Kayak Storage

Hi all - I’m about to move to a place with a garage and just bought my first kayak (15’) I am wondering how everyone stores their boats in a garage.



On foam blocks on the floor? Cradles attached to the wall? Ceiling rig? Something else?



Would appreciate any (low-cost) suggestions that you have. Thanks!

Home-made rack
Hi,

I built a home-made rack for 3 Kayaks (14’, 16’ on the rack, 18’ under the rack on foam) using 2x4s screwed to the garage wall and then 1" hardwood dowels projecting at a angle of about 20 degrees. It ends up working like a Talic rack but much cheaper. I use a Harken Hoister for our Canoe, which just fits crossways in our two-car garage.



Chris

overhead
I’m one of the rare folks on my street who actually uses the garage to park vehicles. That said, I store two sea kayaks over head, using a strap system to support them. One clears a 4x4 Ford F350, one clears a Jeep that is 6" taller than stock height. ‘overhead’ means overhead, like 6.5 or 7’ clear under the kayak when lifted.



A rack on the perimeter would have worked if I didn’t already have that space dedicated to shelves and racks for other stuff.



I also store kayaks on metal hooks attached to the fence, with a tarp covering them. This works for the rec kayaks. These hooks came padded from Home Cheapo for less than $12 a pair.

Storage
I ripped a 2x4 and attached to the garage wall studs,

vertical. At Lowes they have 11"x12" metal ‘L’ brackets, used 8 of them for 3 kayaks. Placed a 12" piece of pool noodle over each bracket. Placed kayaks

on there sides. Used a bungy cord to secure.

Talic Kayak Condo
http://talic.com/cat25.php



Very well designed.

Talic plus hanging
I’m not allowed to attach to the brick wall in my rental garage, so I hung a couple of Talic condos off 2x3 studs in front of the brick wall, anchored to the wood ceiling joists. They’re just above rack height, and it makes it extremely easy to put them on the car one end at a time:



http://s97.photobucket.com/albums/l234/carldelo/Kayak%20storage/?action=view&current=SC1intheCity022.jpg



The skin boat on top of the car now hangs above on a pulley and sling system. Another boat’s going up there in a couple of weeks.

free standing rack
I made a freestanding rack to hold my kayaks, loosely based on this rack system i found, posts are more vertical and has a square top instead of just 1 board.



http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/203614238zNopWk



Used wood but it looks more similar to this PVC one.



http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/228555949OJOsXm

Strap System

– Last Updated: Apr-10-09 8:15 AM EST –

We use a simple strap hanging system in our garage to store 2 kayaks. Here is an example.

http://www.orsracksdirect.com/riverside-ladder-sailboard-surfboard-kayak-hanger.html

It's a very affordable, space-saving storage option. We bought ours at EMS. You can purchase similar setups to store a single kayak too.

K.I.S.S.
Keep it simple and stupid was my motto.



2 bicycle hooks screwed into the ceiling about where the carry handles are. Two smaller eye-screws about 2" in from the bike hooks.



Hang the carry handles of the yak on the bike hooks; support yak w/ truckers bunjies on the eye screws.

Thanks!
I think I like this one the best - cheap and easy.



I didn’t mention that I’m an apartment dwelling chick with no tools to speak of, so building something isn’t an option. I like out of the box solutions :slight_smile:

$20 solution
http://columbiakayaker.blogspot.com/2007/11/diy-kayak-storage-rack-for-under-20.html

Ceiling hanger
This system cost about $20 total. The only hard part is finding good (used) ball bearing blocks. All of mine came off of an old sailboat at the junk yard. Cheap pulleys from the hardware store don’t work for diddly.



http://www.twodresslers.com/Fun/PaddlingPics/KayakHanger/KayakHanger.html

For short boats only, maybe

– Last Updated: Apr-14-09 10:54 AM EST –

I would use this method only for boats under about 10' in length, as the constant weight will cause a longer boat to gradually sag in the middle, resulting in a 'banana boat'.

For longer boats, such as the original poster's 15-footer, a system which places the supporting rack or straps as close as possible to the boat's bulkheads is preferred, to prevent such sagging.

For tips on storage and other annual maintenance, check out my tech article:
http://www.AquaDynology.com/Technical/maintenance1.html

Delphinus

Nice rig
I like that pulley system, particularly the straps with rings and eyes - but it cost less than $20 only if you salvaged most of what’s in those pictures. I’m not arguing with salvage, it’s my preferred mode, but if you bought all that material new it would cost a fair bit…

Awesome!
Thanks for the link - it looks like you have a lot of info there that can keep me busy the rest of the afternoon :slight_smile: