That was why I chose to build a clearspan steel structure with roll up doors: plenty of room to winch several up into the ceiling. The building is 32’ by 20’ so what you see in that shot is only half of it, but the other half has stuff like yard care tools and remodeling materials.
If you need another garage I can highly recommend Carolina Carports, whose local agent here in SW PA expedited the process. Though the structural pad I had to have ready for it cost me $10;000 (had to have a rocky site graded and the pad is rated for vehicle parking and has a vapor barrier), the garage itself was only $9,500 including installation. Their crew built it in a single day.
Does anyone have a shot of a rack on a 2020+ Honda Pilot? Bonus points if it’s a Hullavator. I’m having some issues balancing the instruction manual with the roof slope: can’t get the towers far enough apart so that the straps are not running across the cockpit, which instructions say is “bad”
Don’t know if it would make any difference for you, but when I mounted the Thule rack (non-Hullavator) on my tiny egg-shaped Mazda CX5 I ignored any Thule instructions and simply slid them as far down the ends of the factory side rails on the car as I could get them. Several of my kayaks have cockpits that are about 34" long and I carry them inverted most of the time: the coamings fit snugly between the Thule bars so I can strap them right side up as well with the straps clearing the cockpit on both sides.
I suppose a problem with a Hullavator is that both brackets have to be roughly in the same horizontal plane and with the danged wind-tunnel roof curves of most newer cars, moving the bars apart would affect that. We need a return to designs like the classic Volvo wagons of the 1980s and 90s. Still miss those long, low flat roofs (and steel roof gutters).
As I drift inexorably into geezerhood my aversion to overly complicated gizmos has caused me to avoid options like the Hullavator and, instead, migrate to lighter boats that I can still hoist onto a standard rack unaided. I’ve even abandoned J-racks as too fidgetty and failure-prone, preferring the simplicity and reliable security of strapping boats directly to solid crossbars with snug bow and stern tie downs.
Having spent 44 years as a machine designer I have to agree there is nothing like simplicity. My DIY roof rack I add two 84” long 2x4s to and it makes a big flat surface to strap anything I want to be it a couple boats or a door or a sheet of plywood.
It seems in today’s world nothing can be just flat.
No roof rack rails, bare roof. I think there’s maybe 4 inches to be gained by moving the feet further apart, before the curve of the roof causes the feet not to make solid contact with the roof. As it is, even with the feet the prescribed distance from one another the curvature of the roof means the front Hullavator drops faster than the rear one.
As you might predict, the response from Thule was “you must follow the instruction manual” regarding cross bar spread and not strapping across the cockpit.
You can do this (safely) on vehicles with raised side rails. You cannot on a naked roof. I have seen the unfortunate outcome of an improperly reinstalled rack on a naked roof vehicle - two damaged kayaks and a destroyed rack in the middle of the highway. Fortunately no one was hurt and the boats were repairable. (never a good call to get at the kayak shop when a customer calls to say his boats came off the roof!!)
Owing to the fact that I have hauled everything from skis to construction ladders and bundles of electrical conduit for the 50 years that I have owned cars, I have never purchased one that did not have a roof rack, factory rails or, in the early years. rain gutters that would hold a set of Quik’n’Easy brackets (showing my age there with that reference). And I usually outfit any car with a at least a class 3 trailer hitch, which, besides enabling towing one when needed, always provides a solid fastening point for stern lines.
My ex, one of those obsessive gearhead car mechanics who specialized in BMWs, was aghast when I insisted on putting a roof rack and trailer hitch on a used BMW 320i he had talked me into buying. How else was I going to haul skis and my little sailboat? He protested that I had “ruined a nice car” until I shut him up by pointing out that for most BMW snob purists, he himself had “ruined a nice car” by converting a classic BMW 2002 tii (that’s a model, not a year) into a custom gymkhana racing machine with so many mechanical and body mods that i think only the grille and enameled marque badge were left of the original car.
I also had to make him remove a front below-bumper “spoiler” he installed on the 320i without my permission as an unwanted “birthday gift” because it ruined the clearance for driving down dirt roads to get to hiking trails and canoe streams (activities with which he refused to join me – his idea of “roughing it” was a hotel room with no cable TV). While the BMW was admittedly fun to drive fast down winding roads, it sucked in the winter and I had to strap the sailboat (Sea Snark) through the windows as well as to the rack. At least I got free maintenance on it while I was with him (BMW stands for “Breaks Many Ways, Bring Money With you”
Ditched him and the stupid BMW about the same time and bought a manual transmission 1989 Dodge minivan, one of my favorite 3 cars to date of the couple dozen I have owned. A hybrid of the 1990 era Volvo wagons and the 1980 era minivans with a simple and solid set of lateral roof rails would be an idea vehicle, IMHO. Bring back the “bricks”!
Raised rails are become harder and harder to find - Subaru is pretty much the only manufacturer that includes them as standard on most of their vehicles any more. I switched from a Prius (which I loved) to a Subie when I moved to FL and started paddling a lot more. I wanted the strength and simplicity of the raised rails rather than the clips in the door setup.
I did do a 5000 mile road trip from RI to Key West and back in the Prius with a 17’ Anas Acuta on the roof the whole time though!
I keep my 2004 Ford Excursion because Yakima bars can be 5’ apart. Then I can get the 22’ 100 lb. Libra XT tandem on it and not feel . I also put foam under the front of the kayak by the windshield to take some of the weight.
No foam block in this picture. I put it just back of glass a bit where there’s no flex.
. I also put foam under the front of the kayak by the windshield to take some of the weight.
