Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The spouse & I paid attention to the one-star reviews of this item, and they all said the same thing: water got in and ruined their stuff. We live in Arizona and we only take short in-state trips. Water in the desert? Nah. If that's the big problem this was going to work perfectly. Except...it rained hard the entire way there and back. But because we did a few things, we didn't have the same problems. 1. Follow the directions. Primarily "no zipper side is towards the front of the vehicle." If you face the zipper forward, the air that drags over the front of the car opens up the flap that covers the zipper and WHAMO - water can get in. We put the zipper facing the back of the car as directed and WHAMO - no water got in! 2. We have hard-sided luggage. Nothing expensive, nothing fancy. We put our extra pillows and blankets in large plastic storage bags with double seals. All our other belongings went into smaller plastic tubs. We also made sure that the stuff we really cared about and is too expensive to replace was put into the car. Knowing that water could be an issue, and fearing that the bag would fall off the roof onto the highway, we decided against just throwing our stuff in there without thought. As it turns out, we had nothing to worry about as no water got in, and everything was fine! 3. Don't let the extra strapping wave around free in the air. Wrap the extra strap around the tightened strap and tie it like a tie to keep the vibration and noise down. 4. Make sure it's centered on the roof. You get a better weight distribution and it helps with drag. 5. Pack a foldable step stool! 6. If you hear a noise you aren't comfortable with, or the sound suddenly changes, pull over and check the bag and straps. Because the spouse had the bag on tight, zipper towards the back, and loose straps tied up, there wasn't noise, and the extra fuel usage was much less than we thought it'd be. We experienced hard rain, high speeds, high winds, sudden lane changes, sudden stops, and the bag is great! We bought duct tape just in case, but there were no rips, tears, or other signs of wear. Can't wait to load everything I own into the bag for our next trip!