Lund 601016 Soft Pack Roof Bag , Black

I purchased this carrier for a Christmas time family of four trip + 2 small dogs (about 12 hrs driving one way) in a Chevy Impala. This car has a huge trunk and we have traveled before without issues, but after adding in the amount of presents and cold weather clothing we would be transporting, there was no way to get everything inside the car.I started to search for a roof top carrier but most stated that a roof rack was necessary and I did not want to purchase a rack also as it is likely the only time this will be needed. This bag popped up while searching Amazon and the fact that reviews stated no roof rack was needed, defintley caught my attention. After reading many of the reviews and examining my Impala, I did not feel comfortable that the clips that came with the bag would be sufficient. I took M. Ledford's advice and purchased a pack of 6-ft cam buckle tie-downs at the same time.The bag arrived and the first thing I noticed was the quality - for the price I was surprised and very pleased. I then set it on the car to see how it would tie-down, and I did not feel the included clips would hold at all -- I belive it all depends on how you particular vehicle roof frame is molded. The Impala roof angles inward about a 45 degrees and the clips would start to slide off as it was tightened.I ended up making a loop with attached straps just as you would if you were hooking to a roof rack. I took one end of the cam-buckle and hooked it to this strap and ran it into the vehicle and thru the interior handle. I did the same on the opposite side and connected together thru the locking can buckle and pulled tight. I did this in the front and back and the bag was not going anywhere. I ziptied the loose strap ends to the the tight strap and this worked well. No issues with the loose straps flapping and making noise.Prior to securing, I heeded the warning of others that some moisture will get in in heavy rain. I loaded up boots and heavy coats and other misc. items in garbage bags. I placed two suitcases in the roof bag also and laid a waterproof tarp over the top of them and zipped the bag close.We set out on our trip and the first eight hours or so were good with minimal noise and a small rain shower. After a stop for gas at about 8 hours, and not even touching the bag, we set back out on the interstate. After about a minute this horrible "vibration" type noise started and would not stop. After about 3 or 4 minutes we could no longer stand it so I pulled over at the next exit and the straps on the bag had loosend slightly. Not anywhere near the point that the bag was endanger of shifting or coming loose, but enough to allow some movement in the straps at 75 MPH causing the noise. After retightening, we pulled back onto the interstate and the horrible noise was gone.Immediatley after we got going, the rain came and it rained non-stop until we made it to our destination. After about two hours or so of steady rain, the straps that came into the car at all four doors started dripping into the vehicle. Nothing major, but it was definitely annoying and we did not have any towels inside the car to help with this. Something we will be ready for on the trip back home.After arriving, I immediately removed the bag from the roof and opened it to see how wet/dry everything was. All the items in garbage bags were 100% dry as expected. I removed the tarp and the top of the suitcases were also 100% dry. However, when we removed the suticases, the bottoms were wet from soaking up some water that had settled on the bottom of the bag. After receiving some serious dirty looks from my teenage daughters (I wasn't putting mine or the wife's bag up there :) ), everything inside the suitcases remained 100% dry as there is a plastic lining on the bottom of each suitcase .......I got lucky there.Overall, I'm extremely pleased with this roof top bag. Quality seems excellent and while it does let some moisture in, I can live with that at this price point. I could have paid 5-10X this amount to purchase a roof rack and water proof carrier but I felt like I could make this bag work and it has exceeded my expectations. It's not silent at interstate speeds, but not something that a radio turned up a notch could not handle. Just be sure the straps are very tight with loose ends secured (rechecking at EVERY stop), put anything that needs to stay dry in a plastic bag, and enjoy your trip.

