Woo-hoo!
I'd looked for years to find a cost-effective way to mount my skis on my car, which is about as un-ski friendly as they come: a 2-seat convertible. It's not every day that I can borrow the wife's SUV, and having to once again cram the skis into my passenger seat twice already this season was getting really old, really fast. I had pretty much resigned myself to having to have a custom stealth hitch fabricated for the car (one which remains invisible when the receiver is removed), then placing my hitch-mount Thule bike rack on the hitch, and adding a ski carrier converter to the bike rack. All in all, that was a pricey option (about $350 for the custom hitch itself, plus the ski adaptor), and I really didn't feel like dropping that much coin.
Then, I found this. I only found a couple of online vendors carrying it, each at $40, but on a whim I called the local sporting goods store in the mall.
"Yeah, I think I might have some. Let me check."
He came back to the phone a few minutes later. "They're on sale half-price at $19.95, and everything in the store is 20-40% off right now, so they'd be $15.96."
I ran right over. At that price I bought two, for those times that I'd need to carry a third or fourth pair on the driver's side of the car. They store like nothing in the trunk, take a whopping 3 seconds each to mount and dismount, and could easily be thrown in the ski bag on a trip for use with a rental car. Security's an issue, but if I need to go in some place for a while I could just throw them in the car for while I'm away from it. I could also easily cable lock them (I use a rather heavy bike-size Master cable) to the roll bars behind the seats if I park in a populated place for only an hour or two. Opening and closing the door with the skis on is no problem.
Below is the new rockin' setup. Darned if I can find my old binding covers, so I'll have to pick up a few the next time I'm out at the shop.
Just curious, does anyone have experience with these?
I'd looked for years to find a cost-effective way to mount my skis on my car, which is about as un-ski friendly as they come: a 2-seat convertible. It's not every day that I can borrow the wife's SUV, and having to once again cram the skis into my passenger seat twice already this season was getting really old, really fast. I had pretty much resigned myself to having to have a custom stealth hitch fabricated for the car (one which remains invisible when the receiver is removed), then placing my hitch-mount Thule bike rack on the hitch, and adding a ski carrier converter to the bike rack. All in all, that was a pricey option (about $350 for the custom hitch itself, plus the ski adaptor), and I really didn't feel like dropping that much coin.
Then, I found this. I only found a couple of online vendors carrying it, each at $40, but on a whim I called the local sporting goods store in the mall.
"Yeah, I think I might have some. Let me check."
He came back to the phone a few minutes later. "They're on sale half-price at $19.95, and everything in the store is 20-40% off right now, so they'd be $15.96."
I ran right over. At that price I bought two, for those times that I'd need to carry a third or fourth pair on the driver's side of the car. They store like nothing in the trunk, take a whopping 3 seconds each to mount and dismount, and could easily be thrown in the ski bag on a trip for use with a rental car. Security's an issue, but if I need to go in some place for a while I could just throw them in the car for while I'm away from it. I could also easily cable lock them (I use a rather heavy bike-size Master cable) to the roll bars behind the seats if I park in a populated place for only an hour or two. Opening and closing the door with the skis on is no problem.
Below is the new rockin' setup. Darned if I can find my old binding covers, so I'll have to pick up a few the next time I'm out at the shop.
Just curious, does anyone have experience with these?