Kayaks with Hyundai Elantra Coupe

I have a 2013 Hyundai Elantra Coupe (2door) - Does anyone here know whether there is a kayak carrying system for this car? I have a feeling that the lack of 4 doors makes it really difficult and that I will have to install a hitch and tow a kayak trailer.



thanks

Thule, Yakima
Have you tried the Thule and Yakima web-sites?



I suspect they have a fit, possibly with a short roof adapter.

Go to this link
I suspect that you are incorrectly assuming that the towers need to go into the tops of doors. Most current ones don’t work that way - they go into the rack gutter (or whatever you call it) on the roof. Here’s a link I got in three clicks for Yakima for your car, I am sure Thule also has something.



http://www.etrailer.com/roof-2013_Hyundai_Elantra.htm?style=2-Door

Don’t resist a trailer
We’ve had a Yakima rack n roll 66 for nearly 2 years now and have put easily over 8,000 miles on it, carrying two kayaks, about 82 pounds total weight. The last trip from Florida to Alberta it didn’t seem to us that it increased the fuel use that much. Coming back, we had a Dagger Agent 6 secured on the roof rack and we felt the wind resistance and we fueled more often. We were using the kayaks on the trailer every other day and the one on the roof was for our grand kids and wasn’t being used during the trip. The trailer can carry up to 4 kayaks (and 2 kayaks and 2 bikes), but with the third you will be aware of pulling a trailer, not so when we are towing with only 2 kayaks. Our kayaks are 13 and 14 feet long. If we want to explore an area after paddling, we just unhitch the trailer at the camp site, secure it and drive without a load. It’s so light, the trailer, loaded, can be pulled from one spot to another. The trailer has been folded up and stored when we were away once for 3 months – takes little space. Costly, yes, but it has added tremendously to our enjoyment of kayaking. We kayak more frequently because it’s so easy to load. You won’t find any used ones for sale. I did, but after I mentioned to the seller that this would be our second (we were going to give it to our kids) and how great the trailer was, he decided, on second thought, not to sell it.

Or “permanent” rack?
You could also consider installing something like the Yakima rails or landing pads.



http://yakima.com/shop/rack-systems/permanent-installation/landing-pad-7



Click on the “Instructions” link at the bottom of above page to see how these install.



I have these on my Honda Insight and they allow about 41" spread b/w the racks (vs. about 25" or so with door-mounted).



The “catch” (other than having to drill through the roof, which is actually quite easy if done right), is that you have to know where it is safe to drill. I got the shop repair manual for my car so I sort of knew where the wires, roof frame, airbags etc. are, so I was not drilling blind. Another issue is that if you drill in just the sheet metal, then your load capacity will not be more than about 60-100lb (your roof will begin to bend visibly with more than 80lb). So you could do like someone else here did on their Mini Cooper - drill into the roof support beams and use different hardware to attach the landing pads. This way you will have much higher loading capacity.



Lastly, if the rear of the car is too slanted down relative to the front, you might need to compromise the spread to get the rack mostly level with the ground…



On my car I have quite a bit of curvature in the front, so the rails did not seem like they would bend well enough. So I used the landing pads instead.



One more consideration - on my car the rear of the roof line is a couple of inches narrower than the front. If you install rails they will be at an nangle relative to each other - not sure if that would be a good thing for the control towers that need to slide in them. No such issue with the landing pads - you can have each pair be parallel; my front pair is 2" or so wider than my rear but the 2 pads in each pair are parallel to each other…

Yes
Yes, that was my assumption. I thought it needed to squeeze between the door and the roof.



Thank You Celia

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It appears that Thule does not have anything for the 2 Door Hyundai but Yakima seems to have something. :slight_smile: Thank You.