Quote:
Originally Posted by 1engineer
I have done this several ways back in the day. I won't tell you what to do but, unless you have a small trailer, there will be challenges.
To keep it truly waterproof you need a dry bag or a hard shell unit. I have a dry bag roof top carrier that will hold a weeks worth of clothes for four people. The challenge is it is not secure. A hard shell carrier is secure but going that route you might as well just use the stock rack.
Getting stuff up there and back down for a weekend is one thing. Accessing it on a daily basis for two weeks (clothes, food, etc) would well and truly suck.
There is a reason people store all their stuff in a vehicle (security, dry storage, not having to move it from the top) and sleep in roof top tents or regular tents. Again, a weekend is one thing. Two weeks is a different animal. Speaking of animals, what are you going to do at 1:00 am when your dogs need to poo in a driving rainstorm? Best case is they are soaking wet when they come back and the limited space inside the vehicle will now smell like dog and be wet for a long while. You almost HAVE to have some outside shelter like an awning or pop up shelter if you are not using a tent.
I used a maximum time of three days if I was going to sleep in the back and that was just me and wife... no animals. If it were longer than three days we packed a tent. If we took our dog it was automatically going to be tent camping.
When we did stay in the back we used a series of boxes that we would move from the rear to the front seat in order to make room in the back to sleep every night. This was food, cooler and a few clothes and toiletries. There is only room for two people in the back and nothing else. The other stuff was in the dry bag on the roof.
Now? I stay in hotels lol. Much easier. Sleeping in the back (with two dogs!) in a different place every night for two weeks and moving crap from the bottom to top and back again will be a challenge and not enjoyable.
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You bring up many good points, and I think I should clarify 1 point.
When I say we will be sleeping in the 4R, I mean this will happen maybe TWICE the entire trip. The rest of the trip, we will be staying in Hotels as we move across the country. The 2 times will most likely be once we get out to the New Mexico/Arizona area so we can enjoy the view. My apologies for that not being clear.
That may change what you're saying a little.
Also, when you say Dry Bag, are you talking about the kind of bag that KidV linked to above? how is the security with a bag? I am concerned it is much more vulnerable than a hard shell (when the 4R is parked at a hotel overnight).
