Hitch-mounted cargo carrier or roof cargo bin?

Well, I have me this shiny new [to me] minivan and I hate the feeling of it being crammed full on trips. Not going to do a trailer for a couple reasons, so what's better for hauling our vacation suitcases around? Hitch-mounted cargo carrier or roof cargo bin?
 

I do not plan to ever ever ever tow anything with it, but it does have those two bars along the roof (is that a rack?), whereas I have a loaner hitch-mounted cargo carrier available to borrow. I need to execute on either purchase by early/mid-week. 
 

2017 Grand Caravan 3.6

I've stayed with the hitch hauler route, on the assumption that it will affect mpg loss from aerodynamic drag less than on the roof. I have absolutely no proof of this, just me attempting to think about it. 
Also, some of those top bars are not installed to well. No clue about yours. 

I have had two roof top carriers. They take up a ton of space when not in use.

I'd go with the hitch mount.

 I also meant to ask brand recommendations. If a hitch, I'm not doing anything too taxing with it, yet any idea if there is a brand or style I should prefer or avoid?

P3PPY said:

 

... it does have those two bars along the roof (is that a rack?) 
 

 

Do you have the folding roof rack?  I dont but wish I did.  

Sears sold a popular value priced model called the X-Cargo.  With Sears gone, I see that both Summit racing $169 + $10 shipping for big 18 cu.ft. or Jegs for $225 and free shipping, also 18 cu. ft.

I put the search term "roof cargo box" in FB Marketplace and came back with 4 sub-$100 choices in Lansing, MI.  They are cumbersome to store.  We always borrowed a friend Sears model.  Most people store them up high in the garage.  I know more than one person who hides Christmas presents by storing them in the box while it sits in the garage.  

I did install a hitch for towing.  It took about 2 hours start to finish as detailed in bottom of this thread.

A couple comments from my minivan experience with a hitch, as well as some experience with roof mounted carrier (on a forester).

- On the Sedona I installed a "hidden" hitch (easy install since threaded holes were provided by the factory). It would bottom on taller driveway and parking lot exits. SWMBO made sure I know she didn't like that. 

- Hitch mounted cargo can be a challenge  if you need to access anything in the back cargo area through the hatch.

- Roof mounted carriers have their own issues ( like Woody pointed out), but also tend to be weather resistant so inclement weather isn't an issue.

- Roof mounted boxes are available with locks to reduce risk when stopped for meals or overnight.

- you'll most likely  need the cross bars as well as the rails that run length wise to install a rooftop box  

- On a tall vehicle the roof mount will be challenging to load and unload, and really would be for items you don't need to access until you arrive at the destination. 

I use a hitch mount for road trips with my Land Cruiser.   Quiet.  Easy to load.  Easy to store rack.  But someone always has to stay with car at gas stops because too easy to steal so that's my only annoyance with them.  I believe i purchased a Reese rack on Amazon.  

Just to clarify, notime mentioned his hidden hitch... that's merely a brand name... curt is another. It does not mean hidden!
The smaller class I receiver is all you would need for towing, but you don't plan to. The 2" square has more accessories available, but only comes in the heavier class II (and above), but as stated the 2" hangs down far enough to drag sometimes. But the class one on my dads oddy did sometimes also. 
Accessing rear cargo door past a load aside, much easier to load than roof top. Lots of options for waterproof, also. 

I have both, and my vote is for the roof box for a few reasons:

- minivans tend to have a lot of weight on/behind the rear axle already (3rd row passengers, packing gear in the seat well where the 3rd row folds into), the cargo carrier only makes that worse

- lockable storage on the roof rack carrier is a big plus

- clearance issues with the cargo carriers bottoming out  (see point 1)

My favorite setup is AirLift rear airbags and a rooftop carrier. Drove really well, and mileage didn't take much of a hit.

I always figured the "lock" on the roof top boxes, was about as useful as the locks on a guitar case...

You can buy a step that fits in your door latch that gives easy access to the roof box.  My cross bars are locked to the rails and the the box hardware is Locked inside the box so the only way in would be to break the box lock.  Not easily done.

The FE loss from my box is less than 2l/100km.

Crossbars can be expensive though.

