Hobie Cat Forums

I have purchased the craddle set for my PA and have spent way too much time trying to get a good fit. Has anyone at Hobie tried the fit of the front craddle to the hull? I have spent about 5 hours trying to tweak these craddles to get a good fit. The rear set seemed to work best when I ripped the 2X4 at 10* angle (I can"t fathom why they are not set up for flat mounting 90*). I can't find a point where the front fits properly. I even tried finding where it would fit on the hull just holding it up to the hull, not a very good fit anywhere. To even come close to having the side/bottom pads make contact the plastic above the pad at the craddle rubs the hull. In order to keep the plastic from rubbing the sides is to add additional 1/2" padding which seems kind of mickey mouse for me. Am I being to picky ? Has anyone tried these craddles?
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The closest I could get using additional padding......I wonder if the pressure is spread out evenly??

The rear works well after finding the angle, I have mine set up as removable because I don't want to stress the ends of the craddle sliding the PA through as it gets wider.

*I am at 67 1/2" which seems best.

Was wondering the same sort of thing myself. I'm wondering if the proper length for mounting the cradles differ between the models, as I have the PA 12 which is shorter than most. after digging I found this.
viewtopic.php?f=78&t=19974

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The 7 P's

Proper
Pervious
Planning
Prevents
Piss
Poor
Performance
Basically, plan ahead or plan to fail.

Papaya Hobie Pro Angler 12

The Hobbie craddles I got look totally different, very flimsy plastic. I am most likely bringing them back and I am very dissapointed that I spent so much time trying to make them fit. I should have spent all that time making my own.

Am I the only person who bought these? Has anyone at Hobie even tried them on the hull?

The cradles are molded and have enough tolerance for variations in hull shapes due to the hull molding process. The pictures you posted look normal to us.
If you are unhappy with any product that we build feel free to return them to your purchasing dealer for a full refund.

They are the only ones we make now (the other posted talks about the original design cradles which were hand laid in fiberglass) We replaced those with the newer molded design, but the fit to the hull is the same, its just a better way of manufacturing, since we weren't able to keep up with demand making them by hand. We had to make the switch over to thermo-forming in order to be able to produce enough to keep up with order volume.

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Jacques Bernier
http://www.hobiecat.com/
http://www.facebook.com/HobieCatCompany

Are there any plans to develop a cradle set for an Outback?

No - we suggest for standard kayaks to just flip them over as the deck is much stronger - the only reason we do cradles for Islands and Pro Angler is due to their size and weight - it would be a pain to flip them over but an Outback or Revo or other, it's simple.... sorry.

_________________
Jacques Bernier
http://www.hobiecat.com/
http://www.facebook.com/HobieCatCompany