With add on cross bars, there is no reason why they have to be restricted to he inside of the factory roof rails if you want to carry more than one boat on a small car. Just pad the ends of the crossbars to prevent injury. Many people use tennis balls on the ends of the crossbars when they extend beyond the roofline.
Add on crossbars from major manufacturers are generally much stronger than factory crossbars. If you ever watch crash tests you will often see factory crossbars merrily tumble off of cars after a crash.
Yakima and Malone, in addition to Thule among others, offer rack systems that are compatible for many cars and pickups and have interactive fit guides on their web sites. I prefer Yakima saddles but not their round bars. It seems that no matter how you tighten them, saddles and other add-on components will roll, especially if you load from the rear.
I prefer saddles with bow and stern lines fastened to opposite corners to transport two boats. On a very long high speed trip Iâll double up on all straps with additional bow and stern lines fastened to the same sides in addition to the crossed straps.
Not being very tall, I find J-bars difficult to load solo plus they are more susceptible to cross winds.
Additionally, bars like the Thule Aerobars use a âT-Slotâ along the top of the bar. This eliminates the worry of the feet being in the way and allows you to mount accessories farther out on the bar.
Racks on a vehicle are an afterthought, more a product or esthetics that practicality. Not many are really designed to carry anything as long as a canoe or a kayak. Worse, most vehicle roof designs do not lend themselves to supporting the weight or providing a large enough platform to make then stable. I have been car topping boats for almost 50 years and owned many vehicles over that period and see a lot of things, not just boats come flying off of cars on the highway. There are exceptions, but they are few and far between. Like Regan said, trust, but verify.
I like the round bars. The round bars allow the saddles to conform to the hull better by tilting if needed, rather than just staying flat with each other. The more rocker a kayak has the more I find this a welcome feature. {even pressure on the kayak in the cradle so to say}
Sure , but round bars on a roller cradle will allow rotation around the bar if the roller âfreezesâ allowing the mounting screws to scratch your composite wood hull.
I use saddles front and rear. The rollers never worked for me and instead of having a soft cradle effect, they put all the weight of the kayak on a couple of points. {and then They did rotate } The Saddles, cradle, and conform and kayaks slide on them just fine when loading.
Wing style are also good, a slight advantage of V-bars being that the central bar allows the cradles to be 7 or 8 feet apart and placed where you like on the hull. Also, the long bar allows the boat to bounce up and down a little, reducing jolts to the hull in the manner of a spring suspension.
Itâs a great setup, but I was forced into it. My first boat had no bow or stern tie-down points. With a V-bar I could run the front tie-down strap to the front cradle, rather than the bow of the boat. I donât use that boat anymore, but am happy to have the system since itâs so solid. A trailer would have worked, but no space in the city for thatâŚ
Well, just another reminder for me that I should check my racks at least twice (factory ones with some minor alterations) before mounting anything on them.
The issue with J-cradles is that theyâre dangerous without omnidirectional bow lines. The force exerted by a headwind at highway speeds can torque the boat sideways, and this can rip the cradles right off the crossbars. The best setup ties off to the crossbars and uses bow lines that run to both sides of the vehicle.