4 stars for this product: Fairly water proof, holds an enormous amount of clothing/items, CAN be used on a flat top SUV (no side rails) with some ratchet straps. Minus 1 star for the noise factor and zippers in front (design idea to change it to the two long sides and one short side).I traveled cross country (Philadelphia to Seattle) with this strapped to the roof of my 2016 Mazda CX5. It held all of my clothes (well, okay, about two seasons worth since I'm only visiting for part of the year for work) - so for me that was 12x55gallon white trash bags of clothing. And the roof bag settled while driving so I probably had room for 2-3 more. It has significant room in the top contrary to how it looks at first glance.It comes with the straps and the hooks to get it onto your side rails. My touring package did not come with the side rails so I bought a roof mat plus this bag plus ratchet straps. I chose to put three ratchet straps on pretty tight since I did not want to take them off for any stops. You could get away with two. You can sort of see in the picture I posted that I thread the ratchet strap through the tie loop attached to the bag already, so this held it VERY securely instead of the straps moving while the bag settled.Now driving across the country in February saw a bit of rain and snow. I went south for the most part and then back up through salt lake, but the bag DID get wet. In fact the outside was soaked. However, upon checking it there was very little dampness inside. After 6 days on the road I finally pulled it off and only about a 1/2 cup of water was in the entire thing. I would say that is mighty "waterproof" for that amount of weather and length of trip.TIP: do, in fact, put all your things in garbage bags if there is weather in your area during your use of it.TIP: once your roof bag is on then load it up (it gets too heavy otherwise) and face every bag towards the rear of your car! This is because with the wind pushing the elements through the zipper in the front that is how a few of my bags, which shifted forward in the drive, had the first piece damp when I arrived. To avoid that face them backwards so the opening is not exposed to that wind/element factor.TIP: Tie up the extra material. It flaps and makes incredible slapping sounds if you don't get it tight. I'd just shove it under the bag, the weight will hold it downTIP: YES you can fit a tsa luggage lock through the zipper pulls to keep it secure. Needs to be a thing one though. No padlocks.The noise factor: now I'm thinking you could work on this to make it slightly less crazy but once my ratchet straps were on there was no way those suckers were coming off until I made it to Seattle. So I had to improvise on the trip. Basically, as the bag settles while your driving (check it for movement or loose straps at gas stations and then just ratchet it again to make it tighter if needed) it can create hollows at the base. These little hollows turned into wind tunnels. Those wind tunnels sat right over my moonroof. You can imagine. :) I ended up putting padding in my moonroof and a towel up onto the front of my bag by day 4 just to get a better air direction up there.I didn't mind the wind lag at all. This thing held and didn't budge and I was doing 85 across half of america. My gas mileage sucked at points, but that was to be given seeing as I have hundreds of extra pounds in moving, 3 feet higher on the top of my car throwing off its center and creating a sail essentially.Pictures: can see the size of it on my car from a distance. The close up is to show you how it can fold and create those wind tunnels. Obviously I could've gotten more into the bag to help balloon that out, but if you have the time (I didnt) I would rearrange it at stations or stops when you could to eliminate those. Also that picture has the original black straps hanging. We were working those back in underneath or tying them up to the top. You can see where I fed the colored ratchet straps through the black loop holes actually attached to the bag as well for extra security.

After much research (and checking our bank account) we decided to try this rather than a hard shell Thule or product like that. We LOVE this and it's so much cheaper so we definitely made the right decision. Doesn't slide around so don't bother buying the rubber mat that I've seen on amazon for underneath. We use this for camping every year and it holds our bedding, camping chairs, and gazebo! Best money every spent by far.

I'm giving it a three star because it arrived promptly and it is a good size bag. We had room to spare. I can't give it higher because we never got stuck in the rain with it so I don't know if it's actually waterproof. My husband lamented that the zipper was flimsy though and probably wouldn't last very long.

Soft yet durable. Drove 8 hours in perfect conditions and there was no noise or movements. I had it packed to the max! Did a good job for extra space for sure

It's good, no problems yet! We'll see as we enter into our second year. Used it maybe 4 or 5 times in 2014 summer. Worked fine, no leaks.

Works great, and priced right. Other bags of the same quality are double the price. Very happy with this product.