouldn't trust them.

For me, the trailer was the best idea I ever had... after marring my wife, having my son, joining the Army, being a paratrooper, going to colleg..... you get the idea. The trailer was the way to go for me.

 

Underneath there's a hook on my 2016 Fit Sport. I don't remember what I did to keep the hatch from bouncing but it's possible I ran a long tie-down strap between the hatch and the roof and went all the way around the hatch.

 

There's another very easy way to hold the hatch down. If you look at the latch mechanism, you'll see that the receiver above the bumper is just a squared off D-ring. So, the latch is designed to clamp onto a ring. With the hatch open, you can simply push a loose ring, like a a 1/4 inch carabiner, into the latch and it will latch onto the ring. Squeeze the hatch release to release the ring.

Note that I don't use this method. The latch mechanism looks kind of plasticky and I'd rather not risk damaging it. I'd much rather risk damaging a license plate mount using the ring bolt method.

 

I concur that the solutions will vary upon the demands being placed. If I was a handyman or a contractor or somebody doing this on a regular basis with truly large loads I'd go for a more robust solution. Once every 4 years I can lay a screen door in the back area with only a foot or so hanging beyond the bumper and only needing the hatch to be open 6 inches. My main concern then is the tie-down material chafing against the car finish. Maybe I can find an old sock or something, cut the toe off, then run the rope/bungee through it to protect the bumper. I just don't want the hatch bouncing up and down every time I go over a pothole.

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I just checked and although there's a nice looking ring on the inside of the roof where one attaches a middle passenger seatbelt, there isn't room to run anything over the hatch unless it was really, really narrow (like a wire). I'd have to do something fancy such as make a loop that fits over the top of the hatch and around the hinges, then attach that to the ring under the car. What I don't like about that is then it may start messing with the wiper blade, so then might have to adapt it to being two tie-downs, one attaching to each hinge -- or something.

I measured a door and it would stick out beyond the bumper about a foot. Depending upon leg length, and how much one can scrunch up, one could push the front seats forward, have the screen door propped up on the center armrest and reduce the extension beyond the bumper a few inches.

In terms of where I live, you only have to have a special flag or light if the load extends more than 4 feet beyond the physical boundaries of the car.