My car has no roof rack of any kind, just a smooth roof.

I'd like to get a rack to put on, as well as the accessories needed to carry a bike, and possibly a roof-mounted luggage rack.

Has anyone done this themselves? I assume it would mean drilling through the roof of your car? I'm somewhat hand around the house & car, but no expert (change bulbs, spark plugs, serpentine belts, alternator, etc, on my old car....I've installed a roof-mounted antenae on my home roof a few years ago which involved drilling through my roof...and no leaks yet!

Any advice on a decent affordable rack set-up?

THANKS!

Clamp on a Rack

Yes, But car roofs had Rain-gutters back then..

Now Like ^ above ^ the rack manufacturers have a catalog of car types/models and the parts to fit them to put the cross bars On..

Yakima , Thule etc.

Note: team support cars have custom made roof racks, as you watch the Professionals Race.

Saris, Thule, Yakima. You didn't mention what "affordable" means for you but you're probably looking at between $500 to $1,000 for any of the three. With the right fit kit hardware they'll fit securely with no drilling required.

Of the three, I prefer Thule but that's because I have a lot more experience with Thule than either of the other brands.

If you have a garage, put your opener in the glove compartment when you load your bikes onto the roof.

Regardless of how you attach the rack to the car, you're still going to have to attach the bike to the rack, and that's most often best done with parts made by people who have a vested interest in bikes not falling off of their racks (aka the stuff made by thule or yakima or... etc.)

You can pick up used racks at second hand shops for a couple of hundred bucks. If you're lucky they'll have the one that fits your car.

I put a set of new clamp - on (removable) Yakima racks on my late model Camry recently for about $350.

For almost any kind of roof carrier, you need three parts:

towers - these are the parts that attach to the roof. If you're lucky, you have factory rails on the roof and the towers simply attach to those rails. If not, they make towers that attach to virtually any roof, even the ones with no rails, gutters or other obvious attachment point.

cross bars - these are held by the towers. The crossbars may or may not be specificly paired with the brand of towers you have, but my experience is that I just get crossbars that are the same brand as the towers.

Bike carrier parts - these attach to the cross bars and carry your bike. Again, these parts may or may not have to be matched to the brand of crossbars you have, some are "universal" some match with the actual bar.

Go to the major brands' website and figure out what towers you need for your make and model of car. For what it's worth, I've installed Yakima towers and crossbars on a few different cars, at least one of which had no obvious way of attaching the towers. They design these things for such cars and they work perfectly, although a little fussier to install correctly than the ones that attach to existing rails.

This stuff can be spendy, but man, I wouldn't be drilling holes in the roof of my car to save $200 (or less, for towers). If the retail price is too much for your budget, go to Craigslist and/or ebay and see if you can find the parts you need. I've found towers I needed on ebay. But - as mentioned above - you need to know the specific tower you need. The crossbars and other items aren't dependent on the car.

As mentioned in previous posts, lots of information about how to mount hardware on specific cars on Yakima and other manufacturers websites.

(Very happy that current Mazda came with threaded holes in the roof for attaching Landing Pad towers.)

Sage advice here.

If you have a carport, block the entrance so you can't pull in when you return. Don't ask me how I know...
(Two bikes, the roof rack, roof of the car, and the front of the carport, pretty much instantly)



-Kedosto

Did that include the bicycle mounts?

No, it didn't include bicycle mounts. I primarily use the Yaks for my Kayaks. Both Yakima & Thule make removable clamp on rack mounts that custom fit most late model cars. Horizontal support bars are universal. The Camry actually has recessed areas inside the door frame area that the removable Yak brackets snug fit into. Doors close over brackets. Brackets don't harm rubber door gasket. Very sturdy. Because of boating, I'm a dedicated Yakima fan & wouldn't consider using anything else. Also - I only tried putting my bikes on the roof once. I completely blanked & drove right into a parking garage. Fortunately stopped in time to only destroy the brake levers on my mountain bike. Never ever put another bike on the roof since. I've equipped my late model Camry with a frame mounted trailer hitch. Carry my bikes on a hitch mounted rack.

go to uhaul and get a cheap hitch installed, they can do it on passenger cars too, then get a hitch mounted rack. more versatile, more secure IMO, and less chance of you ripping the bikes off the car. you could probably get into this setup for a few hundred.

