The Upshot

If you have a rooftop cargo box for your car, you have likely faced the question of how to store it. After all, a cargo box like our Thule Force XT XXL is a) huge, b) expensive and c) a magnet for children on bikes.

While it may look like a great place to crash into for a 9-year old, it’s a pricey proposition for parents. Enter the cargo box ceiling hoist “Hi-Lift Pro” from Store Your Board (SYB).

Just the idea of hoisting something up and hanging it from the ceiling sounds cool, to me. But I’m a nerd.

Perhaps other dads get weirdly excited at the prospect of using ropes and pulleys like some sort of circus puppeteer. I chalk it up to the old board game, Mouse Trap, which instilled a lifelong love of channeling my inner Rube Goldberg.

Now, the SYB Cargo Box Ceiling Hoist is anything but created by Rube. In fact, it’s a solidly engineered kit that handily solves the cargo box storage problem. That it allows me to play adult Mouse Trap is an unsung benefit.

So if you’ve ever wondered, “How do you store a cargo roof top box?” you have come to the right place. Let’s take a deeper look in this cargo box ceiling hoist review.

Jump to full cargo box ceiling hoist review…

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The Full SYB Cargo Box Ceiling Hoist Review

Rooftop cargo boxes are tremendously useful for families looking to perform a re-enactment of National Lampoon’s Vacation. Or even just for storing the seemingly impossible amount of stuff that comes with any normal family road trip. But they leave a question mark around what to do when it’s not in use.

You could drive around town with it mounted at all time, showing off all your impressive destination stickers. Alternatively, you could remove it and store it…somewhere. The Hi-Life Cargo Box Ceiling Hoist Pro from SYB helps answer this question.

Features of the SYB Cargo Box Ceiling Hoist

Pulleys Make Lifting Easy

With a 4:1 mechanical advantage thanks to the SYB rope and pulley system, hoisting a 40-pound cargo box feel like only ten pounds. 

Adjustable Straps for Universal Fitment

Included ratchet straps that loop around your cargo box are 10 feet long meaning they’ll easily wrap around most anything you want to hang from the ceiling.           

50 Feet of Rope

On the Pro version of the SYB Cargo Box Ceiling Hoist, you’ll have 50 feet of rope to work with. Our garage ceiling is 10 feet high and even after running the rope through all the pulleys, this is much more than enough to comfortably hoist our cargo box while standing on the ground.
*Classic versions have 40 feet of rope.

Center Support Straps

The center support straps keep tension on the ropes running up to the ceiling, at either end of the cargo box. This helps to limit swaying front-to-back while the box is hanging.
*Classic versions do not include this center strap.

Supports 60 Pounds

We have the largest available Thule Force XT rooftop box, the XXL. And it weighs 52 pounds. Though I’m not planning to have my kids sleep inside the box (I may or may not have threatened them with this), I’d be comfortable storing some skis or camping gear that doesn’t see regular use.

90 Day Money Back Guarantee

Store Your Board offers a full refund, for 90 days, if you’re not satisfied. This quelled my questions on how well built the hoist would be.

Those concerns turned out to be unfounded but it’s nice to have the option.
*Note that return shipping is not included and restocking fees may apply.

12 Inch Ceiling to Cargo Box Gap

With about a foot of space between our garage ceiling and the top of the Thule box, there is plenty of room to park a car underneath it.

However, our ceiling is 10 feet high and our Ford Transit Connect isn’t overly tall. If you’re planning to house a vehicle beneath your hoisted cargo box, this is of course an important consideration.

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Things We Like About the Store Your Board Ceiling Hoist

Clear Installation Instructions

The Hi-Life hoist is not a complicated device and the instructions follow suit. They’re to the point, easy to understand and don’t miss anything.

Occasionally, products like this come with directions produced by someone that seemingly has never actually used the thing being built. However, that’s not the case here.

Bear in mind, installation requires a level of comfort with drilling into studs and working up high on a ladder while breaking a sweat. Aside from that, it’s fairly straightforward.       

Quality Components

Considering I’d be dangling a 50-ish pound container from my garage ceiling, a main concern of mine was what the quality of the components would be.

The first thing I did upon opening the box was pick up one of the metal brackets. And my concerns were immediately put to rest. Robust brackets, bolts and pulleys are the name of the game at Store Your Board.

So Much Cheaper Than Thule

Thule is a great company, I love our cargo box and roof rails. But man, their ceiling hoist is $220. Granted, it supports over 200 pounds of gear but that’s overkill for our purposes.

I had $50 in my head as the price point I’d be comfortable buying a kit versus creating a hoist from scratch. So kudos to SYB for keeping pricing so reasonable.

Simple, One-Person Operation

Once you’ve got the hoist bolted in place and straps around the box, it couldn’t be easier to use. Two ropes control the height of the front and back of the cargo box.

