my wife’s car is a coupe & the rear windows don’t open (no gutters either). Is anyone using suction cups or foam blocks to transport their boat(s)? Any other suggestions?
This would only be a few times a year & only for short distances.
foam blocks
they work OK for the occasional use. I use them on rental cars with no rack. be sure and go ‘bomber’ on the bow/stern lines, tho!
-:-0)
steve
agree with Steve
We use them for rental or temporary use too. The forces on kayaks at 65+ mph are rather enormous, so MUST MUST employ strong nylon web straps with real buckles, front and rear bumper ties and run the straps through the windows inside the car. To avoid hurting thin FG and Kevlar and also plastic boats position the foam where the chine has the sharpest bend rather than on middle of bottom of hull where it is flatest.
sure
I have even used a long piece of 4 inch foam pad before in a pinch. It beats the alternative of not going paddling; necessity being the mother of invention. Just remember that a good quality rack is well-attached to the vehicle and you just have to firmly attach the boats to the rack. But with blocks or pads or those suction cup things, you have to ensure that your attachment firmly gets the boats to the vehicle. Be smart and over-engineer.
How about an inflatable
Take a look at http://www.windance.com/roofracks/HandiRack.htm
A friend has one and it works great.
I’ve used a boogie board
Given your proximity to the beach, you may have a few laying around.
roof rack
– Last Updated: Nov-04-05 12:17 PM EST –
I have 94 Toyota Paseo - a very small coupe. Picture is here: http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6184/1815/1600/small.jpg
I use "sporttrack" bar for the roof and support stern with hitch mounted Yakima DryDock.
System is stable at highway speeds.
BTW those are 2 plastic VCP Avocets ( 16ft )
Do not put straps through the window
open the doors and put the straps through the doors. That way you can still open the doors, and you don’t run the risk of breaking the winows. And make sure there is no dirt, snad,gravel, etc on the bottom of the foam. If there is, it will get ground into the top of the car.
Handiracks are great
We’ve used these on a number of trips and they work really well. We used 2 sets of them to carry 3 kayaks to Nova Scotia without a bit of problem.
Lyn
I had
used the suction cup things.Worked great. I had made one minor very important modification though. I had Drilled a hole through the internal raingutter and ran a bolt up between the door and roof to secure the rack.
thousands of over the road interstate miles on the racks and never had a problem. then when Isold the car I just removed it and fluffed up the weather stripping near the hole.