I chose a hitch-mounted cargo carrier for my sedan.  I bought a Curt-brand hitch and liked the quality so I bought a Curt-brand cargo carrier as well.  The hitch was an easy install with excellent videos online from Curt.

Road trips are when I most want good gas mileage and I think a roof-mounted carrier will have a large mileage penalty.  Also, I think it will add more noise than the hitch-mount.

I bought a weatherproof bag that sits on top of the cargo carrier and quality straps so I don't worry about rain or load-shifting.

The hitch has never bottomed on anything.  The cargo carrier has a major adverse affect on your departure angle but driving diagonal over obstacles almost eliminates bottoming for me.  And that's with the trunk fully loaded and two smaller passengers in the back so the rear suspension is already lower.

No, it is not theft-proof.  So I only load it with things that aren't end-of-the-world if stolen, like a cooler or kids bicycles.

I don't use it often.  I didn't want to drive a CUV or SUV or minivan or truck so the hitch, cargo carrier and a Harbor Freight 4X8 trailer gives me most of the flexibility and utility of a larger vehicle without the higher buy-in plus the drivability and mileage of a sedan.  I just finished a road trip and was pulling down over 39 MPG at over 70 MPH on the interstate.

I have and have used both.  Hitch carrier works great to toss the canopy on, cases of water and a cooler.  Roof box is great for beach chairs and everything you don't care if it gets messy from the sand.   If you were local I'd let you borrow

I recently bought us a replacement town and country and a hitch mount was one of the first purchases so obviously hitch mount is my vote.  The hitch carrier gives you  much more flexibility in what you can carry.   I can modify mine to carry either totes / coolers or my kids bikes.  Since it is a 2" carrier, I can also use it on the truck if needed.  I also have it modified to work with the customer hitch I made for the Locost 7.    The hitch on the van also gives a good place to jack up the back of the van when needed for maintenance. 

As mentioned by others, the hitch carrier is smaller is size and easier to store.   It can be hung on the wall in the garage.  The roof mount boxes take up a lot more space when not in use. 

Just a thought, if you go with a hitch mounted cargo box that will take up the spot that a bike rack could go in the future. That might not be an issue for you though.

They're both good tools that do very similar, but not identical jobs. Ask yourself:

• What are you going to be using this for, and how much room do you need? Not only in terms of volume, but also size? 
• How often are you going to be using it?
• When using it, do you have room to store it at your destination? 
• Do you need it to be weatherproof? Lockable? 
• Do you need to open the hatch when you're using this (some vehicle/hitch carrier combos you can still access, but it is still in the way)
• Are you able to lift a car topper by yourself?

A hitch mount is going to be better for bulky, hard things, or things of odd/large dimensions. Bikes, coolers, generators, etc. In my mind it is generally for use in transit only, otherwise you'll want to take it off. So do you have a place to store it at the destination? Would it fit in the car? Note, you can stick one of the autocross trailer tool boxes on it and you've now made it lockable, and basically another trunk - so that gives a lot of the benefits of the car top carrier. 

A car top carrier is not in the way. It will hurt MPG, so figure out how often you'll use it and how much it will hit your pocket book. If you're using it for vacation, and vacation is driving 75 miles to a beach house and then just driving around town and nothing more on the trip, then it is pretty insignificant. If vacation is a 4,000 mile road trip, it may be hundreds of dollars in additional gasoline. The long cartop carriers are slim and don't hurt the MPG that much, they're wonderful for things like fishing poles, hockey sticks, golf clubs, clothes, other luggage, etc., but because they're not too tall you can't fit real tall things in them (though more than you'd expect). Duffle bags are your friends here rather than structured luggage. The turtle looking ones are ugly, kill MPG, but you can fit a lot of bulky stuff in there. 

I personally prefer the car top carrier, ours is a Yakima Rocket Box circa 2001. But it is definitely not the universal answer.

Honestly, on a van I consider both to be compromised solutions of last resort. Each creates their own unique set of complications that may ultimately be little better overall than simply living with the van feeling 'crammed full' during trips.

Driven5 said:

... little better overall than simply living with the van feeling 'crammed full' during trips.

