So, when I acquired my 2014 AI from a friend last year it came with a set of Railblaza mounts on the aka's. At the time I didn't have any Railblaza products to use on these, so I removed them and put them on the shelf.
Fast forward nearly a year and I finally put things together but with a twist. I have been using RAM products nearly exclusively since I went with a Hobie. I really like the adjustability that RAM offers so I have a lot of it.
I took one of the Railblazas apart recently and noticed that the two bolt holes look oddly familiar in gap. I reached for a 1.5" RAM ball with a 2.5" base and held it over the Railblaza. Damn if I didn't know any better I'd say I eyeballed that pretty good. Perfect alignment! The only mod to the RAM base was to drill two of the holes slightly larger up to 1/4" to match the Railblaza bolts.
After dinking around with it a bit, I came to the conclusion it needed better bolts as the 1/4-28 x 2.5" Phillips head bolts were tough to get tight without jinxing the head up. This led me to 1/4-20 x 3" Cap head bolts along with a set of washers and Nylocs. All stainless of course. With that, it is always good to smear a dab of anti-seize compound anytime you are putting together stainless nut/bolt combos to avoid galling that can happen with stainless to stainless hardware.
Anywho, back to the project.
I got things fitted up and put a wrap of grip tape down where I wanted the Railblaza/RAM combo to locate on the aka. Bolted everything down good and snug, mounted up a rod holder and pulled and tugged on it to see if there was anything I missed.
Nope! All is good, now to do the other side.
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