The Product: All Purpose Rack

If you ski, run, hike, cycle, jog, etc.. and find carrying a water bottle inconvenient, then you will really enjoy a portable hydration system. Think of them as water bottle backpacks.

Recommendation: Thule Roof Rack System

Thule is one of the world’s largest designers, builders and marketers of premium transport accessories such as bike racks, roof racks and luggage racks. Their rugged, durable base rack systems are the strongest and best fitting rack systems on the market with a classic square load bar and maximum load capacity of 165 lbs! As an added bonus, all Thule products come with a limited lifetime warranty and their customer service is very helpful and accessible online or at  1-800-238-2388

 What You Need
 
To carry items on your roof, you fist need to get the right back rack. To make things easy, Thule offers an “automated fit guide” that will help you find the correct rack for your specific vehicle, which is available from most resellers. Once you have the base rack, there is a wide variety of different Thule Accessories which you can add to your car. There are two base types of rack systems, the ones that attach to a factory mounded rack on your car or else you buy the custom “feet” for our car and then pick load bars for the width that you want for your car.

Roof Mounted Accessories

Some of the available roof mounted accessories offered by Thule include Bike racks, ski racks and Cargo boxes. I have heighted a few of each of the best choices below.

Bike Racks
You can maximize the space inside your car by putting your bikes up top. Thule offer several different types of racks including both fork mount and upright bike carriers with disc brake compatibility. Depending on the model, you can carry both road bikes and mountain bikes in the same racks. 

You can also secure your bikes in about 10 seconds with a Ratcheting Quick Load System that allows you to leave the bike wheel on for quicker loading. My favorite is the Thule 517 Peloton. At around $115 dollars, it’s the top selling fork mount and fits all disc/suspension combinations with standard 9mm axles. Other models include the Thule 598 Criterium and the Thule 594 Sidearm. See Bike All Racks

Ski Racks
I took my wife and kids skiing in VT four weeks ago and was very impressed with the easy installation and security of our Thule Universal FlatTop 4 ski rack. This particular roof rack that sells for just over 100 bucks fits up to 4 pairs of skis and requires no tools for set up.

Cargo Boxes
Let’s face it, the car fills up fast when you have two kids or more and for extended trips, you can often use the extra of a cargo box. Thule Cargo Boxes are easy to use, come in both roof mount and hitch mount models and are equipped to carry up to 21 cubic feet of packing space, which can free up some valuable space in your car. . The boxes are available in a wide range, from hard to soft and boxes to sleek and aerodynamic (the latter of which is most expensive). A good pick is the Thule 682 Sidekick Car Roof luggage/cargo box. It’s extremely versatile, quick to assemble and installs and removes with ease. Plus it can fit 2 sets of golf clubs!