I’m a canoe person so no help with j-racks but I think Sparky’s point is key. You need two bow lines…one securing the bow from shifting left and the other from shifting right. They should be attached to tie-down anchors under the hood that stick out from the gap between hood and fender to give direct tension against shifting sideways. You need to do same in the rear, finding good anchor points as wide apart as possible…but the frint is especially critical. I suggest using rope and not straps for bow and stern lines. You’ll need to learn the Trucker’s Hitch knot…see YouTube. Folks carry canoes on foam blocks with zero lateral support using secure bow and stern lines.
I’d also slide that rear crossbar as far back as you can to take advantage of those nice long roof rails…looks like you can get a few more inches of front to rear span.
Next time you’re at the kayak store I suggest that you track down the person that let your wife leave with no bow and stern lines and give them a swift kick in the arse.
I haul two kayaks (usually an 18 footer and a 15 footer, as shown in this pic) on a Mazda CX5 very similar to your little hatchback. here is what that arrangement looks like as I was about to take a 1500 mile highway round trip. These are narrow boats (under 23" each) but I have also had a kayak beside a wider canoe on that rack because the bars extend past the roof far enough. Longer bars can be installed but you do have to learn not to smack your head on them getting in and out of the car. I have seen folks attach day glo orange or green tennis or rubber balls to the ends to help with that. Makes your car look funky but often we must sacrifice the stylish for the pragmatic in service to our hobbies.
Zoiks! Sounds like a menace to himself and others. Glad he has you to at least TRY to guide him! I would love to have seen those pictures. Maybe a nice set of real j-racks would make a nice Christmas present. A couple of years ago I gave my hubby a bike radar like mine as an anniversary gift. My thinking was “nothing says I love you like not wanting you to get smashed by a car”
I had a Yakima folding-style J-cradle break on me so I refuse to use any folding version. Granted, I was in a hurry and didn’t use bow and stern lines, and had a robust crosswind take me by surprise, but the folding mechanism is what snapped. I have the fixed Thule J-cradles on the bottom rack of my Kayak trailer, but I attached them to a cross-brace at the top of the J-cradle in addition to the bottom attachment points.
Good front underhood anchors shown in pic (you can find similar ones on Amazon). You find bolts under the hood that you can loosen and attach the loops. From online pics it looks like your Crosstrek has bolts conveniently location near the sheetmetal gap between hood and front fenders. For bow lines, If you’re worried about using rope Thule sells something called a Quickdraw which works well and is easy to use but it’s expensive. For rear anchor points I couldn’t find good online pics but it looks like you may have some sturdy metal structure with slots just behind the rear bumper cover. I think that either straps or rope are fine for stern lines.
If you get stuck or have questions let us know, there are other options for solid front and rear anchor points.
Thanks again, everyone. We took down one set of J-racks and put the larger boat inverted on the crossbars, then secured with cam straps. The other boat went in the remaining set of J-racks. Drove 60 mph for about 50 minutes total and neither boat budged. Took the kids on a nice 4-mile paddle down the river.
I think this setup will work for now, though I still worry about the Cove up on J-racks, as it’s still 31" wide and we’ll eventually wind up dealing with some strong winds living here. I’m looking at replacing the crossbars with a 70" set of Yakima Corebars and Timberline towers—a local shop here sells them. That way I can fit both boats deck-down and side-by-side. We’ll just have to figure out selling the Thule bars/towers and Rhino-Racks, some of which have damage from the boat sliding (mostly cosmetic, but those bolts need to be replaced).
Those under hood straps are not for me. Especially with all the light aluminum hoods on cars now. Cars I see now the cross bar spacing is so limited it’s pathetic.
Yeah, crossbar spacing sucks anymore. I hate the wind tunnel egg shape of my Mazda CX5 (though its 6-speed stick is a blast to drive.). I long for the loooong, wide and low roof of my 1992 Volvo 740 “Swedish brick” station wagon.
