I drove an Outback for several years before buying an even taller Mazda CX5. I’m a 66 year old 5’5" average sized woman and I frequently solo loaded kayaks and canoes up to more than 75 pounds onto these vehicles. I always used Thule racks attached to the Subaru factory rack (and the same on the Mazda). I haul boats inverted (hull up) which has several advantages – more aerodynamic on the highway, no chance of deforming the hull due to rack contact on hot days, more secure, since the kayak coaming molding would keep the boat from shifting back or forth off the rack if a strap blew out and this usually makes for lower clearance (depending on the design of your boat) – this may solve your issues with the low garage ceiling and is easy enough to try.
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To load a heavier boat on the Outback, I would haul it to the rear of the vehicle using a wheeled cart under the stern, then lift the bow and walk it forward until it rested on the rear rack, which was close to the tailgate. Then I would walk back to the stern, detach the cart and lift up the end and shove the kayak forward onto the roof.
On the taller Mazda, where the rear rack is not as flush to the back of the car (and which may be the case with your newer model Subaru) I got one of those suction cup shower grab bars and stick it on the back edge of the roof to make a place to rest the kayak bow so it doesn’t scratch the car . You can get these for $10 or so at any drug or hardware store.
With longer boats, like my 46 lb. 15 foot Easky, I usually just carry it balanced with my head stuck inside the cockpit, top of my head resting on the seat and grasping it on both sides of the coaming, then pivot the bow up onto the front rack from beside the car, lift up the middle and slide the stern onto the rear rack. If a little old lady like me can manage this, I would bet you could too with a little practice. It’s amazing how much easier it is to manage heavy weights when you can center your body under them and/or use leverage onto the roof rack to cut the total that you are lifting.
How do you compare in relation to the kayak? As @willowleaf mentioned, with good technique it’s surprising what you can do regardless of your size. I’ll admit that I make it look easy loading either of my ~60 lb boats into the cradles of my taller-than-average small pickup truck. But after a long, tiring paddle it takes more technique than strength.
If you can get the kayak on your shoulder, you might be able to get it to the height at which your arm is extended upward - and roughly the height of the rack on the car. The trick is to retain control of the unwieldy thing, not so much the weight itself. I strongly recommend practicing this with NO WIND and a helper at each end before you try it alone in any sort of breeze… or be prepared to catch a kayak as the wind hurls it back at you!. (experience talking)
If you’ve ever seen weight lifting, you;ll notice that they tend to quickly drop their body underneath the weight and then use the legs to finish the lift rather than relying completely on the arms. To go from my shoulder to a fully-extended arm, I drop my torso down while bending my knees, then when my arm is extended I finish the lift with my legs and deposit the boat in the cradles.
Failing that, I bet there are lots of strangers that would grab an end of the boat and help you load it if you asked nicely. Better yet, two strangers that will load it while you watch! Even being a fairly tall strong person I still get people offering to help when I’m out alone.
A> Sell the new Outback and buy the 2005 Subaru Forester …it is shorter and the racks are better.
B> set your rear cradles as far back as possible. Place a towel, carpet or pad of some type over the roof and spoiler of the car. I use a towel. Place the Kayak diagonal with the stern directly behind the place where it would be and the bow up the side of the car about where the towel, or rear cradle might be. Pick up bow place on roof. Pick up stern and push/slide boat forward onto cradles. Move boat forward with a rock slide motion. Make sure cradles are clean and boat bottom is clean. I’ll post pictures in a day or so from the next kayak trip.
C> paddle with friends.
D> in the mean time here is another way but you’ll likely need some customized rack work. My friend with the 100# 100 year old canoe does a version of this. 1. park boat next to vehicle…2. extend rack tube…3. Lift bow of boat to front rack extention…4. Lift stern of boat to rear rack. 5&6 move boat into positon on cradles. See Pictures
I’ve loaded a 70+ pound tandem on my Camry using bath mats with the rubbery non-slip bottom. Throw one mat across the trunk so it covers the trunk lid. Throw another so it covers the back window and the roof. Roll the kayak on the cart up to the car so the bow is past the back of the car with the stern of the kayak still back behind the car, lift the bow onto the trunk, and the slide/push the kayak up onto the rack. Very easy.
I load my 100 lb. 22’ Libras on my Ford Excursion about 7’ high myself. It goes and yakima bars and Mako saddles. Place a rubber backed bath mat on pavement and another on back of Excursion hanging down from roof over rear door a bit. Front sits on mini-cell kayak block forward of rear truck line when I set down the kayak. Like picture above I lift front of kayak up to lean on mat on roof then go to rear and left stern and slide it up. I think longer length helps make it easier. Could get those rollers that extend past rear of truck but mats are cheap and I use them to change on and keep feet clean. Just use the same mat that gets sand contamination on ground all the time and not on vehicle.
