Best Summer Sports Racks for Your Car
It’s official: The warm weather is here, green is everywhere, and summer venues are beginning to open their doors.
With blue skies and open country calling, hitting the trails or rivers for your favorite outdoor activity has been a long time coming. One of the handiest accessories you can buy your car, particularly as a family, is a roof or trunk-mounted sports rack. Each can add volumes of cargo space for extra gear. Internal cargo space can be freed from oars and bikes. Keep the fun, and the dirt it creates, on the outside of your car with some of these best sports racks for your car.
Have a hitch? One of the easiest, and most useful, sports racks can be used with existing hitch receivers. Hitch mounted bike racks are a popular way to carry as many as five bikes. They are inserted quickly and easily into hitch receivers. Some models are fixed, so make sure to pack your trunk before attaching the bike rack. Many other bike racks, like the Reese Explore Hitch Bike Rack, have the ability to tilt, allowing trunk access even after the rack has been attached. Not all bike racks include a tie down for front wheels, which means they’ll spin freely while driving. It may be a good idea to have some on hand.
If you’re going places and find your vehicle packed to the max, or you want to keep wet gear like paddles outside, rooftop carriers are what you need. Compact, aerodynamic and easy to access. Bullet style roof carriers are ideal for carrying longer equipment. Items like oars, fishing rods and lifejackets all fit comfortably into the Thule 632 Force Cargo Box. Available in a variety of sizes, make sure to pick the one which fits whatever gear you may need to stow away.
Taking a kayak out for a paddle is a breeze with the right sports rack. Long and bulky, they can be a pain to hoist up on top of a taller vehicle. Kayaks certainly don’t fit into most vehicles, either. The good folks at Thule have a nifty solution for both those problems. Featuring gas lift struts, the pricey Thule 898 Hullover kayak rack actually takes about 40 lbs of the kayak’s weight off your shoulders. If you don’t mind the lifting, the budget-savvy CargoLoc 32544is a great roof mounted rack for a Kayak.
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