I have doubled the cargo capacity of my car!

The wife and I and our army of little dogs are moving to Virginia starting on 12/22. Five days on the road coming up, with Figgie the pug sitting next to me grunting and squeaking for 1500 miles. Looking at the Mini's size and the S60's trunk, we decided to pop by REI and get a pod.

The Yakima "Space Cadet" was very easy to put on the Mini's roof rack. Two-man lift, but one-man adjustment once it's up there. Very easy controls for adjusting the clamp position & tightness, all accessed from inside with big, easy-to-operate *****.

15 cubic feet of storage for $300. Not too bad. Due to the Mini roof rack's weight limit, I plan to fill it with fluffy bedding, snowshoes, clothes, camp chairs, etc. Extremely dense objects (bowling *****, nuclear weapon pits, pugs, etc.) should probably go in the cabin. The best part is that it's short and fat and matches the Mini's aesthetics.


We were having fun cleaning house the other day and couldn't resist making our mutt Pokey part of the process. She has low self-esteem and I suspect she thought we were serious.

 

How 'bout some photos of the inside? The ***** you're talking about.

 

More info on the Space Cadet... I imagine all the Yakima pods that are a little like this work the same way. I like the Space Cadet because it's short enough to accomodate the car's radio antenna.

Pod has four clamps on the bottom that grab onto the roof rack.

Here is a close-up of one of the four identical clamp-controls along the floor of the pod. **** 1 allows the clamp to be scooted forward or aft along the pod's belly, so that you can position the pod exactly where you want it on the car. Lever 2 opens and closes the clamp. And **** 3 is tightened to adjust clamp tightness and to keep lever 2 from wiggling around. Overall a very easy setup.

 

Sorry I wasn't more clear:

"Pod has four clamps on the bottom that grab onto the roof rack."

I was wondering how the rack attaches to the car. Do you have to drill holes in the roof?

 

Poor Pokey looks terrified, but oh so cute at the same time. Good luck with the move!

 

The Mini roof rack is attached (usually by dealer) by drilling eight big holes in the roof and inserting steel anchors which look like this.

When you need a roof rack, you then screw it on with the hex-tool that's included with the rack. From there you can attack bike racks, luggage pods, etc. Although it's a bit pricey, having the dealer install it is probably the way to go, since they have a template and will drill in exactly the right place. Plus they seal around the bolts very thoroughly. When the rack is off, I have plastic covers that cover the bolts. My gallery has pictures of the bolt-covers and the Mini-brand bicycle rack on the car.

 

I have one of the Yakima Rocket Boxes that we put on my wife's Toyota Sienna for camping trips and storm evacuations. I can set it up there and clamp it down myself if necessary. It fits on either Yakima's rack or in the case of the Sienna, the rack the car came with. Yakima's products seem to be very well thought out.

 

I'd like to see a picture of the pug in the middle, in the front! (We've got two shih tzus and a lhasa apso, though they've only ridden in the MINI once, yet).