Just got in and actually the longest part this week was getting the overhangs on the crossbars set set right since the distance between gets narrower as they go back. I cut that a bit close, with the weight of a kayak in it the rear one will rest against the car. But I can control that from banging plus add a towel, and every inch further out is another chance to snag the limb of a charming street tree when parking on the charming one way streets in this city. I don’t always want to bother with driving around to the alley to get to the back yard where I park.
Being at a height where I could eyeball the hole made all the difference. I could get it lined up correctly for one side then wiggle things a bit until I saw the tip of the pin on the other side, without having to move off my stool.
Next plan is to fully disassemble and treat the whole thing over the winter, as someone here had advised. Even having stored all of this indoors it was behaving better by adding some lube. But that is for another time.
My kayaks get just a little close to the sides of the car when they swing down. I probably should have bought slightly wider Thule bars but as long as I’m careful it’s fine.
Pulling those cradles off and putting them back on just takes a little practice. Having done it over a dozen times now, I can get all four of mine on, or off, in about 5 minutes flat using a small step stool. And yes, lubing the pins and pivot points once in a while helps a lot.
@Brady - Thanks! It is simple enough but like most of these “simple” kayak things the time is in all the unmentioned steps that don’t go exactly right. I ran into someone who, when I asked about putting the assembly back on after winter, said they had gotten help in initially setting stuff then left everything fixed in place over the winter including the towers and the Hullivator units on. Granted it saves a lot of work but it did not seem like a great plan to me.
I might see if I can just add some simple padding at the end to the rear one to guard against inattention on my part. It is only the last inch or so and I might only be hitting the rubber bit around the wheel well. Can check that when it is a couple of degrees cooler.
Hey, Celia, all I did was suggest using a stool so you could see what you were doing. You’re pretty amazing to have done the actual installation! Awesome!
My Hullavators come off after each paddle, except for weekends. I did leave the towers and bars on all winter - Greg Stamer had talked about using Boeshield in a PLB thread so I bought a can - it offers rust and corrosion protection so I applied it to the bar mount assembly and lubricated all the locks. It’s good stuff. My car is garaged overnight, so that helps.
I take mine off during winter but I do leave the towers and bars in place.
Once the weather warms up I pretty much leave everything on but if I am taking a long trip wthout the kayaks I remove just the cradles, leaving the metal bar mount assemblies in place.
My car lives outside, no garage, and I went into winter with a bunch of traveling followed by a spring getting some foot surgery done. So the rack wasn’t going to have something in it anyway, at the most my shrimp WW boat inside the car for a pool session. I chose to take it all down and use the early spring to get the car really clean inside and out before starting the kayaking season abuse.
But I am glad I did, I found things including towers that were not sliding as I would like. Wouldn’t have noticed it or gotten to it as well if they had been on top of the car.
Will be more of a dilemna this coming winter. After work paddle tonight and there was some Hullivator envy, there were 3 of us so equipped.