A shoutout to Marshall at The River Connection in NY, for posts here that led me to purchase a Dropracks system and in guiding me in its install and answering all my questions, patiently. Thanks, Marshall!
As a small framed middle aged female, I needed some means of getting my kayak on the roof of my truck, and it was basically the Hullavator or Dropracks. I went with Dropracks due to the flexibility of what I could use it for, and I liked that it was purely ‘mechanical’ of a lift vs. the strut system of the Hullavator.
I got the Dropracks XL system on my truck yesterday with help of a friend, and took it for a test drive with my SOT kayak loaded. No problem. It was a fair bit more challenging to install (align) than I expected, but once that was done, as easy to raise and lower my kayak on it as I expected! It does seem a bit loosey goosey when in motion raising or lowering, but rock solid when fully collapsed on top of the roof. My biggest disappointment so far is only in the system not being compatible with the Thule tracker system I had had mounted on my truck’s campershell. (well, that and the price tag could be a bit less…)
The picture shows the kayak in a less than ideal position, as I was in a hurry at the end of a long day just to get it on the road for a test drive. And no, the front of the kayak is NOT hitting my cab roof (though it was pretty close!) I’m thinking to put the kayak up there ‘backwards’ next time, and bias it a bit more towards the back of the truck.
