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 Post subject: Car topping questions
PostPosted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 6:42 am 
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Location: Palm Harbor, Fl
Have a Hobie Revolution 13 and a Heritage Redfish 12 that I need to start car-topping on a after-market roof rack for my Jeep. My questions are:
1 Seems like a saddle where the boats are laid flat are the most stable, correct?
2 The J shape rack where the boats are laying at an angle seems great and it saves space but in reading about them, some say the weight limit is 75lbs. My Revo is 85lbs. Heritage about 75lbs. Is this okay?
3 Also need something that can be taken off and on without a hassle so the Jeep can be garaged...
4 We will be pulling the Jeep behind our RV for long road trips and would like something safe and secure..
Thanks for your comments

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PostPosted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 8:12 am 
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Location: Portland, Texas
Hi Yaksailor,

Both Yakima and Thule make really good racks with towers specifically designed to fit whatever vehicle you may own. I own an Oasis which is considerably heavier than either of your kayaks and have had no issues with the weight of the kayak on my Thule Rack. If there is a chance you will be loading the kayaks singlehand, I'd recommend getting an assistive device such as a telescoping rack rod etc. as your Jeep is a bit tall. The rack I have comes off in just a few minutes so removal is no problem. Whether you go with the frames that allow for placing the kayak on it's side or not will be up to you. Most racks can come in a variety of widths that allow for two kayaks if you decide to not use the frames for side placement so don't feel like you have to use that arrangement. Good luck and have fun! 8)

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PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 5:31 pm 
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Location: Redding CA
Look at the Malone j-pro racks. They will fit any Thule bars and IMHO are better then the thule j racks. They are also half the price. Take a look at the malone down loader also. If your going to leave the racks on your car the ability to collapse them is huge.

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PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 3:08 pm 
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Another question about car topping:

I have a Revo 13 which I am considering taking on an extended road trip. Between uses, it may be on the car for several days, maybe a week or more, in fairly warm temperatures. I have Yakima Land Shark saddles which don't really conform to the hull contour and while they seem to cause no harm for short local trips, I'm hesitant to let the boat sit on them for a long period.

I have seen mentioned here in the forums that some owners store their boats right-side-up on longitudinal PVC pipe racks. It occurred to me that such an arrangement should also work for car topping... two pipes in pool noodles mounted on the cross-bars and spaced to fit the molded shape of the hull... (what do you call those grooves, anyway... "chines"?)

Yes? No? Suggestions?


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PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 7:56 pm 
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Location: Ontario, Canada
Hobie recommends that you car top the boat upside down. I use Yakima Mako saddles, but like you, I've never done extremely long trips. From my research the Mako saddles are excellent, giving a little bit of suspension to the boat, and I've never had any hull deformation problems. But again, I'm not sure that I trust, even those, for the type of trip that you mention.

If I were you, I'd look into getting the foam blocks used to transport canoes upside down, and use them. That would allow you to position the boat in the way that Hobie recommends.

But I hear your dilemma, and there may be a better way. Hopefully someone with experience doing a trip like yours can give some advice.

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PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 3:21 pm 
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Thanks Augaug; I know the preferred method is upside down but with Ram ball mounts on the gunnels, it's more difficult than loading right-side-up.

Here's my thinking: In addition to the gunnels and sides, the other strong points of the hull are the scuppers and the drive well, due to the molded hull shape. The longitudinal hull moldings help in directional tracking but I suspect their real purpose is to provide strength to minimize hull sagging and hogging. If so, it seems that they could also serve as support areas, especially in view of the substantially greater load distribution area.

Maybe Hobie can provide insight...?


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PostPosted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 2:45 pm 
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Location: Lafayette, La, USA
(censored) wrote:
Thanks Augaug; I know the preferred method is upside down but with Ram ball mounts on the gunnels, it's more difficult than loading right-side-up.


Yaksailer..., respectfully.... I think you might be overstating that particular concern.
I don't have that issue at all with loading from the side with various gunnel mounts and obstacles. Once you figure where the best placement is, just set those gunwales holders on the bars in the same place everytime. Your boat goes in sideways, and upside down, and the gunnel obstacles never need to cross the bars forward or backward. Drop into the gunnel mounts, tie down, and it's locked down securely for any short or long road trip. :D

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PostPosted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 7:17 am 
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I believe Mnormand you were referring to (censored). Anyway I've come to the conclusion that for me I'm much more comfortable with my revolution sitting upside down on it's gunnels on pool noddles tied to my rack. My aftermarket rack holds 300 lbs and to put all my trust in a saddle or any other device to hold my kayak, I wouldn't have that much confidence in, especially in long trips on the freeway.. Securing onto my rack w/pool noodles on it's gunnels has my vote..... Cheaper too!

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PostPosted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 7:56 am 
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Location: Lafayette, La, USA
Thx for the correction Yak, sorry about that!

I tell ya, those yakima gunwale brackets are super secure, that's what they are made for. Search fleabay for "Yakima Canoe Gunwale Brackets", they have some used sets out there.

I used to tie my boats on top for short trips occasionally using homemade foam blocks and such, but one pass near an 18wheeler cured me of that when the boat started to shift a bit. With the brackets, bad crosswinds are no issue whatsoever, and the web straps over the boat are tied to the rack bars, not the brackets, so they have no pull stress.

