Beginner kayak for calm lakes

These are the ones.
they fit very well and the holes all match, so that is above many of the other cheap ones

the problem is in the picture. you see how the fastener pushed the washer right through the plastic. If you continue fastening, the bolt will be beyond the plane of the tower. This is with 10Nm torque wrench. If you don’t use a torque wrench, yo probably stop before it goes too deep, but then you are below 10 Nm. You probably could hack it with larger washers and thread locker. But I also wouldn’t trust the plastic itself as it will just get weaker over time. This should have received a metal reinforcement or the tower be made of metal.

My car has a goofy roof design anyway. the front cross bar is aft the sunroof instead of close to the wind shield. so there are only 32"between them. Even with a good crossbar I thing strapping a 14’boat to a 32" base seems shaky. i certainly will pay attention next time I buy a car. I think cars with elevated rail are best because you then can attach the generic crossbars at multiple. locations.

You see the washer about 2-3mm deep. that area was flush with the adjacent plastic originally. Took no effort.

I haul my ~17 ft. boats on crossbars with ~32" spacing without issue. I refuse to use cheap rack products; it’s simply not worth the risk

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I put these on her KIA Sportage they would fall into the cheap class and the spacing is about like yours. Also my DIY bar spacing is about the same.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08VJH7WWD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The ones I got were for the raised rails and they are all metal where it counts the locking covers are plastic. They will be fine for her rec kayak.

Thanks for letting us know. Someone should start a page on cheap rack reviews pros and cons.

I hope you returned them. :canoe:

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