Just pull/release them separately or together and locking the unit in place only requires moving the ropes past vertical. At which point, the locking bracket grabs on and holds tight. You can definitely operate the SYB hoist on your own.

Maximizes Unused Space

A two-car garage with a 10-foot ceiling leaves quite a bit of unused space, even with the garage door open.

It’s nice to take advantage of this area and free up floor space for more important gear, like water guns and lawn games.

A Hoist a Day Keeps the Children Away

Our Thule cargo box was not exactly cheap. I think we’ll get our money’s worth out of it but to do so will require it lasting a while. Leaning it against a wall, secured with bungee cords, will prevent it from falling over.

However, it will certainly NOT prevent children from crashing their bikes into, opening a car door into or the litany of other head-scratching activities all children perform on a daily basis. Using a cargo box ceiling hoist means kids can’t leave their mark on it – in fact, they can’t even reach it!

Lowers Directly Onto Your Vehicle

When our cargo box was leaning against the wall, getting it on the roof of our Ford required me to emulate Hulk Hogan. Except I’m built like Pee Wee Herman, so you can imagine the absurdity of such an approach.

With the SYB Hi-Life hoist, you can lower your cargo box directly onto the car’s roof rack. Of course, you can do the reverse when it’s time to store it as well.

Multipurpose

We’re reviewing the SYB hoist for rooftop box storage but it could easily be put to work on your other large, ungainly items. Kayaks, stand-up paddleboards, life-sized giraffe sculptures and the like would make good use of this hoist.

Things We Would Change About the SYB Hi-Lift Hoist

Rope Material

The 50-foot rope used in this cargo box ceiling hoist is plenty long and feels very robust. However, the outer sheathing has a tendency to become kinked and awkwardly twisted.

It’s as though the casing moves independently of the inner roping. I wouldn’t describe it as a safety issue, more of a user experience issue. Though I imagine it’s pricier, the rope used in rappelling doesn’t suffer this issue – in my limited experience.              

Where’s My Stud

Mounting a hoist in the ceiling obviously means you’ll be working overhead. And you’ll need to mount the brackets into studs. Our garage ceiling is sheet rocked so finding the studs requires confidence in the knock-knock-listen method or some kind of stud finder.

I have an older, battery operated stud finder that beeps as it crosses the edge of a stud. And man, it sucks. Beeps here, beeps there, beeps everywhere! Basically leaving me with more of an educated guess on stud location than real confidence.

My brother, Tyler, recommended the magnetic Stud Buddy instead. It’s only $10 and as you slide across the sheet rock, its magnet activates when crossing a nail head. Holy So-Much-Easier Batman.

This is of course not Store Your Board’s problem but if they offered a Stud Buddy to buy along with the kit, I definitely would have. Finding the studs is a critical step for a proper installation.

Bracket Alignment

Something I missed when reading up the SYB cargo box ceiling hoist is that the stud-mounted brackets only install in one direction. My studs run side-to-side, across the garage ceiling. Since the brackets each require two inline bolts, you have to mount the hoist in whatever direction your studs align.

This is not the end of the world but for me, it means my cargo box is hanging perpendicular to the car I’d like to lower it on to. Though I’ll be able to make it work with a little maneuvering, it’s something I was not anticipating.

An idea would be to make the mounting bracket cross-shaped. You would still bolt it in line with the studs but you could have the option to bolt the pulley bracket in the same alignment or at ninety degrees. That would give owners more flexibility when installing.

Who Is Store Your Board

It’s not surprising I like this SYB cargo box ceiling hoist, it was designed by a fellow mechanical engineer – Josh Gordon. Frustrated with the lack of home storage options for his variety of boards, he built his own in the basement. And so, Store Your Boards was born in 2009.

Since then, they have grown into a full team and have graduated to a warehouse operation with global shipping. SYB offers all manner of roof racks, hitch racks, wall rack, hoists, etc.

In addition, they cover the gamut of sporting goods applications – SUP, kayak, bike, ski, wake and so on. As well, they’ve won awards for their customized user review system and clearly take the time to focus on charitable works.

Alternatives to the SYB Hoist

While I have not used either of these products, I came across them in my searching and thought they were worth looking at.

Harken: This system looks similar to the Store Your Board Hi-Life hoist. It also supports up to 60 pounds but costs $150.

Thule: Thule makes excellent gear but it’s never cheap. Their hoist does hold up to 220 pounds but also costs $220. I thought the installation work also looked overly complex.

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Final Notes on the Ceiling Storage Hoist

We would strongly recommend the Store Your Board Hi-Life cargo box ceiling hoist. It’s highly engineered and very well built while coming in under $50.

Installation is relatively straightforward and the whole system works as advertised. I’m very comfortable having our Thule cargo box hanging from the ceiling and actually had fun putting it all together.

How to Buy a SYB Cargo Box Ceiling Hoist

You can buy the hoist on the Store Your Board site here.