Tell me some stories about how much you piled on your roof racks. I’ve got a 2013 Rav 4 w/ rails (101.9# max), 78" Yakima bars (8# each), a Wenonah Escapade (48#), and a Mad River Explorer, which I don’t know the weight or hull material of yet. Even if the Explorer is the same as my Escapade, which I doubt, I’d be at 112# (10% over). That doesn’t seem too bad. If the Explorer is Royalex @ 72# (what I found on the Mad River website), then I’m at 136# (33% over) - that bothers me.
You would risk caving a vehicle roof for that? Seems cheaper to get a lighter boat, or trailer.
One guy whose name I don’t remember posted photos of his sunken roof. He had put five kayaks on the roof, though, which might be more of an overload than yours.
Two tandem boats made my Subie roof flex a bit, thankfully it was a one time deal. Now I’m back in a pickup so no issues.
Yeah, I think I will put one boat on the roof and the other on my trailer - this is going to be for a week.
I am confused. You say you have rails on which are mounted cross bars. That means what you are carrying is not having its weight borne by the roof but by rails via the third party cross bars. The rails are mounted over a structural element of the car frame. So if you are really nervous, pull the rails and mount directly into where the rails are supported. That said, my annual trips to Maine with two boats and a Hullivator set for one side blow the poundage you name. Nothing has budged or bent.
Good news, the Explorer is only 40#, which means my load is down to 104#, only 2# over. I should think I can get away with that.
I am related to a mechanical engineer, and I know they work a safety factor into load ratings. I would not worry about overloading less than ten percent, however, for liability reasons I will not recommend it. I have on occasion loaded my rack more than that over the rating.
While weight on the racks is important, I think how you drive should be considered also. Hurricane force winds start at 70 mph. Something to think about when you are driving down the highway at 70+ mph weaving throught traffic, being hit with cross winds from weather or semi’s. Is your roof rack system held on by bolts to the roof frame or just sheet metal screws on the thin metal part of the roof? Have you ever had a boat pined underwater on a rock, and discovered how hard it is to get it off when the current is less than 10 mph. Image the force of a 70 mph wind under one or or more boats, etc. I am not an engineer but I would think each boat would add a lot of extra wind force trying to rip your boats off the roof of your vehicle.
When I use roof racks, each boat has it’s own set of straps and front/rear tie downs. When given a choice I always go with my trailer even if I am only hauling one boat.
Kayak_Ken
A friend has a full size van with yakima round bars. I have seen as many as 5 boats up on top. Mostly boats around 14 to 16 feet long each about 50 to 60 pounds. I cant remember how the bars are attached to the van itself. So say average 55 pounds for 275 pounds total. Plus the Malone j-bars and some kind of stackers.
My own little car 2015 Nissan Versa Note has one old hullavator and also a thule Slipstream. With two boat at 60 each. Hullavator about 40? plus 120 and slipstream at say 20 total 180. I don’t do 2 boats often but when I do its usually a long drive BUT I don’t go over 65 mph. If its real windy I slow down. One time it was gusting over 40 mph I slowed car down to 50 mph. Made me nervous. I have Thule Square bars that clamp on with 480 feet.
Effect of Hillivators on the load is serious - as above, each weighs in at 35 or 37 pounds. So you have the weight of a sea kayak boat on the roof support regardless with just one set. Have a his and her pair and there is no way you aren’t going over most stated weight limits if you actually add the boats. Then there is the detail that a portion of the weight is placed towards the outside rather than centered over the tower in order to avoid whacking the car when you bring it down. Not sure how that plays out exactly but probably worth considering.
I put mine outside as far as they could go to see how much room I had, then reset them back in (assuming the side view window is folded in too) after the first trial run with actually loading and unloading a boat. And I always add a second strap that runs around the boat and grabs the Thule cross bar and around the tower independently on the Hullivator unit. None of this has any impact on weight bearing limits, but it leaves me feeling like I will have greater warning if somethings starts to go. If you can stand the noise and have a sun roof, that is a good backup on local roads. I can’t stand the noise at highway speeds.
I also keep my driving speed down a bit when fully loaded, honestly as much for the miniscule gas savings as anything else.
Also, those Yakima bars are themselves rated for something like 300 pounds per - we had them for many years. You probably can ding the frame sooner than you can bend those bars.
First time I saw a small SUV with rating on the rack. Great idea. Overload and play with fire on the road and possibly I court.
