I was wondering what classifies a gutter or gutterless car. I have a 2003 accord 4 door and was wondering if anyone had an idea if it has gutter or not. Probably a stupid question. Also, I am pricing out roof racks and was thinking of a 3-4 kayak stacker system. Are 4 15" deep sea kayaks impossible to do on a car? I could get the 66" wide bars. And then comes the weight factor, most racks seem limited to 100lbs and 3 kayaks would weigh 180 and 4 would be 240. Would that be dangerous, or possible. I apoligize for all the questions and thank you in advance for your responses.
a related question
HI All, I have an Acura TL fit with a Yakima gutterless rack system. Yakima recommends 24" between bars and puts the front bar right in the middle of the sunroof, which makes the wind deflector fall on the sunroof. They also state that you can’t use stakers/malone J cradles. Of course, I put the bars at 36" and am using Malone cradles. Once I got clear that I had to tighten the system down, it seems to be fine. Would you drop the wind deflector, move the bars back to 24" and switch to saddles? Why? Thanks, John
Too much (I think)
– Last Updated: Jul-25-06 12:46 PM EST –
Most newer cars don't have gutters. The 2003 Accord is a newer car.
No gutter.
http://www.yakima.com/ProductCategory.aspx?id=21
Rain gutter.
http://www.yakima.com/Product.aspx?id=18
There's a fair amount of lattitude in the amount of crap you can put on your roof but, to me, 4 60lb sea kayaks (plus a 30lb rack) on an Accord would seem to be pushing it. Keep in mind that all of this weight is focused on 4 small areas on your roof. It's quite possible that you'll dent your roof with so much weight.
This amount of weight may also impact the handling of the car. If you really need to do this, maybe you should concider a trailer.
It might be OK to do this for very short, slow trips but maybe not for a long distance, highway speed trip.
I think the Acura TL set up is reasonable. One reason to prefer the closer 24'' distance is that it reduces the likelyhood that the rack towers will rotate. I suspect that at the recommended position, the towers will be more vertical. I see no reason you can't use the Malones (or such like).