Roof rack or not?

Need some advice.

I'm wanting to carry cargo consisting of a cooler, 3 27 gallon plastic storage bins, a foldable kitchen table about 6" thick, some foldable chairs, my mattress that i use with my bed tent and wondering if I should get a roof rack to do this. My thought is that I would fit the cooler and 3 storage bins in the bed, that would fill the bed up without having to stack anything up that would go above the top of the bed wall. And I would get a roof rack (with cargo basket?) to carry the tables, chairs, and mattress.

Will putting a cargo basket and stuff that I mentioned above cause a drastic decrease in MPG? Also will it add a lot of noise (the noise might not matter as much to me if it's not crazy loud)?

Am I better off just loading the bed with all my stuff? It would probably stack above the bed wall and I'd have to secure it.

The pros I see from a roof rack are:
1. extra storage space that is more accessible and don't have to leave on the ground when camping.
2. some extra lighting, planning on getting a rack that has an LED bar and side lights.
3. and it would look cool lol

 

Load the bed with your stuff. Racks are noisy over 50mph. You’ll lose a couple of MPGs on the highway. You can definitely fit all that stuff in the bed. Just dial in your system.

I built a wood tabletop for my 27 Gal bins that fits into the top of the bin lid and has a recess that fits my cooler’s bottom so they nest together. It doubles as a seating surface or table top. Do stuff like that to make the Tetris happen.

 

In my experience, you will lose 1.5-3mpg with a roof basket, maybe a little above that for highway speeds when loaded due to increased wind resistance. You will also need to be careful in parking garages / low overhead clearance areas depending on the configuration. Roof racks like prinsu or other flat or more aerodynamic will have less effect when unloaded than a typical basket mounted to crossbars. If you need one for hauling a canoe etc that is one thing, otherwise if you can fit your stuff in the bed, it will probably be better for fuel economy.

 

Put your stuff in the bed...

 

Forget the roof rack.

 

We can see that you want the roof rack just for looks, so here's what you do:
1. Buy the roof rack
2. Load everything in the bed and never use it.
3. Suffer the mpg loss and wind noise for the next 10 years because...vanity and image projection.

Win Win!!!

 

Don't forget about the 20,000 lumens light bar mounted to the roof rack to blind people in the mall parking lot and when driving down the highway at night

 

When I put my Prinsu rack on, I probably lost about 1 mpg. It is noisier, such that I usually close the sun shade on my moonroof to help with the noise when going 50+mph. I got the rack mostly for kayaks and canoe, but did end up puttign some lights on it that really come in handy (scenes off the side and baja design S2's off the rear).

I think in your situation though, I would look into a rack for above the bed. I have the KB Voodoo Hi Rise bars (which aren't very high... maybe 8" above the bed, but these work with a tonneau cover, and the powder coating sucks such that I have to repaint them every year) and have put a thule roof box on it. You could easily put a basket on bars as well. I bet Thule or Yakima might make a bed rack system that's affordable and easy to add a basket or roof box.

Here's the roof box on my bed bars:

 

I have a roof rack, diamondback, and a soft topper. For your use case I think a soft topper would be perfect.
I have a roof rack becase the tent I use is pretty long and using the bed to transport it ruins being able to fit a bunch of other stuff in there so its better to just strap it to the roof. If I could just run with the soft topper for camping trips I would just do that.

 

Don't forget that when you add a roof rack you now are going to need to carry about 10 to 15 accessories that you never would have purchased before Rotopax, Hi-Lift Jack, MaxTrax, DMOS Shovel, roof top tent, awning, hot water shower...

The struggle is real!

 

I also have the KB VOODOO hi rise bars. I actually just sent mine off to get powder coated since KB VOODOO doesn't properly powdercoat their products... I'm getting them coated with a dark gray.

 

What color is your truck? Mint & Chip?