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- Verified Buyer
So when this came on a truck, I went outside to see if the delivery guy needed a hand. He said no, it was lite. He wasn't kidding. So you unbox this, pull it out and go oh boy. As a previous reviewer stated, it is very thin plastic as the top shell. Now I have a Thule carrier that's over 40 years old. If I dropped it off the top of my Chevy Traverse, nothing will happen. It's double wall construction like a hard cooler. This is more like one of those blue storage bins. Definitely try not to drop it. Not sure how the top will do.So it's real simple to get up on the car for it being so lite. The old one is a two man job struggling. Once on your rails, you open the clips with the dial and grab your roof rail like a claw. Super easy to use. It also slides a little so you don't need to adjust your roof rails (some may have too depending). I had my rails to fit my old one which was bigger than this, so no adjustment needed.Opening it is a bit tricky. The key doesn't go in as smooth as a normal key. Why, no idea. It has that big plastic knob which you turn to open it from either side. Opening is easy. Closing, just make sure you have it aligned correctly otherwise it won't close properly.We filled it for a softball tournament down in Virginia from New Jersey about 353 miles away. I had 3 folding camp chairs 2 stadium seats, a sportbrella, beach umbrella, little table, small suitcase, carry on, small duffle bag, air bed and some towels. Still had plenty of room. Went back in the house and realized there wasn't much left to put in the car. Anyway, I used the included straps and tied things down since another reviewer showed a pic of the top of this ripping off. Hopefully nothing would get blown around if that happened.We left and prayed. Firstly, you really don't hear this while driving which is a bonus. Once I used one of those bag types and it just flapped the entire trip. Drove me nuts. No noticeable noise here.As for gas mileage, a traverse gets about 22 miles per gallon on a highway. We averaged about 20.4 so not much drag. Mind you, this was almost full, trunk full, and 6 people in the car so you may get more if you were smart and didn't have four kids who are all teenagers now.Surprisingly, no issues with this at all. Held up great. It rained most of the way down, completely dry inside. I do like the fact it opens from both side so you just open your door and step up. You will have to close it, go to the other side and open it in order to load/unload.I was able to take it off by myself when we got back. Just need another person to put it wherever you want to store it.All in all, I was pleasantly surprised and relieved that it did so well. I am happy with this purchase. Amazon had the best price on it. I researched a bunch of these and decided on spending more on this than other brands hoping the quality was there. So far, it is.I have another tournament in South Carolina that this thing needs to come with. I'll update after that trip and let you know how it's holding up. Hope this helps.
