Land Shark Saddles ruin in the sun?

Advice
#1

Am I being ridiculous?



It occurred to me that we are told to keep our plastic kayaks out of the sun because of heat and UV embrittlement. Would this not apply to my plastic Yakima Land Shark saddles? It would suck to have to remove them constantly…

#2

UV resistant
Mine are 5 years old, in Sunny San diego. Still fine.

They are made out of a different kind of polymer and doped with UV resistant materials.

#3

+1
I’ll agree with seadart. My Land Sharks are also at least five years old, and I often leave them on all year, thru sun and cold and Midwestern roadsalt spray. They’re holding up fine.



I recently bought another set for a new composite boat, and you should be aware that they WILL chafe your gelcoat:

http://www.paddling.net/Reviews/showReviews.html?prod=765



To prevent this, I glued swatches of felt-like rubber-backed padding to mine, and found that glues that wouldn’t normally stick to poly DID work well with the Land Sharks, so they must be made of something else (polyester, some kind of nylon?)



One thing I like about the Land Sharks is their ability to adapt to a variety of hull shapes, and their inherent flex helps keep your boat snug under the straps.



Good Luck!



Delphinus

http://www.AquaDynology.com

#4

Well if it’s good enough for CA…
Then it’ll be fine in Michigan!

Thanks for the tip, I didn’t know I had a “gel coat.”

#5

Sorry
I should have known from your original post that your boat is plastic (polyethylene) rather than fiberglass or kevlar, so you do NOT have any gelcoat to worry about. Rocks and bottle caps at the boat landing will do more damage to your hull than the Land Sharks.



But if you ever do buy a composite boat, you’ll want to pad your cradles a bit to prevent scuffing.

#6

Thanks for the clarification.
For the moment I’ve got 2 loon 100s, but on the list is perhaps a twin otter or a 138s and a yet to be determined 4th. All I’ve looked at so far is plastic, though.

#7

Yakima Mako saddles
have held up well in the Florida sun for 6 years, never being removed from my car. The Hully Rollers didn’t do so well, and got gummy, so I replaced them with another set of saddles. The plastic kayak slides onto the saddles better than it did the rollers, anyway, and the saddles are cheaper.

#8

Different Plastic
The Makos are a different kind of plastic; harder and stiffer. I suspect they are made of ABS or similar.