We were excited when we came across the concept of a carback carrier.  A carback carrier is essentially just a backpack for your car.  Brilliant right?  The immediate recognized benefit is that it won’t affect your gas mileage like a car top carrier would.  When we first saw the Rightline Gear Cargo Saddlebag we were confident that this product would be on our list of best new discovered products for the year.  That’s saying a lot because we were well into the year already so there were quite a few products/gear that had come before it.  Who wouldn’t think that though?  I mean, it is a backpack for a car…how cool is that? 

The highly anticipated arrival of our Cargo Saddlebag from Rightline Gear arrived mid summer and we’ve had a few opportunities to utilize it and test it out.  A forewarning before reading on, we are quite critical of the carback carrier because of the excitement surrounding this brilliant concept.  Now for the nitty-gritty.

The Cargo Saddlebag comes in a stuff sack that is about the side of a 5-6 person tent.  That sure beats the large X-Cargo plastic cartop carrier stored in the crawl space of my parent’s house.   Don’t get me wrong, if you have the storage space and don’t mind consuming more expensive gas and making a Prince somewhere wealthier, then these are great for extra storage when traveling.  However, if you’re like me you will appreciate having more storage space for toys and tools.  Inside the stuff sack are the following:  Cargo Saddlebag, (1) 2″ W strap, (2) 1″ W straps, stuff sack, and sewn-in instructions.  On Rightline Gear’s website there are images and an additional setup guide to supplement the sewn-in instructions.

Now the moment of truth.  They say that seeing is believing, but as a reviewer you must not just believe what you see, but put things to test and usage to become a believer in a product or brand.  This is when the disappointment began and where frustration didn’t end.  The Cargo Saddlebag folds up and stores nicely, but as a result it doesn’t allow for any structural support.  What little support it did have, a plastic insert base, just wasn’t enough.  As a result, it was very difficult to setup the support straps and pack the carback carrier.  The images on Rightline Gear’s site shows a Cargo Saddlebag that is a very shaped perfectly in a rectangle, leading you to believe that there is an internal frame, however there is not.  Not having any sort of internal frame made setup of the straps very difficult.  As you would tighten one strap, it would compromise the shape of the Cargo Saddlebag until the other strap was tightened.  It was difficult to find that “sweet spot” where all straps are tight and the Cargo Saddlebag and “good shape”.  I had a similar issue when using a Bagstar when I redid my bathrooms at my house.  The lack of any type of frame made it difficult to get the desired shape allowing for optimum capacity.

Not to take anything away from the concept, as we see this to be a product of genius, but we would like to see some refinement before recommending and encouraging others to purchase it.  We were left frustrated and never did get the Cargo Saddlebag setup correctly…no where near the beauty seen in the pictures on their website.  I think this problem could easily be fixed if the edges had sleeves to insert framing material in order to create a frame for the bag.  The ability to “take shape” without any gear inside would make for a much easier setup and configuration.  Imagine trying to load a tent with gear without having a frame to stretch the material, it would be quite difficult.  That’s what I would compare this to.  A frame system like what a freestanding tent uses would solve the problems we faced.

We really hope Rightline Gear makes the modifications needed because it could be a “must-have” for anyone with too little cargo room.

At first, I was worried about the temperature that the G-Form iPad Extreme Sleeve would maintain if left in a warm car or in the sun (it can get pretty hot in the mountains of North Carolina), but the breathability of the material is perfect.  My iPad has always stayed dry and cool.

By far, the best part of the sleeve is the protection it offers from the accidental drop.  The iPad is too expensive to take chances with — and the sleeve offers a built-in insurance.  The few downfalls with the protection is that it isn’t water-proof (but it is water-resistant), and I’m not completely convinced that the corners of the sleeve would absorb all the shock if dropped, especially the 2 corners around the zipper (but I’m not willing to test this either!).

My only concern, which I believe G-Form is working on, is that I wouldn’t be able to have a cover on my iPad and use the sleeve at the same time.  * Update * If you use an iPad2 with the magnetic Smart Cover the new iPad Extreme Sleeve 2 is strongly recommended which has more room and more edge protection.  The new iPad Extreme Sleeve 2 is available for pre-order and will ship on June 15th.

Overall, this is a great product and it definitely offers the protection promised on the G-Form website.