Thule Raider Ski 991 Ski Carrier

Price Paid:  $600.00

Strengths:
Mounts on the spare wheel. Really easy to use. The ski rack is lockable (although the bike rack with two mountain bikes worth significantly more than skis has to be locked with a bike cable lock). Looks great. I don't have the hassle of reaching the roof rack on my Isuzu Bighorn, and I can open my back door (even with two bikes on), unlike trailer hitch mount racks.

Weaknesses:
None apparent yet, although the bike rack doesn't lock (a normal bike cable-lock works fine, though, I guess)

Summary:
I bought the whole spare-wheel mount system, including snowboard and bike adapters. The unit transports two bikes securely, and when changed to the ski rack (undo two hand-tight knobs to remove bike part, fit ski unit and do up four hand tight knobs), my unit takes two boards and three sets of skis. With two snowboard adapters the unit takes four boards. No other system that I have seen converts this easily between bikes and skis.
The only thing I would like to see is a cloth bag or similar to store the parts you are not using. When my bike rack is off, it has to live in the box that it came in, likewise the ski rack when it is off. For the price of these units, a cloth bag would have been a nice addition.

Similar Products Used:
Rola roof rack on my Pajero. I hate roof mounted racks on 4x4's - it's just too hard getting your skis and boards on. I also have a trailer hitch bike rack on this vehicle- another huge pain if you need to open the back door.