I load 50-60 pound SOT kayaks on a Toyota 4-Runner with Yakima aero cross bars attached to factory side rails with Yakima mounts. A very tall set up for a 5’5" middle aged female. My 4-Runner has a trailer hitch so I got a Rhino Rack T-bar loader that attaches to the hitch. The T-bar cantilevers back and I place the front 1/3 of the kayak onto the T-bar. This is a much lower reach than trying to get the nose of the kayak onto the back of the SUV. I then walk to the stern of the kayak, pick it up, and push/slide the kayak forward. The T-bar cantilevers forward as I push and walk forward, sliding the kayak up and onto the rear rack cross bar. I put a mat on the back of the SUV to avoid any incidental scratches. Continue sliding forward until the kayak is positioned on both cross bars. Lock T-bar in place. One of my kayaks has a flat bottom and rides very well in the upright position. My other kayak has a pronounced keel and needs to be flipped over for transport.
Unloading just goes in reverse. Pretty much the way willowleaf describes above, but with the T-bar to get the boat up and started onto the roof. The real trick with the T-bar is to get at least the front 1/3 of the kayak onto the T-bar before picking up the stern. Then pick up the stern and push forward in one swift motion to get the boat up onto the rack.
Slide it don’t lift it. Onto decent cross bars and rack, which as above many people do not believe includes the factory rack. You will also get told by Subaru that a sea kayak is too much for their rack system, unless they have changed their tune from their last official answer I heard. I finally went to Hullivators for one side, but have had excellent luck for years with the Amagansett Roller Loader to slide a sea kayak up onto first Yakima bars with stackers and now, on a taller car, the other side where I have rollers and saddle mounted on Thule bars. I am pushing or pulling a boat from the rear of the car that is about half my weight, and I am over 60. It works. The reason I went to Hullivator for my primary boat is more the time it takes now that I am doing it solo, the Hullivator is a lot faster than the routine by myself with the roller loader.
RafterGirl, do you often contact the bathmat when using the T loader?
I have considered getting the T loader for when I don’t want to use the trailer (parking limits at launch area). My vehicle is a midsize 4WD pickup with a topper, for which I have the topper tracks (designed for Yakima and Thule products) and Yakima Landing Pads/Towers/crossbars. My cradles that are great at holding the kayak securely and without damage probably wouldn’t be good for slide-from-rear technique. BUT maybe I could slide the bow onto the bare front crossbar from the T loader, put the stern into the rear cradle, and then move myself to a stepstool up front to lift the bow into the front cradle.
The T loader seems like a useful accessory, since it can easily be removed when not in use. The Landing Pad and Tower system allows crossbars to quickly be removed also.
I used to have a Subaru Impreza. I put a rubber pad over the back of the car and propped the kayak up on that. I then lifted it up and on to a Yakima device that had 2 sliders in the back and two rubber brackets in the front. (slide and glide, or something like that). Wasn’t all that hard.
@pikabike said:
RafterGirl, do you often contact the bathmat when using the T loader?
I have considered getting the T loader for when I don’t want to use the trailer (parking limits at launch area). My vehicle is a midsize 4WD pickup with a topper, for which I have the topper tracks (designed for Yakima and Thule products) and Yakima Landing Pads/Towers/crossbars. My cradles that are great at holding the kayak securely and without damage probably wouldn’t be good for slide-from-rear technique. BUT maybe I could slide the bow onto the bare front crossbar from the T loader, put the stern into the rear cradle, and then move myself to a stepstool up front to lift the bow into the front cradle.
The T loader seems like a useful accessory, since it can easily be removed when not in use. The Landing Pad and Tower system allows crossbars to quickly be removed also.
The contact depends on how I have the T-loader adjusted. If I have it raised up higher it rarely contacts the roof. However, this makes getting the nose and front 1/3 of the kayak up onto the T-loader a little harder. Lowering the bar makes it easier, but can lead to roof contact. Hence the mat on the roof. I have the T-loader adjusted to a lower/middle height and I try to push the kayak up & forward instead of just forward. It takes a little practice, but it’s not difficult. The big lesson I learned was to put at least 1/4 to 1/3 of the kayak on the T-bar before pushing forward. If you have too little of the kayak’s nose on the bar and start to push, the T-loader moves forward kind of fast and the nose of the boat can fall off. Ouch! Did that once with my poly boat and learned my lesson. You have to have enough boat & weight on the bar so that when you lift and push the boat and the bar cantilever forward together.
I load solo most of the time, so before I bought a kayak, I first got the T-loader. No sense buying a kayak if I can’t load it solo without killing myself, SUV, or the kayak. I looked at the other systems and the T-loader was less pricey. Oak Orchard has a roller thingie that works in a similar fashion, but looks more useful for a car that’s not as tall. Might be a good choice for a Subaru??? http://www.oakorchardcanoe.com/suvroller.php
There’s one other common loading trick which hasn’t been described in any detail, though it was mentioned by Overstreet. With this trick, an extension is added to one end of one cross bar. This used to be (and probably still is) available as a built-in option with Thule bars, and maybe Yakima too. With the Thule setup I’m thinking of, the extension stores inside the existing cross bar, and is deployed instantly by a telescoping action.
