I'm trying again for responses with this post, rewording it. A new Honda CRV is joining our family, either for me or spouse dependent on solving the kayak transport situation. The factory obtained racks have pretty close crossbars, perhaps not safe enough for a 17 foot kayak. The weight limit is ok for one boat. Obviously always doing bow and stern tiedowns. Is this vehicle 08-09 being used by anyone for long boat transport? I realize it may not be ideal vs. other vehicles being discussed in the other forum post, but this is our car of choice for reasons beyond kayaking.
One of my many daughters has a brand new 2009 CRV and loves it.
She has outfitted it with the Thule "slip stream" which is a pretty neat widjet and makes for a good long spread.
Yakama landing pads fit right into the rack attachment
if you have a rack.
If you don't have the rack there are two places where the rack would attach. You pop out the inserts and the landing pads go in their place. -
She said that Yakama has something similar to the slip stream, but she got the slip stream for half price, (National ski patrol discount)
She carries her 18 foot long Epic 18 on it, and right now she is also carrying my 18 foot J-190 racing canoe, so it better be secure or I'll kill her.
I used to use a cr-x (not cr-v) with a spread of no more than 18 inches to transport my boats (16-18 feet long). I made sure to use good quality racks/saddles and to always use a bow and stern tie down.
No issue with the boats (be they plastic, 'glass or folder assembled or).
I prefer using my truck now, but one can make do with what one has.
spread Take a look at the “shell rack” offered by Adirondack rowing of upstate NY (adirondackrowing.com). Essentially, it’s an 8 ft long x 18 in. wide rectangle of Thule or Yakima crossbars. You bolt that to your existing roof rack, and you put your kayak saddles on the ends of the 8 ft rectangle. This gives you a great fore - aft spread. I got one a month ago for my 21 ft ski. Great product. 150 for the rack alone or 300 for the rack with saddles.
Yakima mounts Just purchased a new Honda CR-V 09 and you want to go with the Yakima Control Towers and Landing Pad 10. The Thule is only a fixed mount and not removable very easily. With the Landing Pad 10 you need to clean off the paint on the screw mount points before attaching the Yakima connectors. I used a Dremel with a small wire brush to strip the paint from the threads, otherwise, the tightening is a bear with all the paint on the threads and you will have to back off the connector and clean it out. And do not tighten to far or you will deform the metal rail. I used a small amount of oil also to make the thread tighening easier.
I did purchase the Thule Slipstream and this attaches fine to the Yakima round bars. So, the whole unit just detaches from the vehicle when not using. And Yakima provides nice covers for the landing pads when not using them that look good.
I had an old set of 78 inch Yakima round bars, so I cut this to length to allow about 11 inches extension from landing pad on each side. This gives you a hand grap getting up to lock the Slipstream or doing the tie down. The Slipstream is also mounted on the passenger side so it does not interfere with the radio antenna on the back.