Still undecided about exactly which rack to add to my OEM bars. I like that the Playpen only weighs 25 lbs, the others are 35 lbs. But I like the grabbars and other things on the Thule, the bigger size (for same weight) of the Mega, etc. I am not hauling kayaks, but did hope to have one bike gutter attached, but only when needed.

A few questions:

Given that these will attach to an OEM rack. How easy/difficult will the cargo basket be to remove? I don't want it up there all the time as it does interfere with parking garage (6.5 ft clearing) at office.

Are the gutters for the bikes easily removed from the baskets?

Does the Load Warrior leave sufficient space for the moonroof to still open? I assume the others prevent the moonroof from opening??

Anyone have strong feelings about any of these?

PS. I saw a megawarrior set up on a pickup bed yesterday. With the extra gutters and all for bikes. Looked like it worked real well leavng cargo under the basket, in the basket, and the bikes on top in that situation.

You should be able to open the moonroof to the vent position with any of these baskets in place. Opening it far enough to remove may be possible. I can do that with the Sidekick in place, and I suspect that is longer than the baskets (without extension).

Stop by REI or GIJOES (Portland based sports chain) to look at their floor models. Mounting instructions can be found on Yakima and Thule web sites.

paulj

check out the current EOM (August) on hondaelement.org for pictures of an E with one of the warriors on top. The bikes are on hitch rack.

paulj

I have the Thule Playpen and have had no problem either opening or removing my sunroof. The basket also comes on and off the vehicle rather easily as long as you have a small step ladder. I would post a pic, but am at work right now. I don't think you will be disappointed in the Playpen.

Well, I have a trip planned for next week, so I went out and bought the rack today. I ended up going with the Load Warrior. Actually like the looks of the Thule Playpen better, but I decided to keep to the 25 lbs since I have at least 80 lbs of gear to put up there.

I've assmbled the basket and brought it in the house to see if my gear fits. Sure enough. Actually holds more than I expected. I bought some tie downs at REI--kinda like the ones you strap the kayaks with. I don't like bungees--too dangerous and afraid they will hit the car. Has anyone tried the nets Yakima makes? The whole concept seems a little iffy to me--do they really hold the gear in?


Also bought the locking mounts. Thule gives you the locks as part of the package. Had to pay extra for the Yakima ones.

Looks fairly simple to install onto the OEM rack and not heavy for lifting on and off. Per Yakima website, not adapters required for factory rack.

Anyway, the little redhead (SOP) keeps getting new accessories!

I've used the Basketcase net, in fact it is in use in my Element now - as a cargo divider inside. Depending on the load, you may want to use both a net and straps. Heavy items probably should have their own tie downs. In fact some items are best bolted or clamped to the basket, such as a spare tire or highlift jack. However some items are hard to control with individual straps, or would require so much criss-crossing of lines that you might as well use a net. A net would also be good for controling a tarp over the load.

paulj

I was at Target last night and found a rooftop cargo bag. Heavy cordura with all the straps for tieing onto racks/baskets. Cost $6.98 on clearance. These are the "Junior" cargo bags. Two or three of these bags will fit on the Load warrior. In one bag I have my tent (Eureka 6-person dome tent w/ fly), my sleeping bag, chair, and ground cover. They are quite roomy. They also have the full size cargo back for $29.99 in the same brand as well as the full size made by Rubbermaid. I think the two large bags cost the same for $29 or $39. Both look real good, but the ones that I bought came in a nice olive green and khaki color which would look good with the SOP. The Rubbermaid ones are blue and black and would look good on the NBP or the SSM and FBP. I also prefer having two or three smaller bags that are easier to lift and remove than the one big bag.

If you are looking for something to just do the job of tidying up the look of the gear up there, try out these bags at Target. I was real surprised to see them there.

Gonna share tonight's experience putting the LoadWarrior on the factory rack. Not as easy as it would be on either Yakima or Thule bars--FOR SURE! The OEM racks are just a tad too close together for the basket. Probably an inch or two. So the brackets do not seat properly and you have to struggle a bit to get all the screws to tighten evenly. Hope I didn't de-thread anything.

Anyway, after spending 45 minutes dealing with this, it definitely is solid as a rock up there. So solid, I hope I can ever get it off. Forget the idea of easy on/off that I had hoped for. I can see that the design must allow for a fairly easy on/off, so it's not the basket's problem. It is the ill-fit with the OEM that would make it way too much trouble to fuss with on a regular basis.

In spite of the shortcoming in fit, I love the basket. Even though I am not tall, by using cargo bags, I don't expect to have too much problem loading/unloading from up there. Will be packing for a trip tomorrow, so we'll see.

Was the width of the Honda cross bars a problem or just their spacing? I believe the spacing between the Yakima bars is going to be the same, though the bars themselves are narrower. The Thule system appears to allow a slight variation in the bar spacing.

paulj

You are correct in being more specific. It was definitely the width of the bars themselves. It is not possible to seat the basket support brackets evenly above the rack "bars" as indicated in step 5 of the instructions. Once you snapp the first support bracket into the rack and rest it over teh crossbar, you go to the back, and snap that suport bracket and find no matter where you position that bracket on the basket, it will not really lie over your crossbar. The spaciing available on the basket simply doesn't match. So either front or rear set will be seated over the bar only by the very edge. Not as stable as I would like. I even had to pull and tug to get it to reach at all.

Then when you go to twist the knobs tight, it's like the brackets just aren't enough to "reach over" the crossbar and you really have to be quite careful to try and bolt both sides them evenly as you go. Otherwise one will tighten and you won't get the other one close enough for the bolts to even reach.

It is definitely a OEM/Loadwarrior fit problem. I'm sure the whole thing works much better with the Thule or Yakima crossbar system, as you said, those are narrower.

I would hope those bolts are quite strong, as it would not be hard for me to imagine one popping. And I have discovered the hitch mounted cargo carrrier for lugging some heavier stuff I have chosen not to carry on the roof. With only be putting tents, tarps, clothes, etc up there I am gonna try and keep the entire rooftop load within a conservative 75-90 lb range incl basket. I think it will work just fine under that scenario.

Sorry for bringing this one back from the dead, but at least it proves i'm using the search function! :)

I'm considering the LoadWarrior or the Rola rooftop cargo baskets to go on my factory roof rack. Did you ever discover any better fitment... or does this problem with fitting the loadwarrior to the factory roof rack continue? I wonder if there's a similar problem with the Rola, i'll have to look into how it fastens.

If I recall correctly, factory rack owners had similar fit problems with one or more of the cheaper baskets. The saddles that attach to the basket crossbars have a shallow V shape. With Element's fixed spacing, some mismatch between saddle position on the basket, and the rack bar position is inevitable. The solution, as with this Loadwarrior case, is to slowly tighten all 4 brackets evenly, aiming to distribute the mismatch across all brackets.

I don't recall if the Rola basket had this problem.

we said paulj:)