When I'm loading from the side, once the boat is on top, but not set in the brackets yet, I stand behind the truck and raise or lower the end of boat boat to walk the boat into the brackets.

On the brackets, I glued a small piece of black closed cell foam where the gunnel sits, as the rubbing was causing discoloration on the boat gunnel. Everything works perfect now, and it provides some cushion against jarring road bumps.

Here's a pic of the boat upside down, hopefully it will help newer owners:

Image

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PostPosted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 8:56 am 
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Location: Sarasota,Key West FL
yaksailor2 :
I used to haul my Oasis and Revo on our Yukon, I used the Malone Stinger system, it worked ok, but there are many much better nowdays. I no longer use anyones rack system. I ended up buying a trailer hitch T bar, that just slips into the hitch reciever. I then took some PVC pipe and slid it into a couple large pool noodles, I then covered the pool noodles with either black electrical tape, or most recently just clear packing tape, which holds up suprisingly well.
What I do is place the noodles on the roof one in the far back, and the other just in front of the rear cross bar. I then lift the boat front onto the Tbar, I then go in back of the boat and lift (your only ever lifting half the boat weight), I then slide it forward. The boat rolls nicely on the pool noodles, making it very easy to slide forward. I then strap my TI down onto the roof bars, and when going any distance (like down to Key West) I add another strap around on the back over the back of the boat and to the Tbar. With the TI I strap the AMA's on each side of the boat when only carrying one boat, but strap them on top of the TI when I have two boats, if we are only going kayaking I leave the AMA's at home). I sometimes have my boat or boats on the car for weeks at a time, when I do that I throw a couple pool noodles under the hull lengthwise on each side. It is suprisingly sturdy, and I have travelled thousands of mile with this setup with no issues. My Yukon also has tow eyeletts on the front of the car so on long trips I tie the nose down with twisted straps for extra safety (if you twist the 1 inch straps in a spiral when putting them on, they don't flutter in the wind at highway speeds.
When I get home, I take the boats and Tbar off and put them in the garage, nothing stays on top of the car. This is by far my best setup so for, for what it's worth. I found the Tbar on line for I think around $79 bucks, works great.
I'm not a big guy, and always load the boats myself (every weekend typically)
Hope this helps.
Bob


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PostPosted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 3:11 pm 
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Mnormand that's exactly what I'm looking for. Yakama gunnal brackets would work great. Ebay has them...Thanks for the tip

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PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 2013 10:48 am 
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Fusioneng;

Do I understand correctly that you carry the boat right-side-up with your pool noodle arrangement?


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 2013 12:58 pm 
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Location: Sarasota,Key West FL
Fish It :
Yep I have always stored the boats on the car right side up (just seems easier to me). Especially with the TI because it has the metal AKA bars it would scratch the car. We live near the water, so most weekends I just get the boat out of the garage, throw one of those big (about 3 1/2 in dia x 4 ft long) pool noodles on the roof just in front of the rear cross bar. I then put the Tbar into the hitch, lift the front of the boat onto the Tbar, then slide it forward. The boat rolls on the pool noodle nicely. I then strap the boat down to the cars roof racks, and I'm off sailing, it takes at most ten minutes to load up and strap down. Now if the boat is going to be up there a while, I will add a couple small noodles along the sides lengthways just for stability, and more support area if sitting on the top of the car (sometimes for several weeks at a time). We drive down to Key west every month, and I usually add the side noodles, and a couple extra straps for the 350 mile drive.
We started kayaking alot in 2007 and have over 120,000 traveling miles on the cars since then (we've worn out 2 vehicles, and are on our third tow vehicle now (the Denali in the pic.). Like I said when we travel we always take our boats along. I haven't lost any boats yet (knock on wood).
With our old Malone rack system the boats sat much higher, with this setup the hull is much closer to the car and I think alot more stable in the wind.
I believe a couple companies sell padded covers that fit over the standard roof rack cross bars, you could probably do away with the pool noodles with those on lighter boats. On a boat like the Revo or outback, you could probably flip lighter boats upside down once it's on the roof, if you prefer.
I'm not recommending any one type over another, I'm just discribing what we have, and how much we like the T-bar hitch mount, which works nice on our vehicle, and our boats.
Hope this helps
Bob


Here is a pic of my TI on the car just leaving to go out sailing.
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 2013 7:27 pm 
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Fusioneng - Thanks! I think you have proven my theory! I made a roller loader, which greatly facilitates roof-topping from the rear; rolling it up and onto longitudnal rail supports just seems to make sense. I'm going to try it!


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 03, 2013 8:37 am 
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I just purchased an Oasis at Southwest Kayaks at Lake Havasu and car-topped it back to my home in Las Vegas on my Volkswagen Toureg. I had help from the store staff getting it on the car and secured for the first time. Using a few simple straps, it was extremely well locked down and stable at highway speeds.

They gave me quick loop straps similar to these:
http://www.autoanything.com/roof-racks/65A6837A0A0.aspx
which I used to secure the bow and stern. These are placed under hood or tailgate to provide secure tie-down points. Simple cinch type straps were used to wrap around my car's integrated crossbar roof rack.

We used a glorified kitchen rug / mat to protect the rear spolier when loading and unloading.

One key trick is to load the boat water-side down and then flip it over once on the roof racks (and vice-versa for unloading). Transporting top-side down is much preferred for stability and so as not to deform the hull bottom.

I got the kayak off by myself with no issues.

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