I installed a Yakama Rack system complete with hully-rollers on my daughters pick up truck cap yesterday and today on the phone she said that no matter how tight she turned the wing nuts on the plastic brackets that hold the hully rollers, they still wanted to turn on the bar when she pushed the weight of the kayak on the rollers.
I suggested that she put either some wraps of duct tape or a piece of rubber from a bike tube under the plastic brackets and try again.
Has anyone else had this problem, and how did you solve it?
Thanks in advance.
JackL
I had the same problem
with my Yakima rack. I don’t use hully rollers, but instead have a set of Yakima saddles (I forget if they are the mako or landshark ones – they are 10 years old.) Anyway, I always load my kayak from the side, but whenever I tried to make fore and aft adjustments the saddles would rotate on the bars. I tightened the clips up as far as they would go, and it helped some, but did not completely fix the problem. Eventually I just cut some pieces of rubber to the shape of the clips and placed it between them and the crossbars. They will rotate now if I apply a lot of torque to them, but with general loading and unloading, they are fine.
Also, I just installed a new bike mount on my rack and I noticed that the Yakima attachments now have these two additional pieces of plastic molded into them that look like they “bite” into the crossbars a bit better when tightened. My old clips don’t have this. Are you using new hully rollers or older ones? If they are older, maybe you can contact Yakima and have them send or sell you a set of the new attachment clips.
Lastly – and I have never used the hully rollers so I don’t really know – how well do they roll? Maybe some spray lubricant would help them to roll better, thus reducing the liklihood that the entire mount rolls on the crossbar?
Put clips in opposite directions
On the newer (4-5 years at least) hully rollers, you put one of the plastic clips facing the back of the vehicle and one facing the front. There are 4 different square holes in the roller mount so you can do this. That seems to even the forces so mine don’t twist. But maybe you did that.
If all else fails try reading the instructions;-)
What is Actually Rotating?
Is she sure its the roller units rotating on the cross bar or might it be the whole bar is rotating within the towers? This has been a long term problem with Hully Rollers that are mounted on the round Yakima cross bars.
Even if that is the problem, don’t get your hopes up that all will be well when you further tighten the set screws on the towers. With extended use, the clamps ultimately chew through the covering on the bars, which results in a metal to metal connection. Good luck when that happens!
I gave up on the Hully Rollers for that very reason.
Yep, sounds like
hully rollers all right. You might try putting some powdered rosin on the cross bars before tightening them. That plastic coating is slippery.
It’s definitely the older model
– Last Updated: May-31-05 1:41 AM EST –
I have an old pair and a new pair of Hullys. The mounting clips for the new pair can be faced in opposite directions, like the above poster stated. The old ones, however, do not allow for this. I have experienced the same problem of the roller assembly rotating back around the bar when unloading. I don't know what to do other than replace w/ new ones. The new ones have never done this.
Cut up that 17mm schrader valvetube
you bought by accident and keep forgetting to exchange… slide it over the x-bars, open the clamps up and over… viola. Also wipe off the new rack slime first.
Ha, Ha !
If I made that mistake, I would have to trade in the bike.
I do keep a couple of old tubes, (presta valve mind you) in my paddling cabinet just for occasions like this.
Next time she comes over the house I figured I would try that.
Incidentaly they are the new hully rollers with one clip facing the front and one facing the back, but that makes no difference as far as them rotating.
I personally like my set up on my truck which I use the old style Yakama saddles on both the front and the rear. I have small pieces of carpet glued in the saddles and the kayaks slide nice on them.
JackL
Directions were followed…
to a tee!
Over the years on this forum I have heard that many other people have had the same problem with the hully rollers so I thought someone might have come up with a fix.
Cheers,
JackL
Solution
I had the same problem, went out and bought black duct-tape. Put it on the bars, under the roller clamps-no more movement. Plus, being black, you can’t see it.
Thanks,
that was another suggestion that I made to her, but where on earth do you get black duct tape?
JackL
um
let it turn… it will level out when the boat is on it… mine does it all the time, no big deal… its the BAR that is turning, not the Saddles… although sometimes it IS the saddles. Either way its still tight.
Mine don’t turn, but…
I have the Hully rollers on the back rack for my wife’s kayak, but never had trouble with them turning. I see in a previous post where a guy is saying his bars turn, well if that is happening his rack will soon fall off! My towers hold the bars so securely they would never turn.
My problem has been the set-up for my kayak. I have Mako Saddles front and back with the felt pads on them for my composite kayak. I slide it off of the back of my pick up using a towel folded on the back edge of the tailgate/tarp cover. When I slide the kayak back, the back set of saddles turn, and then I have to straighten them to be flat with the hull when I put them back on.
If anyone knows where to get black duct tape, give a holler here, but I may try the black electrical tape. I’d bet the older “friction” electrical tape would work well too!
Happy Paddling!
Do not know about black but…
Clear stuff looks pretty nice too… Home Depot etc.
Mine don’t turn either
I have hully rollers on low rider towers. They have never moved. BUT…I take my rack off when not being used (I know, I loose poseur points!) so I riveted the right side low rider tower to the bar to insure that everything lines up properly when I re-install them. Takes less than two minutes to take on/off and due to the rivet, perfectly aligned each time AND my round bar can not rotate in the tower.
Explanation Please
You state: “I see in a previous post where a guy is saying his bars turn, well if that is happening his rack will soon fall off!”
I’m still trying to envision why my rack would “fall off” because the bar rotated in the tower. Short of a catastrophic structural failure of the tower unit, it would seem highly unlikely the whole rack to suddenly take flight just because of a twisting bar.
And finally…my Hully Rollers will never twist again…or fall off! That’s because I got rid of them!