Hello,
I have a long competition kayak that I used to carry on a larger vehicle. The prius has a contoured roof that has the Kayak angling up in front instead of being level or pointing down. I am concerned the wind resistance when mounted and driving could be hazardous. I have NOT bought my racks yet as I have been doing some research. Have seen some soft racks that have gotten very good reviews but again my concern is the upward positioning of the kayak. Thanks for any advice.
Search for the topic on this forum called “Boats on Cars - Let’s see 'em”, then search “Prius” in the topic.
There are at least three pics of longer boats on a Prius. Two appear to be bow-up. As you mentioned, I would also be a bit worried about that, especially at highway speeds. In one picture, posted by @Brodie, the kayak appears level and well secured.
We have a VW Alltrack that has a roof sloping up toward the front. When our kayaks are loaded, the front end sits higher than the rear end. I have not noticed anything that makes me uncomfortable with that. We drive an hour often, on highways. This summer we drove from Delaware to Georgian Bay Canada with our kayaks. All was fine.
Thank you good to know… Having the tie downs are the most imperative in the safety. Ill be driving from Los Angeles to the Bay its 365 miles
A customized rack seems like a good idea in this case, though few people are up to such things. A more practical approach would be to position the boat farther toward the rear. There’s nothing magical about supporting the boat so it is exactly centered on the rack from front to back. I have found that with canoes, it adds enormously to the stability of the boat,- in terms of cross winds and also turbulence behind big trucks (and in terms of lessening the tendency of the car to be yanked to and fro in such conditions at highway speed), to put the boat 1.5 or even 2 feet behind center. Doing the same with your kayak would lessen the effects of buffeting in similar fashion as what happens when positioning a canoe behind center on the rack (though this is much less of an issue with kayaks), but it will also reduce the upward lift on the forward part of the boat, since there will be “less boat” up front, and also less mechanical advantage for the wind to work with (with a proportional increase in mechanical advantage being shifted to the roof rack). In the end, un upward-sloping boat will actually be more balanced, in terms of up/down forces on both cross bars when at highway speed, if it is positioned more rearward instead of being centered. The greater length of boat now riding in the rear will not be lifted proportionately more since it’s within highly disturbed air instead of within a strong slipstream like what the front has to deal with. Another thing you can do is carry the boat backward. A lot of kayaks present less cross-sectional volume in the rear than in the front, and in that case, mounting it backward will have somewhat the same affect as positioning it behind center.
Hello and thank you for your reply. I purchased some soft kayak racks and they work well. I was wanting to purchase a Yakima rack but are too expensive(close to $700 ) for me and the Amazon racks I researched gave me reluctance. Took a roadtrip and other than the annoying strap that goes above your head these are solid and cost less than $100 dollars.
That strap is annoying, but having an extra $600 in your pocket sure isn’t!
