Kayaks

[tladams123]

Just curious if anyone is hauling a kayak around, and how they're hauling it. I've been hauling mine in my bed for a couple years now, but getting some really nasty looks from people when they see 10' of 'yak hanging past my tailgate! I want to haul them on the roof, but I'm curious how others were hauling theirs around. Here's a pic of the kayak in the bed of my OLD F-250. No pics of it in the new '08 DC Tundra, but should have some real soon and I'm still hauling it just like this.



Thanks

Tim

[Possum]

Plastic boats are very susceptible to warping fron pressure points, especially in warm weather. That's why you need to use saddles. Yakima makes towers and clips to mount a bar on the roof. Do the 'fit my car' thing on their website. A full set of 2 bars/4towers/4clips/4locks goes for ~$335. Then you'll need a rack for the bed. Thule makes the best for an open bed. I'm using the factory-installed tracks and Thule bars/towers on my Leer shell plus the double-bar Yakima setup on the cab. With the 4 bars (total) I use four pairs of saddles for each boat. My plastic surf boat has the same warping potential as yours, the 19ft fiberglass boats have enough memory to resist warping. My 18ft Kevlar boat is bombproof in the water, but over-tightening the straps will crack the gelcoat So I use lots of saddles(located under the bulkheads). The Yakima saddles have better mounting hardware. Don't underestimate the lift that a large kayak generates. I've seen raingutters and factory luggage rails ripped off by the wind. Finally, the massive cabover racks are more flexible than your boat and will chafe the shiite out of it. For sure you need to get that thang away from where the boneheads can wreck it.

[tladams123]

I was thinking about continuing to use the bed extender I currently have, but use it in the vertical mounted position instead, and fabricating some saddles on to it. Do you think if I did that I'd be ok with just one bar & a set of towers on the roof, or would I still need a full set? I really like being able to haul it like I do now. Takes me all of 5 minutes to load & unload, and the price of the bed extender was right. $20 at Harbor Freight!!! But the way people zip in & out in Houston traffic I know some idiot not paying attention is gonna run into it one day.

[Possum]

sorry it took so long to answer... A single load bar would probably suffice, but you'd ALWAYS have to use a tiedown. After a while, you'll go cross-eyed from that thing bouncing in front of you and it may be a hassle keeping it of the paint. Double bars allows double saddles and you can't have too many saddles...or straps. Redundancy=security.

[ramoine]

Thule 375 Pickup Truck Rack System (Compact)

[tladams123]

I broke down a few weeks ago and got the Yakima system. Single crossbar in the bed with the other bar in the receiver. It worked very nice, even though I was a little worried on it's maiden voyage. I must've stopped every 5 miles at first checking & rechecking straps!! But after a few checks, I was confident they weren't going anywhere. Here's the only pic I took of the set-up.

[ramoine]

I like that set-up nice kayaks too .