Will yakima mako saddles work with my hobie outback

Hello,
I just bought a new Hobie Outback and would like to use my Yakima Mako Saddles, but looking at the bottom of the outback it doesn't look right. bottom of kayak looks very flat. Has anyone else used the Mako saddles on their Hobie Outback?

The Mako saddles will bend/curve (bottom down) to fit your Outback....just adjust the final spacing once the Outback is on the roof rack.

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Dr.SteelheadCatcher
Warrenton, OR

I have a set of Mako saddles and rollers. The rollers looked fine to me but the saddles just looked like i was going to have to flex them a lot to get them to work. I was real worried about breaking them. They are only plastic and didn't look all that strong. Plus my truck is very tall and this new Hobie is a lot heavier then my old kayak. I have decided to just go with a trailer to keep the boat a lot lower to make it easier to handle.

TWS....If you look closely at this photo, you can see the Yakima Mako saddles conform to the shape of the hull of my old Hobie Outback.....at the rear, you can see the Show Boat roller I installed on the roof rack of my Subaru Outback....it eases loading and protects the spoiler containing the "3rd" stop light located atop the back hatch..

My Hobie Outback fit like a dream....and the saddles are secured to the rack and kayak using the Yakima factory straps.


This rack is now 4 years old and my son is using it on the same car....I sold it to him for a princely sum to keep it in the family

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Dr.SteelheadCatcher
Warrenton, OR

I mounted my mako saddles today and had trouble getting a lot of hull contact with the curved saddle...How much hull contact did you have with the Mako saddles in the front of your outback, your photo shows good contact on the saddles near the stern..... Im wondering if i need to push them further from the keel . Nice trout !!!

I mounted my mako saddles today and had trouble getting a lot of hull contact with the curved saddle...How much hull contact did you have with the Mako saddles in the front of your outback, your photo shows good contact on the saddles near the stern..... Im wondering if i need to push them further from the keel . Nice trout !!!

If you look closely at the photo, you can see the saddle curves up and that is plenty of support.....also, the spacing/location is just forward of the side molded paddle fitting.
I ran/fed the strap once around the crossbar, from saddle to saddle for extra security
Cinch up the strap and all is good.

Thanks, that was a 8.5# rainbow trout I caught while trolling in 10' of water......there were several tree stumps on the outflow spot, in the lake I was fishing.

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Dr.SteelheadCatcher
Warrenton, OR

I use Mako saddles for my Outback on my Yakima trailer. They make it a lot easier to load/unload, since I can just slide the boat straight off into the water or back, but I don't like them for longer / higher-speed drives. I've found they flex quite a bit under the weight of the Outback when I hit bumps in the road, it's especially bad with rhythmic stuff like joints between concrete slabs. My first trip with them the person following thought the Outback was going to come flying off it was bouncing so much! (It rocks end-to-end, bow-up / stern-down then bow-down / stern-up.)

When going on longer trips I prefer to take the saddles off and load the Outback upside down directly on the load bars (I do the same thing when loading it on my truck rack) but it is also sufficient to simply add a second set of straps over the Outback looping them under the load bars on either side. This compresses the saddles and keeps them from allowing the rocking motion.

In my photo, you can't see the bow line I have connected to the front of my car but you can see the stern line that goes down to the trailer hitch.
I would never car top a kayak, unless there were bow and stern safety lines connected to the vehicle, that are independent of the cross bar straps.

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Dr.SteelheadCatcher
Warrenton, OR

What a beautiful fish. Cant believe nobody mentioned that! I like your posts.

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/a8cmg/
https://www.youtube.com/user/mastery415/videos

Thanks Clintvava...it's 8.5 pounds and just 26 1/4" long.....a really thick hen rainbow trout I caught while trolling a "wedding ring" lure in 9' of water at Lost Lake......located on the north side of Mount Hood at 3100' elevation.

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Dr.SteelheadCatcher
Warrenton, OR