I need to know where you all attach your tie down lines on your kayak. Is it always to the grab handle or are there other ways to attach tie down lines.
Please don’t turn this thread into the merits of tie downs, My mind is already made up on that issue. I just need to know how others attach their tie down lines.
Thank you all.
Various Attachment Points
We use the grab handles on the Cape Horn 15, and the holes drilled thru the bow and stern endpours on the VOLSKKAYAKs. In the canoes, we sometimes use the rear seat as the anchor point for the rear tiedown. When carrying two kayaks, I take a bight of rope, put a twist in it, and pass it around both sterns; the rear tiedown is then attached to this.
I use the grab loops
However, there are those that say you should never use the grab loops or toggles for tie down, or even for carrying. Because you might wear the rope, and then it might fail in an emergency situation when you, or someone else is in the water trying to hold on to the loop or toggle.
I say just inspect the things and replace the line if it is chaffed.
Anyway, another option - depending on the shape of your boat - is to use a loop of rope or flat webbing. With a strongly upsweapt bow or stern, I’ve seen the loop simply run over the deck. Otherwise you can run the strap through your grab loop, so that the load is on the hull and the grab loop only keeps the strap in position.
I use
webbing loops wrapped around the elastic lines holding my toggle handles, or the deck lines on my Tsunami 120. I use the dreaded ratchet type tie downs made my Yakima, and find them very convenient.
Hope this helps!
thanks… but what about J racks?
Thanks so far,
I understand how a webbing loop will hold a kayak in saddles but it seems that the webbing would slid off when a kayak is in J racks. Does anyone use webbing succesfully around the bow/stern in J racks?
Thanks again.
Grab handles
Thats what i do. and most people i see tat tie the front and back seem to faver it to.
I use
Yakima J cradles, and use the nylon webbing loop. I tie to the deck rigging or carry handle on the kayak by just looping it around and pulling one end of the loop through the other. Then just hook the S hook on my tie down to the open end of the webbing loop.
Hope that helps…
That’s not what people mean
when they talk about “ratchets.” The Locking pulley system of the Yakima tie down is only using the force you exert when you pull on the rope, and locking it in place. The ratchet straps that most manufacturers discourage are those that ratchet tighter as you pump on them, enabling you to put much greater torque. The ratchet straps, designed for holding things like 4 wheelers in the bed of a truck, can put enough force on the boat to warp it. The pulley lock ties downs are just convenient for those who aren’t the masters of ten thousand knots.
I understand the
difference between the Yakima tiedowns and true ratchet straps. You misunderstand my reference. These Yakima type bow/stern ratchet tiedowns were subject to a beating in a recent thread about whether or not you should use tiedowns at all. People said you should just a simple length of rope because if the ratchet tiedowns failed you could damage your windshield or hood, distracting you and causing an accident, or they could become projectiles and damage someone elses vehicle.
Depends somewhat on the boat
I use Malone J-cradles for local trips and Yakima saddles for longer journeys and where cross winds may be occuring. Both fittings stay on my roof rack on the pick-up topper and occasionally get used simultaniously. That said, my Loon 138 has a long cockpit and the bars of the rack are spaced where the straps cross the boat at the ends of the combing. This limits how far the craft might slip forward or back in the unlikely event that the straps should loosen. The final tie-down, using either rack option, is a length of 3/8" nylon line from the bow toggle to the tow loop inside of the front bumper. I don’t chinch it down so tight you could play tunes on it. Just enough to see some slack should something loosen up top. It acts as a trouble indicator and a final leash should the boat somehow come loose and leave the roof. For making the bow line I tied a boat hook to one end, which I clip to the bow toggle, and I just tie the other end to the tow loop with a truckers knot.
to something that stays attached
to the kayak.
.
almost exclusively I use ratchet straps and they have never created a warping or any other problem.
If i load my boat in a truck or somewhere else I usually use just a bungee cord attached to the carry handle and hooked to the hole or hook in the bed.
works very well.