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Winnebago currently offers a roof rack option on three models: The EKKO (our current RV), the Travato (our former RV), and the Revel (the go-anywhere RV). And if you’re thinking of ordering one of these models, you may be wondering if the roof rack is something you want to add. I’m a little biased, since we’ve had the roof rack option on every Winnebago we’ve ever had, but in this video, I run down the benefits of the Winnebago roof rack.
Without rehashing the whole video again in text, the main theme of it is: if you’re the kind of person who wants to modify their RV in any way… you want the roof rack. And if you’re watching our channel, then I’m going to guess you’re that kind of person!
The roof rack offers an easy way to add equipment to the roof of your RV without drilling holes into it, which is great, because, generally speaking, “holes in the roof” is something you want to avoid. So if you see yourself adding Starlink antennas, cell boosters, cellular MIMO antennae, cargo boxes, extra solar panels, fairings, festive holiday lighting… whatever…. to your RV, then just do yourself a favor and get the roof rack.
Will there be a little extra drag from the roof rack? Possibly. But not that you’ll notice.
Will there be extra noise from the roof rack. Not likely. And if there is, you can deal with it easily.
Does the roof rack add extra weight? Well, yes. But so does any mod. The roof rack is one mod that’s well worth its weight.
So I’m pretty much all in on the roof rack option, and our experiences have all been positive. But I’m curious what you all think. How many of you have the roof rack? How many of you don’t, but wish you did? Do but wish you didn’t?
Sound off in the comments below!
Love the pop top, but I wish it was optioned with the roof rack. I get there is less space, but I feel like there are options to accessorize.
We got the roof rack option on our Ekko based on your suggestions last year. Great suggestion and glad we have it! Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions last year. I also work in the area of computational fluid dynamics and completely agree that the drag because of the rack is the least of your concerns. But noise on the other hand is a finicky animal to try and deal with but the rack gives you many options to work with as you experiment with your vehicle driving it through the natural highway wind tunnel.
I agree – so much easier to move things a few inches if they’re just mounted on the rack.
(There’s a “life is a wind tunnel” saying somewhere in there…)
For our Starlink Mini, on our Travato, I opted for a magnetic mount. That thing isn’t going anywhere. We don’t have the roof rack, but we also don’t have the roof access port (despite it being my idea that got Winnebago to add it, as they didn’t until the next model year). So for the Starlink, I drilled yet another hole for a roof access junction box to bring power and Ethernet to the Starlink Mini, and wire it into the Peplink router we already have. We have two cellular MIMO antennas for 5G, so we have T-Mobile, Verizon, and Starlink all as connectivity options. T-Mobile is usually the winner.
If we get a newer Travato at some point, yes, we’ll get the roof rack. Hopefully without the goofy ladder.
Ah yes! The magnetic mounts! Some of those suckers are STRONG. And then also easy to move about.
(Wouldn’t work on our EKKO though…)
I’ve often thought, if Winnebago didn’t offer the roof port box, it wouldn’t be that difficult to make your own out of an exterior electrical box somehow.
Wouldn’t be super pretty or aero, but it would work.
if you are trying to ram something through the atmosphere with the drag coefficient of a conex box a roof rack isn’t going to impact aerodynamic efficiency very much.
Agreed. My point exactly!