Also be sure to maximize the internal storage.  All this talk of a roof box to add 18 cu ft (or less with a smaller box) but with the stow and go seats in an up possition, this leaves in floor strorage of 11.5 cu ft.  Not easy to access on every stop so maybe not the best place for a cooler but..  

If you pack your clothes in soft luggage, I bet you can get a family of 4's week's worth of clothes in those wells or etc.  

So, dont rush to add a roof box w/o first utilizing the storage in the belly.  

I have no experience with the hitch mounted carrier. I dislike roof racks enough to know that I would definitely do a hitch mount. I don't like all the extra wind noise the roof racks create.

We went roof top carrier on the wife's Pacifica Hybrid.  Thule XT

Used it for a month long road trip along the West Coast with 4 adults and 2 toddlers.  Stuffed it with diapers, wipes, toys, extra food, etc.

The carrier was damned handy and fairly easy to access, just pop a sliding door and stand up on the sill.  I did bring a folding step from HF just in case. 

Putting it on/off by myself wasn't easy but it is doable, much easier with two people.

It was perfectly quiet and stable up to 100mph (wife was driving, nearly got popped for it over a holiday weekend in California).  The only real drawback was that it blocks the sunroof, which would have been nice to have a few times on the trip.

They are bulky to store when not in use and you do have to be aware of your height before entering parking garages.

I used a ceiling mounted bicycle hoist setup with a cheap hand cranked winch from HF to put ours up on the ceiling of the garage above the garage door.  Used steel tube to span underneath the carrier with ratchet straps to connect to the bike hoist hooks.

One thing that helped sway us away from the hitch mount stuff was the lack of available hitch for the Pacifica Hybrid (at the time at least) and that it would wreak havoc with the parking sensors (which you can turn off, but they are handy with a new car in unfamiliar locations).  We will likely add a hitch eventually just to help haul bicycles and maybe a small trailer from time to time.

I had a hitch mount from the Hammer Store and it worked just fine for extra cargo, but I have a 4Runner and I was able to roll down the rear window to get to things in the back. That window is a game changer.

There is always the options to:

• pack lighter- I usually do laundry on vacation because I pack light on clothing. 
• Rent a bigger vehicle, depending on rates and how much stuff you want to bring, but the Minivan should be able to swallow a LOT of gear.
• Buy a bag style roof top cargo thing. They fold down. I have one. Pack your stuff in garbage bags, just in case you run into a monsoon Hard shell luggage is also more water proof..

dj06482 (Forum Supporter) said:

I have both, and my vote is for the roof box for a few reasons:

- minivans tend to have a lot of weight on/behind the rear axle already (3rd row passengers, packing gear in the seat well where the 3rd row folds into), the cargo carrier only makes that worse

- lockable storage on the roof rack carrier is a big plus

- clearance issues with the cargo carriers bottoming out  (see point 1)

 

My favorite setup is AirLift rear airbags and a rooftop carrier. Drove really well, and mileage didn't take much of a hit.

This was my recipe as well, worked great. Had a hitch mount for a while, it bottomed out everywhere and obstructed access to the rear tailgate. Hard pass. 

I didn’t realize how tough this would be to decide. Screw it, I’ll just do both. :)

I like that there’s been some research on MPG (or liter, rather — though I didn’t do that conversion so I’m just taking your summary at face value). Once I get this little one to sleep I’ll see if we have crossbeams or what. 

I like the utility of hauling little things here or there on the hitch carrier any old time - like the bikes and a buggy just strapped down.

wheres a good coin to flip...?

I have one of the HF aluminum hitch mounted cargo carriers that I've used on my Rav4 a few times. Unfortunately, the hitch mount comes straight out of the hitch and I've bottomed out a few times with it on moderate inclines (the road to our local dump is one of them).  I don't like that it blocks the rear tailgate, but my biggest issue is the lever effect of any weight on the cargo carrier, it's almost impossible to avoid severe squat with any significant load on them with a stock (or non-load leveling) suspension.

We've had a Yakima Skybox (I believe it's the 16 cubic foot model) for over 10 years now. It's a pain to store, and it's not easy to put up on the vehicle with one person, but it can be done.  It stores a lot of stuff, doesn't create much more noise, and we got 26 MPG in our old Honda Odyssey averaging 70 MPH with 6 of us and our luggage. I've been a big fan of it!