HullRaiser vs Hull-a-Port

Does anyone have a preference over Yakima’s HullRaisers or Thule’s Hull-a-Ports? Supposedly each will work with eachother’s rack systems (I have Yakima), and seem to be almost identical (though Thule’s are slightly more expensive).

Grain of sand…
I asked this same thing at Campmor. The salesman said that the Thule is a little more adaptable to various racks than the Yakima. Both are compatible with each other but for the Yakima, you have to remove a piece for it to be compatible with rectangular cross sectioned bars (Thule). I didn’t ask if this was permanent though, it would be a problem if you had two cars with racks and you wanted to switch between them. Whereas Thule, you don’t have to do a thing as the brace is made for round or rectangular bars. This will make it more suitable if you are travelling and have to deal with rental cars with racks, you can bring your own carrier. I went with the Thule in the end.



Jay

If you already have yakima racks,
you will probably need less hardware to install hullraisers. I literally just now finished removing my saddles and rollers, and installed hullraisers on my yakima racks. It was really pretty easy, and took me about an hour or so.

Just installed the hullraisers
on my Thule rack. Very easy! It was correct about removing a piece to make the hullraiser attach to the rectangular bars, but you can also buy just this piece if you need to go back to round bars.

I have both
I have yakima on my truck and thule on my wife’s car. I use thule hull a ports on my yakima rack. I did this mainly because I got thule parts on sale when an outfitter was going out of business. After using both I would have to say I prefer yakima to thule based the way they mount to the roof and the attachments to the bars. The hull a port will fit both but you will have to replace the 8 rubber washers with nylon washers, no matter which rack you use. If I had to pay full price for both, I would go with the hull raisers. You do have to snap out a piece of plastic to get it to fit on square bars, if you have to switch back and forth between square and round you would have to buy another set of bar attachments. I have had yakima for years so I have all yakima accessories except for the hull a ports and switch back and forth all the time between my wife’s car and my truck. Maybe I prefer yakima because I have used them longer, both are good. All accessories will rotate on the round bars, but with the hull a port, it rotates to fit better to the shape of the kayak hull so it is a good thing.

Steve



Steve

Check the reveiws…