How do you haul your Odyssey?

The Odyssey really doesn't see a lot of use, just because it is too heavy for my wife to help me load onto the roof of the SUV. For a while I was hauling it around on the trailer from a H16 that I'd parted out, but the trailer became a hassle to store (in addition to the one that our H16 is on) and a hassle to park when we took it to the canoe liveries and drifted on the river.

Anyone have a clever or handy way to haul it that works out well? The thing is really a monster and I have a feeling that we'll probably just start leaving it up at the family time share and just renting kayaks for the 1-2 times we happen to go out during the season.

Just checking: have you tried lifting it onto your car one end at a time? Assuming that your car isn't too tall and that you can rest one end of the half-lifted boat at roof height on the car it is then a one-man job (i.e. your wife doesn't need to be involved). It is even easier to do if you have cradles on your bars so that you can load and transport the kayak upright and you'll need something to protect the car's paint from damage when you rest the end you lift first on the back of the car (I use a thick rug).

The technique is to lay the kayak on the ground behind the car & in line with the car. Then lift one end onto the back of the car roof (protected by the rug) so that the kayak is, in effect, leaning on the back of the car. Then lift the other end so that it comes up level with the bars/cradles and slide the kayak onto the rear bar/into the rear cradle (you can buy cradles that don't grip for the rear bar but I just cover my rubber ones with the rug while I am loading). Then push the kayak all the way along so that it is resting on both bars/in both cradles, remove rug/protection, strap down and drive away.

This is the way I load my Oasis and Adventure - and I fill them both with all my gear before doing so - so they are even heavier when I do it. I have a bad back but have had no problems with this technique. The same cannot be said from my experience of the 'overhead clean and jerk' alternative.

We actually never tried the one person loading, out of fear of dropping it on the car. We traded that car in on a pickup and I've been thinking about one of those bed extenders, but am concerned about the length. The trailer may have to stick around a while longer.....

How would you drop it on the car? You're not lifting it up. Just sliding it up and on top.

Pickup is awkward. I helped someone load there's on a rack he built on his truck and it was really high (above the roof of the cab and across above the bed) . I'm 6'5" and I didn't find it easy. He does the slide on method.

Moving it in the bed's another story but it's going to stick out 5-7 feet isn't it?

I have an Odyssey and I have to load it on my car myself, darn kids need to bulk up, LOL.

I have a car, so it's not as tall, and I have an aftermarket roof rack. The rack let's me have the overhang more to one side, but not too much to be a hazard. I will lift the nose of the yak and set it up against the car and rest it against the front rim of the rack. I put cardboard down on the car to protect it, but I plan to go buy a strip of magnet car sign stuff to use instead, which just protects the car from scratches. Once I got one side leaning, I just lift up the other side and set it on. You cannot let go at any point though or it will slide down. It's a pain, but I got it down after a few trips.

Next summer I have rented space at the local park on a rack system, so I won't need to do it as often.