Cheap Alternative to the Yakima DryDock

Advice
#1

So if you wanted an alternative to cinching down your kayak to the tailgate of your truck, and didn’t want to shell out $229 to Yakima, Harbor Freight Tools has an item called Truck Extender for $40 that does the same thing. It is supposed to extend the bed out 3 feet past the tailgate, but if you put the vertical post into your hitch instead of the horizontal bar it sends up a nice platform for your yak while leaving the bed of the truck open for other gear. Take a look, the item # is 39168 and their site is www.harborfreight.com .

I ended up cutting 4 1/2" off of the post and drilling a new hole to make it perfect, but I don’t think it was really necessary. Either way it beats the $229+ price at Yakima for the same thing. Enjoy!!!

#2

Cheap Alternative to the Yakima DryDock
On sale on their web site $19.99

#3

thats what I did
I found a truck extender for less than 50 dollars. I had to drill and extra hole too, but I can either extend my boat from the bed of my truck or reverse the extension bar to support the boat from the top of the cab and out.

#4

H. Freight regularly has them on sale
for $20. At the store, they are usually $25 on sale, but my store will meet the catalog or on-line price, just print the page. If you use it as an extender, check with your DOT, your state may require a red flag in the daytime, a red light at night. My state does if the item carried extends 4 feet from the BUMPER, not tail gate when its down. Most around here attach boat trailer lights to the extender if they are going to haul their yaks at night. The extender is very popular with SOT kayak fishermen.

#5

truck extender
How long of a kayak/canoe would you feel safe carrying this way? I have a Colorado w/6ft bed.

#6

Ordered One
Thanks for the tip. I just ordered one. I have Yakima racks for a car, so I’m going to order the clips to put one rack on the cab, and then use the extender to support the back end. I would also like to replace the top spreader bar on the extender with my other yakima bar, so that I can use the kayak saddles. At $27 with shipping it is certainly worth a try. If it doesn’t work I have a pretty inexpensive way to haul lumber.