Or order one and install it yourself. On many cars, it's not too difficult. Sites like etrailer.com have tutorial videos and difficulty ratings so you can determine if you're up to the task before ordering.

I ordered a hitch for a Chevy Sonic and a Prorack four-bike rack for about $250 total. Depending on the racks available for your particular car and the rack you choose, I'd give a ballpark estimate of $250-400. Maybe even under $200 if you pick up a used hitch rack -- I see them pretty frequently on Craigslist.

I also installed my hitch myself. It was pretty easy, but required drilling into the frame of the car. I'd imagine most people aren't comfortable with that. (Literally the installation was "Drill holes in correct spots. Put bolts in holes, bolt hitch to frame using provided nuts.")

Yeah, I'd agree that a lot of people wouldn't be comfortable doing that. But installation instructions differ a lot from car to car. Mine, for example, mounts via bolts and holes that were already present. Since the installation can vary so much and we don't know what kind of car [MENTION=397038]12strings[/MENTION] has, that's why I suggested he check out installation tutorial videos before going the DIY route for a hitch rack.

So, to the OP, which car?

As others have said, Yakima and Thule are the leaders and have a rack for just about every car. They clamp on to the door frame and you don't have to drill holes to mount or have rain gutters like older cars did. Your door frame should have a lip around that the rack will clamp to.

In the case of my car and most Volkswagens, there are bolts in the front and rear underneath the weather stripping that an OEM VW rack directly bolts too, or the correct tower setup of Yakima or Thule bolt to.

With aftermarket racks, the clamps are vehicle dependent and the tower and cross bars can be moved from car to car with just replacing the clamps with the right vehicle specific clamp. Thus, you don't have to worry about spending another $500 5 or 10 years down the road when you replace the car. You just buy the new clamps and use the same towers and crossbars.

Maybe that's a German thing. Many BMWs also have threaded receivers on the roof for racks, typically hidden under a trim strip.

That's not characteristic of the instructions for Curt and some other high quality hitches. Curt has on-line videos and pdfs so you can see exactly what the process is. In many cases it's just bolting on the hitch. Whatever it is, you can know exactly what you're getting into before you buy it.

I have a Yakima roof rack on my car, as it has no provisions for a roof rack (the whole roof is glass,) and the car is too low to accommodate any sort of receiver-mounted rack. My wife's car has a receiver and a two-bike carrier. Hers was cheaper, but I like mine better. Quicker and easier to gets the bikes on, and absolutely zero chance of the bikes coming into contact with one another once in the racks. Easier to double-secure the bikes on hers by running a cable and lock through the frames and rack, though. So pluses and minuses.

Also, at least on her car, there was absolutely no drilling required to mount the receiver-- it was four bolts that went into existing holes, and the whole thing went on in about 15 minutes. About $100 for the receiver and another $100 for the rack-- my roof rack with two wheel-on carriers was almost $450, so had I the capability, I would most likely have a receiver mounted rack on my car as well. Though if you go for a fancy rack like a Kuat, you can easily surpass $500 for a receiver mount system as well.

Short answer: if you want inexpensive, receiver mount is the way to go. You can get a complete setup for well under $200.

you have no headliner ?, a truck utility delivery panel van ?

that was what I had when I started drilling holes..

and put together a big platform rack out of old bedframes, as a free source of angle iron.

The "instructions" were much more thorough, but those steps are what it boiled down to. And yes, many cars don't require drilling, but the question is this, if you are mechanically disinclined, would you trust a hitch rack you installed yourself with your $1000-$2000 bike?

My experience is that if someone doesn't regularly take things apart, they're afraid to even remove a bolt from something that's working.

I think I paid about the same amount for my hitch receiver as I paid for the Yaks. About $350. But, I already had a hitch mounted bike rack purchased ....let's see... back in 1998 or so. I could have mounted the damn hitch receiver myself. But, reading the instructions made it look like a real PITA. On my 2014 Camry you have to remove the catalytic converter hanger & modify some kind of plastic cowling. Jeeezzzzz. The guys at the installation shop were skilled at the task & still took two of them over an hour to put it on. Worth the extra expense.

When I worked in a dealer in the late '70's we installed racks by drilling holes and using "well nuts"

WELL-NUT Threaded Inserts | Stanley Engineered Fastening