Hauling Many Kayaks on trailer

Advice
#1

I’m looking for some advise on how to build a rack for a utility trailer to haul many kayaks. Me and my freinds have 12ft boats and I have a 6x10 utility trailer. Two boats fit on real nice side by side, but I’m looking for a way to put them on their sides and maybe two levels high.

#2

Some ideas
These are for a 4x8 trailer, but should be adaptable. There are other folks here with great trailers too. And, do a search here on P-net for trailers.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/75339788oTcAIx

#3

trailer on jon boat trailer
http://picasaweb.google.com/BrazilBrasil1/KayakTrailer



Only two pics so far. Can’t find the other ones but will post when I do. this woudl work on either a 14 ft boat trailer or a utility trailer. got it welded by a guy here in town, attaches with u bolts and I take it off and it also serves as an outdoor kayak rack when using the trailer for the jon boat etc.



Paul



Only had 9 on it with three on the car but you could bring it up to 12 if you needed to.




#4

Holy Cow!
I remember when you didn’t have ANY kayaks…



And no, you can’t have my AT14… yet.

#5

hehehehe
4 tarpon 100’s were borrowed back from the church but the rest unfortunately are mine. It was a girl scout jamboree type of thing and I was the entertainment I guess. 2 scupper pros, 1 OT Rush, 1 Kea, and the Tempest 165 are all on there along with the wood Night Heron, the white SOF Hunter and the black Strand SOF. Only thing missing is the Outer Island and the Yost sof…



got my sights on that Arctic Tern of yours too. What I really want to do is go all skin on frame and wood leaving the commercial world behind. this winter, Tripp and I are going to take the high volume deck off the night heron and replace it with the greenland deck (which is still pretty high volume all told but with an ocean cockpit) and maybe build a wood outer island. I got the plans already, now it is just finding the time.





Paul

#6

I used Yakima side loaders bolted on …
the side of my trailer and then attach a standard Yakima rain gutter (1A) rack system. I use the 78" bars which will handle about three sea kayaks, but you could use Yakima stackers to get more boats on. My trailer is a 5x8. For the longer boats I needed to extend the tongue, so I added a 1’ receiver hitch tongue extension as well.



http://sports.webshots.com/album/557429700LMWgYe



~wetzool

#7

Trailer
Here’s a link to Webshots. Look for “Canoe Trailer 2007” album. Maybe you’ll find something useful. RK



http://community.webshots.com/user/arkay49


#8

Sizes of metal used.
Arkay, I am building an 4/8 place canoe trailer out of a 18ft boat trailer. I don’t always haul 8 canoes so I would like to be able to take off the top 4 places and have a 4 place rack. Can you comment on the metal sizes you used and cross bracing? Thanks



Brian

#9

I have a collection of photos of
trailers and racks at:



http://mikesawyer.smugmug.com/gallery/2288895



Everyone is welcome to browse, comment, and use what you find there.



I’ve seen some great ideas in this thread. With permission, I’d like to add the photos to form a repository of many ideas.



You can send any permission and or photos to



mikesawyer@yahoo.com



Thanks


#10

Brian
Trailer stock is as follows: Uprights, boat bars, braces – 1”X2”X1/8”, A-frame braces – 2”X2”X1/8”, tongue – 2”X3”X1/8”. All stock is box channel – all construction was welded.



I had planned to start from scratch when I built that trailer and also considered converting an old boat trailer that was available at a cheap price. When I priced out the components I found it was far less expensive to simply start with a ready-made utility trailer, remove the rear ramp, enclose the sides, extend the tongue and fabricate the racks.



Check out Blue Mountain Outfitters and Mo Trailer canoe trailers. Those two companies make the best canoe trailers I’ve seen. Their website show their trailers and you can see where I drew many of my ideas… Good luck with your project. RK

#11

put a couple more shots
this works really well. One of the shots shows it attached to the jonboat trailer with wire and bungee but that was just for show…I got some U bolts shortly thereafter and installed them.



Paul



feel free to show these shots if you want.

#12

Thanks. Done.

#13

Thanks Arkay
For any project you hate to overengineer so I was curious on metal thickness and size. I have printed off the BMO trailers specs and will use those as my guide. I paid $150 for the trailer and a friend of mine welds. This will make a nice winter project for sure.



Brian