Maybe someone who has used their roof rack can give me some pointers on this one:
I just purchased the Thule 45050 complete cross rail solution for my 062LT (fantastic set of rails btw). The reason I bought it is because the HHR manual states you should not put anything directly on the roof of the HHR. Having never had to use the roof rack on any of my previous vehicles, I purchased a roof bag thinking the bag would sit atop the cross rails. The cross rails cannot be closer than 24 inches apart, however at that minimum distance the bag still sits on the roof.

Are there any HHR owners out there that use a roof bag? If so, how do you keep it off the roof? I plan on heading out on a 2000 mile road trip and I need to solve this one soon. Anybody have any thoughts?

Thanks for the help.

 

I have the Thule cross rails also. Got them for a just in case. Had to haul some chairs. What I did was take a old piece of plywood I had laying around that was a little bigger than 2 ft square and drill holes into it so I could lash it to the cross rails and then put the chairs on top of that.

 

Might be a little thought....

2 years ago, I purchased an antique table while traveling cross country. I created a tight web of rope on hastily "manufactured" cross rails. It worked for about 900 miles.

The table was of minimal weight........40 # maybe.

 

just wondering why you went with the Thule rails. I just looked them up and saw a price of around $224, aren't the ones straight from chevy that fit into the roof rack just a bit more then this?

 

[QUOTE=twistrman;328257]just wondering why you went with the Thule rails. I just looked them up and saw a price of around $224, aren't the ones straight from chevy that fit into the roof rack just a bit more then this?[/QUOT

I did a lot research on forums and the Thule were way cheaper than the ones from GM. I found the best price on Amazon and got the mounting brackets and the cross bars plus shipping for under 200 vs about $260 from Chevy. Some said the ones from Gm did were not top quality and had problems with them. I got mine back around Feb of '08

The thule bars are flat and believe the ones from GM actually curve up some what

 

I went with the Thule 45050 crossroad cross rail complete package. This package includes everything INCLUDING the locks for the 4 feet. Got the whole thing shipped from Amazon for $224. I have heard nothing but bad stories about the GM ones, and plus they cost more than what I paid for the Thules. I've attached the Thules and let me tell you, there couldn't be an easier, better built set up than these.

It took all of about 10 minutes to put them on and tighten them down, and they are coated with rubber everywhere to keep from scratching anything on your vehicle. I highly recommend them to HHR owners....now if I can just figure out if it is OK to sit a bag on the roof or not without worrying about doing any damage on 2000 mile round trip....

As a test, I loaded 30 lbs into the roof bag and sat it on the roof and drove about 25 miles going 75 mph. MAJOR hit in the gas mileage - with the roof bag my mpg's dropped down to about 18-19 mpg...hey, what can you do right? The problem is I need to put about 60 lbs in the bag... I'm worried if the roof can take that much weight for that long of a distance. Anybody have any experience using a bag on the HHR roof for a long trip?

I may just have to bite the bullet and go for the hard plastic box carrier...