The Carolina 14.5 , has a cap at 300 lbs. I am at 250 myself and would like to use it as a river runner and big lake cruiser doing overnights
How much will the performance of this model kayak be effected by pushing weght to limit ? I have seen paddlers push the LL Stinger Xp right up to it’s 325 lbs limit and have no issues . but thats a different design . btw I am looking at a used Stinger XP as well
As with most things kayaking, you won’t know how the weight impacts it until you try it. My guess says that with you and gear in it, the boat will bog down a bit.
Hearing someone saying they want a single boat for rivers and lake cruiser raises a flag. Unfortunately, the needs of rivers and of paddling distances are different, and require different boat designs to do them well. There are some cross over boats that try to do both, but generally end up doing neither well.
The Perception Carolina is a day touring kayaking. It was made for paddling open water. It goes straight well, but doesn’t turn well. It has a relatively large cockpit opening, which would be hard to get a skirt to give a firm seal that you’d want in white water. If the river you plan to run was class I or less, likely it would be fine. But class II would take a well skilled paddler to make it work. (this is all assuming you fit the boat and weight limit).
The Liquid Logic is a white water kayak, designed specifically with the goal of doing well in the Green River Race. It would do the river running part just fine (assuming paddler has river running skills). But it would be a dog on flat water, not wanting to go fast nor straight. The skeg in the X would help with tracking, but paddling even 5 miles in that on flat water would be a chore (where a sea kayak like the Perception would make that feel easy).
ps - the LL web site says the Stinger max capacity is 300 lbs, not 325.
To clarify Obviously I am not looking for a WW & Cruising combo craft . My term river runner simply meant cruising rivers. I did not mention WW at all. Main point of my question is how does pushing to max weight cap on a kayak affect performance buoyancy etc. Using the two examples of different crafts. There is a calculation out there for dialing in total optimum weight But why do the manufacturers use a total that is way up there instead of using this calc’d figure. ?
Find a bigger boat, the Carolina is a barge at my 180 lb. weight, My son, on the other hand is much lighter than me and does well in it.
Too much weight sinks a boat below its waterline. Makes it go slower and handle like a semi. So it depends on how much gear you would put in it for camping. Best response is probably from Andy above since he knows the boat.