Does anybody know if there’s an suv which could carry a 10’ Perception kayak inside, just like my Chrysler minivan does?
No problem in a Nissan pathfinder, fits inside with the rear closed. plus it has real roof rails to easily and secure add accessories.
Bring the kayak with you when car shopping. That’ll tell you which dealers are worth working with. 
See you on the water,
Marshall Seddon
The River Connection, Inc.
9 W. Market St.
Hyde Park, NY. 12538
845-229-0595 main
845-242-4731 mobile
Main: www.the-river-connection.com
Store: www.the-river-connection.us
Facebook: fb.me/theriverconnection
Instagram: www.instagram.com/marshall.seddon
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Should work in a suburban with the back seat down.
Might have to be a bit cockeyed but it should work. That or a van.
Funny thing. I was looking at an older jeep once and I went back to my truck, grabbed my longbow and held it up there. Longer than the entire interior of the jeep so I didn’t buy it. No use for a 4x4 that wouldn’t hold my hunting weapon.
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I put my first boat, a 12 footer, in our Suburban. I had to lay it across the front seat to close the tailgate.
One day it unexpectedly started to rain so I shoved it in and took out the windshield.
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Ooooops! LMAO
I would not want to be inside a vehicle with an unsecured aerodynamic 50 to 70 pound hunk of plastic behind me. An unrestrained medium sized dog can become a deadly force projectile in a car crash. There are no airbags behind your head. A front impact at any speed could be horrific. I prefer that stuff that could squish me like a bug or decapitate me be carried outside the vehicle.
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With guns, tools, camping gear and any number of other assorted blunt objects in my truck, work rigs with even more solid and heavy objects in it, I’m not overly concerned with a 70 pound chunk of plastic that doesn’t have enough room to build velocity in a wreck, but it isn’t that hard to restrain in inside the rig either.
I can carry a 15 foot solo canoe in my 4-Runner with 4-5 feet of it sticking out the open rear window. It rides very securely with the bow resting on the front armrest and trapped between the front seats. When I had an Expedition lease vehicle I used to love carrying my solo canoes that way because I could load and drive away in about a minute (including the dog) while stunned kayakers were still fussing to get their spray skirts off.
Ditto for inside carry with the right vehicle. My 14-foot boat was carried inside my Toyota Matrix, very well secured and protected with maybe two feet of it sticking out under the rear hatch.
I gave that car to a relative who used it to carry a 12 foot kayak inside but alas, a friend wanted to “help” load it and cracked the passenger side of the windshield.
BINGO!!! Perfect X 2!
Funny, I was going to post that a friend of mine did the exact same thing. Considering that it could happen if you had to brake hard, it just doesn’t seem like a great idea to carry a kayak inside a vehicle.
I’ve never done it again! Carried one inside.
I more often than not have carried my shrimp WW boat inside the vehicle for pool sessions. Only comment on safety, I have never trusted it just being jammed between the seats to stop an unfortunate event in the case of a sudden stop. That means the seats themselves are holding it, and most car seats are only good at holding passengers in that situation because of the added hold of the seat belt. The seats are not designed to be all that protective by themselves.
It is easy enough in most short boats to run a line from some mount in the back, thru the handle in the front and back to a similar mount in the back on the other side. Compact and full size SUV’s will have at least a molded in door handle on the back doors, sometimes something better.
An excellent, simple and practical step toward safe travels, Celia. I do not in any way want to minimize the safety concerns raised by others here. Yet, while I haven’t been in a significant accident with my kayak inside my Town & Country, I have so say that the solid, unbudgeable fit of my kayak wedged inside that vehicle has never raised a safety concern.
I would think that the fit could vary quite a bit with different boats and vehicles. On my 4-Runner the rear seats have a position where they recline maybe 20 degrees so that gives an unobstructed loading path to slide a boat in. It also has solid anchor points both inside (in the rear) and outside if you want to add a rope or strap for those pesky skinny kayaks that might try to wiggle around. One downside to carrying a boat with the rear window open is that it will suck in a lot of dirt and dust if you travel on dry dirt or gravel roads.
Who needs a SUV?
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Have you considered a pickup? If you need passenger capacity, there are some very good choices like the 4 door Toyota Tacoma. The 10 foot boat won’t fit inside, but it will ride nicely in the bed and the little bit it sticks out is no big deal. I have a 13’-8" boat that I haul in the bed of my Tacoma.
The bonus is that the Tacoma will probably last for ever.
I’ve carried a 14ft Old Town canoe and a 10ft fishing kayak in my Tahoe for many years. I dropped the back of the passenger seat flat and folded the middle seat flat, no problem and no windshield issues.
The security of having a kayak inside a locked SUV or van seems attractive, but I wonder if being inside a baking car would be even worse than on the roof on a hot day?