saddles for Subaru legacy wagon

Does anybody know of any roller and saddles that can be fitted on the Subaru cross bars without having to buy Thule round cross bars with all the other expensive components. Any other suggestion of how to carry a kayak on a Subaru rack would be appreciated. Thanks

Hull-a-Ports
Two of our club members with Subaru wagons use the Thule Hull-a-Ports on the factory cross bars.

Seems to work nicely for them.

When I had …
My OutBack wagon. I bought foam blocks that had the Aerobar shape cut into them. Simply push on over factory bars,set on kayak, strap down,and tie bow & stern lines. Total cost straps,blocks,nylon rope : $65.00. Carried 18’composite kayak 1400 miles without a problem,at speeds of 70MPH.Most of our local outfitters carry these blocks,and have seen them at Eastren Mountain sports,Gander Mountain.



Happy Paddling billinpa

same.
I’ve got yakimas on the roof rack and the front one is a roof mount but I’m with you and the foam blocks,actually finding a way to mount the kayak upside down on either side of the coaming would be worth trying. I wouldn’t bother with all those fancy hull mounts,a J-saddle type configuration would make a lot more sense for closely spaced bars than those roller/hull types that half the time put stress marks in the hull.

Check Malone Racks
We have a Honda Element and use a Malone Gullwings carrier. It’s a great carrier and affordable. This carrier would work fine with your Subaru. Check out the Malone site at http://www.maloneautoracks.com/ . In fact we moved from the Malone AutoLoader to the Gullwings – we found it an easier loading system. We us a blanket over the rear of the Honda and push the yak onto the rack. Easy. The Malone carrier is a well made carrier that will serve you for years. If you go to the Malone website, you will find a picture of our Honda Element using the AutoLoader. Although Malone doesn’t show it as an AutoLoader.


On my Outback…


I use both the foam blocks (one boat) and the Malone autoloaders (two boats). The Subaru cross bars are easily removed leaving the Malones mounted… GH

http://community.webshots.com/s/image9/9/36/28/110593628zkZuUQ_ph.jpg

Yakima
saddles and rollers are on my subaru factory bars, Yak makes “Mighty Mounts” to connect the boat carriers to the cross bars.

You may not want to go this route…
… but here’s what I did on my 1999 Legacy:



http://community.webshots.com/album/73539068WcmRBB



Maybe you can at least get some ideas. Steal whatever parts of it are useful,



Glenn

Hey!
That’s your Element on the Malone site? Cool. That was what convinced me to get the Autoloaders. Here’s mine: http://community.webshots.com/photo/125899970/125912260hUvJnD

Ever go to the Elementownersclub.com website?

Make sure the system is rated
for the stresses you are putting on it!

I have both the Autoloader
and the Gullwing Malone racks on my factory rack of my Hyundai Elantra wagon. I guess I’ll have to take another photo of my setup when I use it to haul my QCC around-I’ll be using the Gullwing with My QCC and the Autoloader with my fat Dagger kayak.They are quite sturdy.

Nice job…
Nice pics of the 99 Legacy, the cross bars appear to be different than the 99 Outback. On the Outback there is on screw at each end of the rack, remove those and the cross bars are off along with the yak mounts… It may not be as easy as I thought to remove Renato’s . In any case the foam blocks would work well for a while… GH

Agree with PeterK
The OB’s factory x=bars are quite sturdy and Subaru shows boats and bikes mounted in their advertizements. Some vehicles may have weak bars though - I recently helped a friend set up my old Yak cradles & rollers on her Ford Windstar, and we had to remove the factory x-bars to spread the Yak x-bars to the fullest dimension. Those factory bars were wimpy!



Jim



PS: Autoloaders rock!