So I put my roof rack on last week to transport a mattress. When I was driving home, I avoided the highway just to be safe. It turned out to be a wise move. The road I was on was undergoing construction and I was doing 35, with a moderate headwind. As I reached a bump from the resurfacing, the mattress flew off my car and landed in the road. I stopped and backed up, when I went to retrieve the mattress, the roof rack was still tied to the mattress. The entire rack was ripped clean off of the car. Fortunately, there was minimal traffic and nobody else was involved in the incident. I threw the rack in the car and strapped the mattress directly to the roof and continued home. The next morning, I went out to inspect the car and rack. The rack is trashed, three of the four Q-Towers are missing their feet and the clip housing is in bad shape. Amazingly, the car didn't even suffer a scratch. I must've caught a nasty updraft and the rack was lifted out from the door frame. The clips for the Prius have a way shallower angle than the clips from when the rack was on my xB. When I installed the rack, I spent a couple hours making sure it was installed to Yakima's specs. I tightened the rack down and locked the towers. My fiancee called Yakima today to inform them of the incident. The rep acknowledged that the Prius isn't a great candidate for the Q-Tower rack, in fact, as of May 2013, they have stopped recommending that system for the Prius. He requested photos of the rack and offered to replace the rack, along with clips to fit her 2008 xB. TL;DR Roof rack flew off my car, zero damage to the car, roof rack destroyed, Yakima will provide a replacement for our other car.
Good grief, I was considering that setup until I realized it would kill my mileage and went with the hitch/cargo box instead. Sorry to hear about your misfortune - and that I wasn't out riding my Harley behind you!
I watched a couple of kayaks take flight from a Toyota pickup years ago on I-84 near Hartford. Pulled the 2 X 4 constructed rack out of the bed pockets with them and sailed over the car following immediately behind. It was something to see!
Glad no one got hurt and there was no damage to your car. This was shared in another thread, happened locally. It was pretty spectacular, and luckily no one got hurt or killed : Driver feels lucky to have survived after surfboard pierces windshield | KHON2 SCH-I535
