I am about to embark on a 2000 mile road trip in my HHR with the family and dog in tow. I am now exploring the roof rack of my HHR for the first time. The problem is I need cross rails and I refuse to pay what I have seen for 2 bars that go across my roof. I have seen them hitting anywhere from 240-360 bucks. Ridiculous, I simply won't do it. At the risk of sounding cheap, can anyone recommend another cross rail solution that fits the HHR that will not make me feel violated after the purchase?

Also I am looking at the Rain-X roof bag. Has anyone used this bag before? I simply don't travel enough to spend the hundreds on a hard shell carrier. I love my HHR and this trip will the ultimate road test of its full capabilities for me so far.

My thanks in advance to anyone who weighs in on this one.

 

Funny, for the first time on Sunday my wife and I talked about how nice it would be to take our Kayaks out and drive around with them on the roof rack.

I used to have a GMC land yacht and made a nice rack out of 2 x 4s. It would seem easy enough to do the same on our HHRs. A couple of them going across on top of the roof rails, maybe attached with U bolts from the bottom ought to do it. Easily removable.

I'll look at my rails today and see if it is an option.

 

Here's what I did for a vacation. It's a Lund roof bag. Only cost $30 ($39?).
Holds a ton of stuff and has a felt bottom to prevent scratching. It's only water "resistant," so we put stuff in giant zip-lip bags inside. Got it at Advance Auto.

 

Thule 450- mounting brks run around $125 (low side) on web sites and then you need Thule load bars, p/n LB-50 which run about $60/pr and locks are extra. There are many sites so you have to search for the best price but they fit the HHR.