My Hyundai Santa Fe roof is rated at 220lbs. My kayaks weigh 40 and 45lbs. Even with two Hullavators mounted on Thule bars and towers I’m nowhere near the stated maximum. I also use two straps per kayak with one also going around the factory bar and a Thule bar. And of course, I use bow and stern lines of 1/4" braided rope and a red safety flag on each boat.
The noise, even at highway speeds doesn’t bother me at all so I just keep up with the traffic. I’ve taken several trips from NYC to Halifax, Canada with this setup - as well as hundreds of local ones - all without incident.
@kfbrady - Comes to whether the rating is for the roof, as in the structural frame element, or for the factory cross bars or for the factory side rails and the towers are attached to that. The above dialogue is varying between mounting options and I think there is an error in the OPers post as well. The 102 pound limit was not making sense to me so I poked around. It looks like that is the weight limit for factory cross bars on Rav4, not the side rails that I and many attach Thule or Yakima bars to. I didn’t find that limit yet but it is definitely well over 102 pounds.
That said, his and her Hullivators on Thule bars are 140 pounds plus 16 pounds for the rails before adding boats. Add two sea kayaks you aren’t over it a lot, but even assuming a higher limit for those side rails that probably pushes limits on many cars.
Frankly we found that asking car dealership folks for the rail limits is a lost cause. They usually don’t know, though it can vary. That said, I have had my Rav4 for a little over a year and am not believing 102 for the side rails. I would have noticed an issue. I pull and yank against my rails and rack components, hard, weekly thru the season and during any long trip.
Personally I, or we when it was we, always worried the most about the health of the towers. So Jim replaced with new towers when the old Yakima round bars were showing some age but still solid. Even if the towers are in the channel and directly over the frame. none of that is any good if the tabs holding them in the track are getting loose.
Noise is way less than with the Yakima bars, but my primary listening is classical if it is music. It is still enough noise to blow out the sectional solos.
@gsetc - Weight ratings for roof rack components, tho’ as above cross bars easier to get, have been the norm for station wagons for decades and of course small SUVs as they replaced wagons. But then again I had my one and only sedan in my life from 1974 to 1980.
The roof of a modern vehicle is supposed to be strong enough to resist collapsing in a roll over. No canoe or kayak is as heavy as the vehicle itself so the real weight limit is determined by the rack design and how it is attached. If your load is rather heavy, I think a question to customer service at the rack manufacturer is in order.
Least not weez fergit… Thaar be static loadin’ an’ then thaar be dynamic loadin’. Dynamic loadin’ capacity should be wat yer really shood be lookin’ fer.
@Celia said:
That said, his and her Hullivators on Thule bars are 140 pounds plus 16 pounds for the rails before adding boats. Add two sea kayaks you aren’t over it a lot, but even assuming a higher limit for those side rails that probably pushes limits on many cars.
I’m pretty sure that HullAvators weigh 39.7lbs per pair, not each. I take mine off the car fairly frequently and each of them weigh a lot less than a 40lb kayak.
As for the roof load rating, mine is - according to Hyundai - for the roof rack. I would expect the roof to have an extra safety margin over the rating for the rack. I think that 95lbs for my kayaks, 80 for the Hullavators, and then the towers and bars are still well within spec.
My boats loaded on the car are very solid. Of course I check all the hardware frequently and I added split locking washers to the Thule bolts as an added safety measure.
Always curious, I pulled one off my car (Hullavator 897XT) and put it on my scale. Sixteen pounds.
I was tempted to do the same just to be 100% sure. Then I remembered that I take them out from my garage two at a time so there’s no way that they weigh 40lbs each.
(By the way, 39.7lbs is Thule’s spec number for them. I guess that includes the bar mount assembly.)
OK - obviously I haven’t put the Hullivators back on yet. Wanted to get the car interior detailed before remounting everything and it includes a car wash, so I am not getting everything back together until later this week after I get the delayed car wash in the fancy tunnel. Planned to get it Friday with the interior work but their track was being repaired.
A couple hundred pounds and change makes a lot more sense for the side rails than 102 pounds.
@Celia said:
The above dialogue is varying between mounting options and I think there is an error in the OPers post as well. The 102 pound limit was not making sense to me so I poked around. # It looks like that is the weight limit for factory cross bars on Rav4, not the side rails that I and many attach Thule or Yakima bars to. I didn’t find that limit yet but it is definitely well over 102 pounds…I have had my Rav4 for a little over a year and am not believing 102 for the side rails. I would have noticed an issue. I pull and yank against my rails and rack components, hard, weekly thru the season and during any long trip.
Excellent point! I’m going to look at the owner’s manual again. Thanks! Thanks to everybody for the lively discussion.