bye bye roof basket!

I have a sportrack roof basket with the extension on my forester. I woke up the other day after a night of violent storms to find my beloved subie covered with "rust juice"!!! found out that my roof basket is all rusted inside the tubings and a few places on the outside as well. So, now every time it rains, my car is covered with orange brown rusty juice!should of bought an aluminum one, but feeling cheap at the time! I took off my basket this morning and probably gonna go the cargo box way. But man does my forester looks naked without the basket. anyhow, those of you who have the same basket or a coleman, as it is the same, beware!!:iconwink:

p.s. only had the basket for 1 year!

Yep, I've had it for over a year and it's already showing some signs of rust. Not really pleased, but I can't afford anything else, so it will have to do.

not sure if I'm gonna buy another basket or go for a yakima box instead. a box would suit me better(skis,snowboards, keep stock dry, lockeable,etc...). for now I'll leave my crossbars on and put back my skis racks this fall. someone offered me to buy my basket to put on his jeep so not too bad. I just saw the basket made by surco, aluminum tubing sounds good, will think about it. gotta admit that I only used my basket at its full capacity once, so beside for carrying a spare tire and jerry cans on the roof, I don't really need my basket. gonna miss the look tough.

Ah yep I use the heck out of mine! Not usually fully loaded, but I've got two big dogs so everything goes up there so they have full use of the back with the seats down.

Good luck with your search!

Rust sucks. I've got a freebie basket from a neighbor that came off of a Bronco and it's pretty old. It had a midsection that I took out and it's the prefect size for the Subie now. Problem is that I don't have a way of attaching it (I have been meaning to go to a junk yard to scavenge for something that'd work). Any ideas? Oh, and btw, it's also a steel basket with holes and hollow tubes, so water and rust is an issue also. When I will get around to it again, I will seal all the holes and tubes with some RTV and plasti-dip the whole basket to rust proof it. Can't go wrong with a modified freebie though