etrailer | Thule Sidekick Roof Mounted Cargo Carrier Box Review

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Full transcript: https://www.etrailer.com/tv-review-th...
What's up, everybody, it's AJ with etrailer.com. Today, we're gonna be checkin' out the Thule Sidekick. It's gonna be a rooftop cargo box. So, you're gonna be able to store a lot of those items that you might not have room for in your vehicle. For instance, on the one we're reviewing today. It has two kids seats in the back seat.

That doesn't leave you any extra room, really if you got all that loaded up. Limited space here in the back of the RAV4 to load up your extra items. So if you need to carry just a few extra things, we could throw that up in this box. That gives everybody more leg room, and everybody's gonna be happier on those long trips. Now, before we go on too much more about its features and stuff, let's see how much she can hold.

So, we're gonna have some bags down here that you would take on your trip with you. Got two big duffel bags, a smaller backpack slash cooler bag, and then some dry bags. Let's just go ahead and throw 'em up there, and see how much actually fits in here. Can we fit all of it I'm hoping so. Now, it is eight cubic feet, which that's great, but I can't visualize that in my head.

So, I gotta put these bags in here to see exactly how much it'll hold. Hopefully, I'll help you out too. And it looks like there's room here in the back for the other dry bags. So, dry bag up front and in the back. And the two duffel bags and cooler.

Now, it doesn't latch on its own, so when you pull it down like that, and when it's close into the place, just get the key, and it latches. See, now it won't pop back up. And then, do that on the front and the back. So, really, really easy to load up. Hauling a room in there, I wasn't so sure everything was gonna fit, but it fit just fine. And I like that 'cause that's just, again, like I said, more leg room in here, more space for other items back here, it's really gonna help you out. Something else I want to point out is, on this vehicle we have here, we have a bike rack and a bike. So, we wouldn't be able to put a cargo carrier on the back hitch here. Maybe you don't even want to do that, that's not something you wanna mess with, 'cause it's not really enclosed or anything. That one's gonna be better up top the cargo guys, and you put other items in there. You don't have to worry about the elements getting to 'em 'cause that's gonna shield it from all that. As far as rooftop boxes go, you can really go two different ways. There is bare bones versions of 'em and all the way to premium versions, and the premiums are gonna be up there in price. So, the bare bones ones, this isn't quite bare bones, this is somewhere in the middle. This one reminds me of the trunks one that I've worked with before. Very similar. You know, I wouldn't call it bare bones because it does have the locks on there. So, that's a feature that not all of 'em have. You know, sometimes they just have a latch. The arms on the inside, and make it not bare bones too. So, you know, it does hold itself up. Some of the other ones just have a steel plate in there that you have to manually set up and hook into place to keep the lid open, which is kind of a pain, you know 'cause you want the lid to stay open while you're loading. It's one less thing you gotta do. If I had to make sure I climbed up here and opened this lid every time to put something in it, it's not worth it. I wouldn't take the extra to go up a level and get one that does it like this and holds up. Otherwise though, it's a lot like that trunks. I like this one a little bit better, it just seems like it has a little more sturdiness to it. You know, you see the arms kinda go back and forth just a little bit here at the end. But again, the arms are still there. It's still easy to pull it back down and put it into place. Now, there's not a latch or anything, it doesn't auto latch. You're gonna have to do that key yourself like I did when I loaded it. But again, that's not a huge deal. It's just stuff to look out for, you know, features that the other ones have. I will say it would be nice if it woulda had a lanyard on here or somethin', some of 'em have like a lanyard that hangs down so that you don't have to reach all the way up to the top to pull it down. You could pull on that, and that would pull it down to place. But part of me thinks it doesn't have that because as you pull it down, you have to kinda pull it out just a little bit so that this lip goes over this one, 'cause you don't want it to go inside and see it's not gonna work like that. So, you have to kinda pull it out and down. So, I won