Have you observed the growing number of people using car toppers for extra storage space in their vehicles? Are you considering purchasing a car topper yourself? Would you like some personal experience information about them? If so, look no further!

When our family moved from the D.C./Maryland area to the Southeast hills of Ohio, we needed to trade our both our sedan and minivan for cars with four/wheel drive. We traded the sedan first. Our minivan was parked during the first winter in Ohio. (We could not get it back up our icy driveway otherwise.)

My husband and I were nervous about downsizing our minivan, because we needed the luggage space for our family’s summer vacation. We have good friends who highly recommended this hard shell car topper. They researched carefully before they bought theirs and were very pleased with their decision to purchase the car topper.

We found an affordable midsize suv with four/wheel drive to replace the van and took their advice to purchase the car topper. Here are some things that we discovered and wished we knew before we made our final decision.

The car topper is huge and arrived in great condition. It was amazingly easy to put on the car and to take off when our vacation was over. We have a roof rack on our car and the topper is connected to the car with the roof rack. 

My husband’s friend also recommended a great collapsible step stool which is convenient for travel. We also took this advice to get the step stool, but my husband is several inches shorter than his friend and the step stool wasn’t tall enough for him to reach the car topper to load and unload it when it was on top of the car. We ended up using a small step ladder from our kitchen which was quite challenging to pack into the back of the suv. 

Another thing about the added height of the car to consider is that you will not fit into parking garages or other low overhead places. We found that out the hard way too -oops! It will not be possible to use a drive thru car wash either. 

A benefit to the hard shell topper is that it is water proof, far quieter when traveling, and lasts longer. According to the reviews, the soft shell car toppers will often leak, are loud in the wind and rain, and will break sooner. 

However, the soft shell are easier to store -they don’t take up as much room. We have plenty of space in our basement so storage isn’t a problem for us, but fyi, the hard shell one does take up a large amount of space. 

Our children are growing fast, and the second backseat in our minivan replacement is not as spacious as the minivan. There is far less leg room in addition to limited space in the trunk. 

If we knew then what we know now, would we make the same decision? Probably not. Our suv uses less gas and is much cooler (as in stylish, lol) than a minivan, but for space and comfort in the next car that we purchase, we may be looking for a minivan with four-wheel drive.

How about you? What do you drive? Do you have any amazing packing tips to share?