The Car Top Carrier
There were eight people (6 kids, 2 adults) in my family growing up, but most vans only 
had seat belts for 7 so space was always an issue. A car top carrier seemed like the perfect solution for baggage and it worked ok for us for a little while. The straps would make this buzzing noise as they vibrated in the wind when we drove fast.
I remember that we’d fill it as full as we could and then still have things packed in the back of the van. We went through a few car-top carriers, but I can’t remember why. The experience I’ll never forget is our last trip with a car-top carrier.
We were traveling home from Canada and were in Ontario with about 3 hours left till we got home. As were cruising along down the highway at a good speed, car-top carrier flew off of the car with a thud and landed in the middle of the highway. I can remember feeling panicked and wondering what we would do and how we could possibly fit all of our things in the van. I remember that by the time we had all of our things packed into the already full van, we could no longer see the floor of the van and we had to rest our legs on top of luggage.