One of the advantages to combing a bike tour with a four wheeled vechilce is that it opens up the number of options for the gear you can bring on your trip. Items such as portable fridges or freezers, portable showers, more food, back up batteries, and more are now viable options.
Of course, that also means that the temptation to over pack or go gear crazy is also present. In short order you can go from lots of extra room to a car filled to the hilt with new gear. If your car starts to look like the photo below, you have a couple of different solutions.
One option is to of course discard some of the gear you have packed. In my case--seriously--I did not have anything I could leave behind. Everything packed into my car and the boxes was carefully curated. I did not have any extras packed.
Option to is purchasing a roof carrier to utilize the space above your head in your car. I had thought about this option early on, but pushed it aside given that my Nissan Rogue does not have crossbars on the roof rail. Adding them on would cost 300+ dollars at the dealership. Without the crossbar, it was my impression that roof bag would not work. However, a friendassured me that it would work and support my items with no problem, so I went out and bought one.
After two days on the road traveling a thousand plus miles, I can say definately I'm an expert as to whether you should get one and what to look for if you do. Below is my review/commentary on roof bags. The one I got is a Rightline Range 2 Top Car Carrier from Academy sports.
