How to bulkhead stern on molded Kayak?

@Moira123

An interesting Rube Goldberg approach, but frankly I suspect not a good one.

What happens with any kayak hull as you move them over a flat surface is that, since the hull is to some degree rounded, the boat tends to want to roll to one side or the other. When that happens as you move it while holding on no problem, you just counter it as you move it.

But if that happens while the boat is in the air a couple feet or more away from you is that it rolls over enough to come down off the roof. Possibly taking a side view mirror with it. This is a thought that occurs to me at 5’4", it may not jump out so quickly to someone several inches taller.

It is just not that hard. Start out with a boat that is long enough to reach from the ground to a support for the roof and that preferably has deck line (not bungie). Prop the bow of the boat onto the access point for the roof, taking advantage of the deck line and cockpit to control it. Grab the stern, lift and slide it on up rest of the way. Then make final adjustments and strap it down.

Note that this way you are never lifting the entire weight of the boat, I have a good cart to get it to and from the car.

Granted this is all easier with a third party rack, at least the cross bars. But your back matters too, so spend the money.

The prop I am talking about can be something like the Amagasett Roller Loader, wheels that hook onto the back of a car and can hold the boat, or a bar that sticks out sideways from a cross bar further than its normal length. Yakima had one at some point or people have made their own. Thule I think it is has a fancier version with an assembly that slides out back from the rear cross bar and you just slide the boat up on that.

It is advisable that what you strap the boat to is something that doesn’t fight back when you are making the final position adjustments. The stackers were always easy with that, and in my current setup I went to glide pads in back on the non-Hullivator side because I found having saddle in back as well as front made the boat stick some when I was making the final adjustments. The glide pads solved that issue.

Above is why you hear that a longer boat is often easier than a 10 footer. In fact we had that experience with our evening paddle group. Women who had gotten the basic 10 footers often found it harder to cartop them alone than those of us with longer boats. Between the short length and the lack of deck rigging, they had to life the entire weight.

I think the winch idea could work if you have some way of guiding the kayak on its way up so that it can’t roll off the side as Celia described. Some of those winches have a hand-held remote control. If yours does, you could be at the back of the Jeep to help guide the kayak. Also, I wouldn’t trust the front carry handle on the kayak as the point to drag from. It could be disastrous if it failed. I’d install some type of eye bolt like you see on the front of boats

BTW, I saw someone who had rigged an electric winch at the front of his pickup truck bed to drag a heavy fishing kayak up into the bed.

Wow you guys are fantastic. I watched a hundred youtube videos on how to get a kayak on a roof. Just for info, I am 5’ and my jeep has 33" tires with a smittybuilt rack on top. It is not the kayak friendliest rack one could get but I didn’t realize how tough this was going to be. I didn’t know what to look for.
The smittybuilt has cross bars that are elevated higher that the lengthwise bars. So if I lean the boat on to the lengthwise bars, it can’t slide on top of the cross bars because they are higher. I am gonna have to figure that out. The whole thing is as tall or taller than the roof of a pickup.
If I get something rigged up with the winch, :), Ill need to attach some kind of vertical bar with a wheel on top so the cable doesn’t rub on the engine hood and the jeep roof.

As far as the bulkhead for the stern is going. It is nearly impossible to close off the rear. I tried several different ideas. I think I am making progress though. I work on it about every other day cause I kayak every other day. There is no way to put in any kind of rigid material. And it can’t be done in one piece. Also it can’t be done if the parts are cut horizontally. You have to build out from the side of the kayak to the seat and then under the seat. I will keep at it and post some pics when I get a prototype done.