With this method, you simply bring the boat up alongside your car and place one end on the cross-bar extension. You slide the boat up onto that extension until the end you are carrying becomes quite light (because much of the weight is now on the extended bar), then shuffle the end you are carrying off to one side, onto the other cross bar. Then of course you shuffle the end of the boat that’s on the extension over onto the main rack as well. As with the slide-on method I described earlier, you are only lifting a very small fraction of the boat’s weight at the time when the overhead-lifting part becomes necessary.
This method would be rather difficult to adapt to your factory rack (an inventive person could do it, but with the Subaru rack being as awful as it is, it would make far more sense to upgrade to something better and then add this kind of option), but it is dirt-cheap compared to a Hullavator, and for a lot of people, makes a Hullavator seem quite unjustified.
Guideboatguy has the answer. Thule and Yakima both sell extenders that slide in and out of their respective bars. Cost is around eighty bucks per unit. It’s a simple idea that helps quite a bit for loading from the side of the Subaru. Saddles work great but be careful of cinching your straps superman-tight. Snug works, and front ratchet straps that connect under the good work well too. Just forget about the crappy rack Subaru designed for the Outback. When Toyota bought an interest in Subaru, they assigned a focus group to evaluate what worked (or looked) best for the new Outback design in 2010. I’ll bet none of those folks were paddlers.
Yes, I also agree with Guideboatguy, and use the Yakima cross bar extension approach. Except, I made my own extension. It was easy to find about a four foot section of black steel pipe with an outside diameter that slipped easily inside the Yakima bar. I wrapped two feet of the pipe with pipe foam insulation. This is a very sturdy system. I pop off the vinyl safety cap and slip in the remaining two feet into the cross bar. Then remove the pipe after loading and throw it on the floor in the back seat.
@pbenter said:
I made my own extension. It was easy to find about a four foot section of black steel pipe with an outside diameter that slipped easily inside the Yakima bar.
Yes, absolutely. No one should pay eighty bucks for something that’s available at any hardware store for scarcely more than pocket change. Yakima and Thule both make good stuff, but the incredible degree to which they over-price even the simplest items disgusts me.
If you go to the Subaru Outback Users group and look up racks, you will find three different mods that owners have made to add after market racks to the Outback rails using the tie down points (Subaru calls these rope hooks) on the rails. The slickest and easiest one uses yakima cross bars and a very inexpensive yakima part but you have to fabricate a rectangular base that attaches to your car where the tie down is. This is very possible to do and much cheaper than buying the landing pads and footings and bars. It is about half the cost. Here is a link. http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/138-gen-5-2015-present/174042-2015-outback-yakima-crossbars-16.html A user named tj805 did this for Yakima bars and another guy named Lightingguy did it with Thule bars. Once you replace those bars you have a lot of loading options. Everyone who is suggesting that you load from the rear is not familiar with the outback. The old gens of outbacks had a strong metal rear spoiler. That thing is now plastic. It will not support the weight of a kayak if you load from the rear. You cannot rest your boat on it, it will crack. There are several diy loaders on youtube that are made from pvc which temporarily slide under your cross bars and are used to make sure your boat does not contact that spoiler if you load from the rear. Your other option is the Thule slipstream 887xt. It is a rear loader and has integrated cradles. The whole thing slides back, you lock it in place,load your boat into the cradles, unlock it and then the whole thing slides forward. It will fit on your factory crossbars. It should clear the rear spoiler but go to a dealer and try one before you buy it. Your other option using the factory cross bars is the Malone downloader J cradles with the Telos load assist. I use that but my boat only weighs 42 pounds. I have a 2015 Outback with the crappy roof rack and have never had a problem carrying two 13 foot boats in J cradles.
@currion comment - the Amagansett Roller Loader gets the boat above the stupid rear plastic projection that most cars have now. If it is a bigger one you just need to get the version with the 10 inch diameter wheels, that extension on my Rav4 is at the limits of what the 8 inch diameter wheels will clear. It is pricey to start but it just does not die. The one I am using is going on 12 years now.
I like the rollerloader. what I don’t like is having to rely on my tailgate window to hold a heavy boat. we tried the rollerloader on a 2015 outback with a 68 pound boat. The boat put way too much pressure on the window. It just made me nervous.
@Celia said: @currion comment - the Amagansett Roller Loader gets the boat above the stupid rear plastic projection that most cars have now. If it is a bigger one you just need to get the version with the 10 inch diameter wheels, that extension on my Rav4 is at the limits of what the 8 inch diameter wheels will clear. It is pricey to start but it just does not die. The one I am using is going on 12 years now.
