Transporting Kayaks - Stacker

[Jeffonc]

Spent the morning trying to get a cheap solution to take 2 kayaks up to OH on vacation. Went with the Rhode Gear/Yakima Kayak Stackers on the factory luggage rack. Jury is still very much out on whether this will make the 600mi trip tomorrow. One thing for sure - if this were how I had to load & haul kayaks regularly, I wouldn't have 14-15 foot boats and probably wouldn't go half as much as I do. Sure makes me appreciate tossing them in the bed of the truck...



Here's the product. <$100 solution.




Didn't think to start taking pics until I had the first boat up there. So far, so good. The U-bolts are angled, which did a decent job of accomodating the angled bars that came with the car. I put some pool noodle on the bars to protect the boats and on the tips of the stackers so that they wouldn't rough up the roof of the soccer-mom-mobile. Was going to go hull outside, but wasn't sure if the rudder on the 2nd boat would cause problems, so I went topside out.


Reverse view


Another view from rear.


Close up


Added the 2nd kayak. Not in love with the way they contact the stacker. Can't be good over, say, 600miles and back...


Another view


Close up


With the bow tie-downs. Nothing too tight, just tight enough not to flap around.


Tried to fiddle with the front stacker to push the bit of pool noodle down behind the redfish and caused this bowing of the rack lock... not cool.


another view of the bowing.


close up of the bowing


Initial thought on solution to the problem is to loop around the rail and compress the end of the rail slide. Way better to go around the side rails anyway, and this helps keep the locking pin down into the channel. Concerning that this is an issue at all. Rack is rated for 220 lbs.


Making the extra loop around each rail required an extension to the strap, and as luck would have it there was an 18in strap in the Captain's bag at the GetOutdoors tournament last week. I wondered what on earth I would ever do with such a short strap. I also cut a hunk of heavy pool noodle to support the point directly under the kayak. Still thinking that one through...


Here's the final result. Not bad looking. Hope I can remember not to go through any drive-thrus tomorrow if I don't chicken out and leave them behind. Could also try to get out and get some real support bars but its getitng late and we've got plenty to do.



I took it for a test spin and it held up pretty well. Some light whistle at 62+. Stopped at my brothers and tried some different spacing/angle options with the cross bars to try and take some of the pressure off the front bar - only made things worse (much worse!). Wound up about back where we started.

The net is: Its probably doing some amount of damage to the factory rack system. Its a nightmare to push the kayaks up that high. It will definitely whistle. It'll probably stay on the car. It cost <$100. One out of five aint bad...

Comments or quick advice? (other than "Get a trailer"!)