Thinking about a rocket box for my Land Cruiser

[Hammergun]

My wife and I are driving out from Wisconsin to Montana to hunt and to Boise, Idaho to hunt with our daughter then south to Phoenix to visit our other daughter and home. We will be driving our 2013 Land Cruiser with my one bird dog and my wife’s pet dog plus hunting gear etc. I’m thinking about buying an Inno low profile rocket box to carry the camp chairs and table and extra stuff up there. What does everybody think about rocket boxes etc. Do they suck gas and a pain etc.?

thanks 

Jeff

[KenB]

I just went through this and decided to go another way and bought a set of prefabbed rear drawers with an install kit custom for my 2013 200 series Land Cruiser. The price of the rocketbox and the taller feet/crossbars (to keep it up and off of the shark fin antenna on the back of the Land Cruiser) got me half way to the price of a set of the prebuilt drawers. The rocketbox would get used a few times per year at best and the Land Cruiser won’t fit through my low garage door with it mounted. I use the drawers everyday and wish I would have bought them sooner. They’re great. Dog and sporting clays stuff is always on one side, everything else in the other drawer. I bought a set by Dobinsons. Others are sold by ARB and a few other places. The set I bought even has tie down points that match up with my two ruff tuff intermediate kennels.  If you buy from Dobinsons directly instead of via Amazon they’ll spend some time finding the best freight terminal location and price with you.  

 

Or you could build a set of your own for small money if you had the tools and time.

 

You loose the third row seat, but I never used it anyway. They were always folded up for the dog crates.  Take out the third row of seats and consider a set of drawers.  I have nothing but positives to say about them in my situation. 

 

Hth. Ken

 

  

[NW River Mac]

I have used rocket boxes for a long time.  They are great as long as you make provisions to be able to reach everything inside of them.  (step stool or bucket)  Don't worry about the gas mileage.  A two thousand mile trip in that will cost you about 133 gallons of gas. Lets say that the box decreases your mileage by 20%.  That's about one more tank of gas.  Pretty cheap cost for the convenience of keeping all that crap out of the cabin area.  

 

PS don't plan on the box being water tight or water proof. 

[Hammergun]

Thanks KenB and NWRiverMac for your replies. I already have a truck vault for guns and normal organization of shooting and hunting stuff and wire crates on top of it. With my wife and I going out for two weeks, I figured that we may be packed up pretty good. Thus,  I was just looking for extra storage for the other seldom used long stuff like the camp chairs and table, etc. But for $500 for a rocket box, I am analyzing it a bit more. Another aspect that NW River Mac hit too was that I am fairly short and it will be a pain to get into the rocket box. 

Thanks

Jeff

[C.J.L.]

A little off subject but how do you like that Land Cruiser for hunting?  I was just looking at one yesterday. Any place you wouldn't take it?  I take my truck into some rough areas and I'm on dirt washboard roads a lot.  My concern is how it would hold up not being babied.  

[Hammergun]

I have a 2003 Series 100 and this 2013 Series 200. There’s no place I wouldn’t take one of these trucks. They are the most rugged and stock equipped 4wd trucks. The newer 200 series have a crawl control that automatically locks in all four wheels as needed for possibly the most advanced 4 wd system out there. 

The Land Cruiser is the only vehicle that Toyota imports into the US. It’s a truck that is used all over the world as an expedition truck. So it’s not required to be babied. I’m sure others will add to this. 

[casts_by_fly]

What about a hitch haul? 

 

Rick

[bobman]

hitch hauls are a PITA if you have rear doors. if you go that route get the one that has a pivot so it can be swung out of the way 

 

roof mounted things are noisy and you have to be in the NBA to reach your stuff

 

if you really must haul a bunch of stuff I would get a small lightweight enclosed  trailer and pull it

[PaFlyfisher]

I bought the smallest size Thule box off craiglist. Locally you can buy these boxes for about half the price of a new one all day long. Used is the way to go. 

[Jacksdad]

Would the hitch haul work better for a landcruiser since the rear hatch is split?

 

Now if you're gonna be doing any REAL off roading you'd want to be careful as anything hanging off the rear of the truck would impact departure angle. 

[WI Outdoor Nut]

Lots of pro's and con's depending on what you want to do.  I personally don't like the roof top.  When traveling out west, I run hard and will often top over 80 mph.  The additional drag greatly reduces MPG and more importantly, causes a "shift" in the car with cross winds.  If I did not have something large like skis to put in them, I would not run a box.  However, if you do run one, pick up one of these door steps.  It makes it so much safer and easier to load.  I am 5'8" and this is the way to go.

Door Step

 

I am a bigger fan of a hitch hauler.  The one I have is quite beat up, but I don't really care.  I have had it for 20+ years and owes me nothing.  It takes a heck of an approach to bottom out fwiw, but can be a concern.  The con of this unit, anything on the hitch hauler becomes dirty, even on paved roads, and much worse on gravel or dirt.  Even a sealed cooler will have some dust get in. 

[Dave Medema]

I've used rocket boxes for years.  If you ski, make sure it's long enough for your longest skis.  Some are pretty short.  I'd guesstimate it costs me a 1-2 mpgs but on a suburban, I really shouldn't be too concerned about mpgs.  Also, don't overload it to a point you have to smash down the lid.  I've seen some open accidentally.  It makes a big mess.  Also part 2, lubricate the locks periodically, the lock and keys can be finicky. Don't over stress them.  I snapped a key off on a big powder day and the boys had to wait for an hour while the trails got tracked up.  

 

 

[airmedic1]

Wow, I just sold a Yakima that I've had since the early 2000's that I had  on my Xterra.  I maybe used it about a dozen times and got tired of storing it.  It might have knocked a couple of miles per gallon off but the Xterra's were never good on mileage anyway.  I carried camping stuff mainly, tents, chairs, stove, things like that.  I don't ever remember it leaking but it was a PIA to load on top of the Xterra and I'm 6'4". I wish I would have known you were interested, I sold it for $75 just to get rid of it.

[CheckCord]

If you are buying new and are going to spend the dough, Id seriously consider a swing out enclosed hitch mount box.  So much easier access.  The roof mount one as others have pointed out are a pain.  The swing out ones are ~20% more but >80% easier to use.   

If you really want a unit that's really easy to use, get one that DOES NOT use Clevis style pins for the swing out latching mechanism. 

 

 

[CheckCord]

On 7/2/2019 at 7:07 AM, C.J.L. said:

A little off subject but how do you like that Land Cruiser for hunting?  I was just looking at one yesterday. Any place you wouldn't take it?  I take my truck into some rough areas and I'm on dirt washboard roads a lot.  My concern is how it would hold up not being babied.  

 

On 7/2/2019 at 8:08 AM, Hammergun said:

I have a 2003 Series 100 and this 2013 Series 200. There’s no place I wouldn’t take one of these trucks. They are the most rugged and stock equipped 4wd trucks. The newer 200 series have a crawl control that automatically locks in all four wheels as needed for possibly the most advanced 4 wd system out there. 

The Land Cruiser is the only vehicle that Toyota imports into the US. It’s a truck that is used all over the world as an expedition truck. So it’s not required to be babied. I’m sure others will add to this. 

 

Land Cruisers are beat on in the Desert, Arctic, and Jungle.  The only "problem" with the ones for the US market is they are sooooo nice they are out of my price range.