We have a 2 door Jeep Wrangler with a nice cargo cage and saddles for our kayaks. Great stable setup but we’re looking to maybe replace it in the future. Subaru Outback is one possibility but we’re pretty open.
But the one thing that I can’t figure out is how stable are kayaks on racks that don’t have the huge bar spread that we have on the Wrangler. We currently have a spread of about 5 1/2 feet. So the two straps go around parts of the kayaks that are fairly narrow. This works our really with our Kanu Lock straps, you just can’t see the boats slipping out either from theft or just a good jolt on the road.
Our widest boat is 28" which will soon be replaced with something in the 22-24" range. The other boat is 24" The boats are 13’ and 14,5’ but the 13’ will be placed with something in the 14-16’ range.
Now almost anybody who roof tops kayaks does it with a vehicle without that great bar spread. So am I just being a worry wart here? Is a 3’ to 4’ spread really ok? What do people with sedans do? Maybe there just isn’t a problem.
Well I have a small car and long kayaks 17 feet plus. the bars are close together. Make sure you use bow and stern lines,. On windy days or long trips I use two front lines to create a triangle to keep the boat from moving. One line from drivers side one from passenger side on each boat. Two lines on each bow of each boat. Yes that is a lot of bow lines but I rather play it safe. Here is an old picture of my now gone car with my 16 foot boat. The angle of picture isn’t great to see the extra lines but here it is, there are two lines on the front and two on back. . .
Another method is to use V-bar type carriers. A longitudinal bar allows boat-carrying saddles to be 6 to 8 feet apart even with the normal bar spread of a short roof. The setup allows carrying two fairly wide boats on a normal width roof.
It does sound like you are worrying a bit much. I’ve seen long kayaks on racks with less than 2 feet of spread which work. Not recommended, but works. Having saddles helps over strapping to just bare bars or stackers…
Oh so wishful. Photo was taken 10/22/18, Prana was about to be driven to winter storage. Six days later, 10/28/18, was my last paddle as the Witch of November roared in. Fathom went to storage and my 14-footer is outside with snowdrifts blocking access. Hope I remember how to paddle.
Thank you all for helping me out. It does seem I should just worry less and paddle more!
Here’s our current setup, that’s my wife, not me, and I think we had just finished getting the cargo carrier and saddles installed. We usually use more ties down when we travel. :- )
@carldelo said:
Another method is to use V-bar type carriers. A longitudinal bar allows boat-carrying saddles to be 6 to 8 feet apart even with the normal bar spread of a short roof.
That’s a neat product, I didn’t even know they existed, thanks! (And a beautiful skin boat also, I hope to build one within a year or two!)
@carldelo said:
Another method is to use V-bar type carriers. A longitudinal bar allows boat-carrying saddles to be 6 to 8 feet apart even with the normal bar spread of a short roof.
That’s a neat product, I didn’t even know they existed, thanks! (And a beautiful skin boat also, I hope to build one within a year or two!)
Your current setup looks really good - the only one I’ve seen with longer cradle separation was an old flat-roof Volvo station wagon, I swear the cradles were 10 feet apart.
