Hello. I currently use the Yakima Hulley rollers and mako saddles. However, it is hard to fit 2 kayaks on the roof rack of the Ford Explorer. Yakima recommends the Hull Raisers. I’ve only seen one product review on this site. Does anyone else have experience with these?
Thanks.
Hull Risers
I purchased a set of these so I could haul another boat alongside my existing dual mako saddle setup and luggage basket (lots of stuff on top of the car!). I was quite pleased with the Hull Risers. They were at least as stable as the two regular saddles and were easy to use.
For the record, the Hull Risers were used to carry a 18’ sea boat on a 1000 mi.+ trip at freeway speed, so short of offroad type stuff I think it was a pretty rigorous test.
mounting clips
– Last Updated: Mar-04-04 7:23 PM EST –
Did you use the clips that come normally with the saddles to mount them to your roof rack?
I use them
yep, own some and have used them for a while. I like them, only downside is they sometimes have a tendency to “roll” on round bars as you load a boat
I use them…
– Last Updated: Mar-05-04 12:21 AM EST –
I carry two boats on top of a jeep.Theres room if you put one on rollers and saddle, the other on hullraisers. The only draw back I notice with the hullraisers is loading a boat by myself. Of course when You're going solo, you can use the roller/saddle side. When you need to have both boats loaded, you usually have a second person to help load and unload.
If your rig is fairly tall, you're odds of dropping a boat are pretty high if you try loading into hull raisers by yourself....
Sold mine
I got a pair for the same reason you’re talking about–hard to fit two boats side by side on the top of my Toyota 4Runner. But the 4Runner is tall and I’m short, and I often paddle with other women–also short in many cases–so couldn’t always depend on my taller Significant Other to be around to help. I tried using a little step ladder, but climbing onto it with boat in arms–just too shaky for me.
So I sold my hull raisers to someone with a normal-height car, and just put wider bars on my Yakima rack. They’re wider than the top of the vehicle, but not wider than the body of it.
Just some food for thought.
yakima boatloader?
Something that helps in solo loading or loading on taller cars/trucks is Yakima’s “boatloader”. It works as an extension of the existing bar. When I first saw it, I actually didn’t think it would work that well, got a screamin’ deal on one, so I started using it and now I kinda like it.
Re: hullraisers
I have the same great experience, with a pair of hullraisers for the second kayak, and hullyrollers and mako saddles for the first.
Highly recommended, but be sure to use bow-and-stern tiedowns!