As for the under-hood straps, I like mine and have hauled boats thousands of highway miles guyed to them. The steel hood of my car has not been affected at all, even the paint is fine where the webbing lies against it. I have a Class 3 tow hitch installed in the rear and cross-guy the boat sterns to the safety chain loops on that mechanism.
Thank goodness my Excursion has 5’ spacing on cross bars. New jeep Grand Cherokee is 3’ not good at all just picked up a 19’ hull I hated it. Any tension and the hood starts to lift when tying the bow. Need to get tow hooks but they want 500 bucks for two hooks in the kit.
My under-hood straps are along the sides, not under the nose. Don’t think I would like having attached as you do.
I wish they would build cars with good accessible solid steel bumper attachments like vehicles used to have. Nothing but plastic scrims for bumpers any more. With so many people hauling sports gear atop their cars, it’s ridiculous that no car company takes that into account. Subaru thinks they are doing so with their stupid roof racks on the Outback but those were clearly designed by people who have no clue what consumers really need.
I think this is as close as you are going to get with racking them on your existing bars. I would repeat the advice to use two straps at each point. Otherwise you have a loose boat if the one there breaks. Would not hold if one let go at highways speeds, and both of these boats are considerably larger air foils than any of mine.
Try and keep the edges of the coaming between the cross bars on the widest one. And/or at least leave on coaming edge snugged up to one of the cross bars, my first choice would be the rear one but I am not there.
Nose is past front of car. It pulled the hood up and wasn’t even that tight. Not much room between hood and plastic in engine compartment for 5he Yakima loops. She wanted to take newer vehicle on the near 800 mile trip. I didn’t want to take the Jeep. My Excursion is well maintained I have thousands in repairs to prove it. Only towed once in 185,000 when cable to starter snapped OFF.
Hoods on all Jeep Grand Cherokees aluminum since 2011.
I meant the straps for the guys are inserted under the side of the hook, not under the nose of the hood. Doesn’t matter how far my boat bows extend past the windshield. In fact. since I had lost one of the fabricated webbing loops. on one side of my hood I have a doubled loop of 6mm dacron kernmantle accessory cord (looks like parachute cord but much sturdier since it is used for rock climbing chock slings). Works just as well.
I had the same concern about using the underhood anchors. However, the only metal attachment points on the underside of the Crosstrek’s front wound up putting the bow lines uncomfortably close to the wheel well. We now have the bow lines anchored at the front corners of the hood, which feels very secure. The Crosstrek’s hood is quite heavy. I might try moving them to the sides for more security per willowleaf’s suggestion.
Celia, we’ll try again using two sets of bow/stern lines for each boat. The first time we tried this, it blocked front visibility too much. Maybe moving the anchor points along the sides will fix this. Unfortunately, with that boat’s design, seating the front and/or back of the coaming within the crossbars (I think I understand you correctly) isn’t possible. The rear of the coaming extends to just a couple feet from the stern, so doing this would put it wildly off-center.
Also, I realized that picture is too close to the car, so it looks as though the larger boat extends past the crossbars on the left side. It’s edges are actually within the ends of the crossbars by about 1.5 inches.
Unless they are something special with your vehicle , most tow hooks are nothing but eye bolts. At least that’s what they are for a Subaru. Granted they will be very high strength for towing a vehicle, but they don’t need to be just for a kayak tiedown. You just need to know the diameter, thread pitch, and length.
If they are a different design there is probably some sort of hardware that would work. Even custom fabricated hooks made by a machine shop would be a lot cheaper.
@AaronEcy No, you are not understanding what l said.
Two straps at each point where you strap the boat to the rack. NOT double straps for bow and stern lines.
So that if one of those straps go you still have the second holding it to the rack at that point.
Understood you may not have the space between cross bars to fit the cockpit in. Just nice if it is possible. Like l said, l am not there.
I have had entire structural frame Class 3 tow hitches installed on every one of my vehicles for 20 years and it never cost more than $275 for parts and labor at a U-Haul dealer. Last one was 3 years ago so I doubt they have gone up that much.
not for me.
Only towed once in 185,000 when cable to starter snapped OFF.