Hobie Cat Forums

Two questions...

One, has anyone had any luck using the J style kayak carriers on top of racks? I've got some after-market racks I used all last year with the AI flipped upside down and even at 24" apart they held the boat beautifully. This year I've picked up some of the J carriers so that loading it on the car might be a bit easier, but with the weight of the boat I'm unsure I trust them to support the weight upright. Anyone have any luck with this style carrier?

Second is, has anyone had their teflon bearings from the mast mount fall out when transporting the kayak? This happened to me last year while driving on the highway, the little ball bearings started falling out on my windshield. All I can figure is that the plastic casting that holds the 24 bearings was warped and not holding them right, so I have replaced both the top and bottom collars, as well as all the bearings, but now I'm nervous about transporting it in case it happens again. Has this happened to anyone else or was that a freak occurrence that I shouldn't worry about happening again?

I've used J racks with my AI. The racks handle it, but I always feel a bit nervous. I have only used them when carrying two boats on the roofracks, so the car tends to feel pretty top-heavy. For solo loading, I find it easier to put the AI on the roofracks and flip it than to load it onto the J racks.
As for the ball bearings, it does seem to be caused by minor irregularities in the top and bottom collars, as you say, so you may or may not get a recurrence. Stringy is a big advocate of stuffing a short length of pool noodle into the mast receiver when carrying the boat inverted. That will prevent them falling out.

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Hoc,
If the mast isn't in then pool noodle is. Just enough to cover the bearings like this:

More info here:
viewtopic.php?f=75&t=12356&p=68703

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What Chris and Stringy said.

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