Hi Folks,
Some of us paddlers are getting past our peak.G Have any among
us found any rack systems/loaders that really assist in getting our
craft from the ground to the racks? I know there are some advertised
but do we have any that we can address with personal experience?
Pro’s and cons? Thanks! Warm regards, Jim
I am 47 years old, 30+Lbs over-weight (245 lbs at 5’7"), and have a steel-rod in place of a left thigh-bone, a re-constructed hip (also lft side), and pins in my knee (also left side). I don’t have any trouble with my yak, but it only weighs around 40 lbs ( I probably make hamburgers at home that weigh that much). I just carry it, without any kind of carrier.
If your yak is too much for you to just lift, then maybe you could lift up one end and get it up on the roof, then go to the other end and lift it, and slide it all the way up on top of the car. Then it would just be a matter of getting the pads under it and securing the straps and ropes. I tried it with mine, and it worked easy, but bear in mind that I usually just pick it up at the center of gravity and throw it up on top.
Hope this helps.
Semper Fi!
A friend has the thule system for his car with a load bar. Sticks out 1 bar and you set one end on it then lift the other.Slide the free end in place then slide the end you sat up first in place. He loves it and uses it on his old gruman alluminum canoe.He also has a canoe dolly to transport to the lake from the car.He puts that near the center so it is near ballance,no weight on his back with his 2 fused vertabreigh (sp).
He seems to think no canoer should be without either!
Dennis
I have a Yakima rack and bought a $7 steel rod that slides inside the Yakima bar. It works the same way and saves about $75.
jed
What kind of car/truck do you have?
On my Outback, I have 2 kinds… the J bars (by Malone), and the rollers and saddles (by Yakima).
I use the rollers with my fishing 'yak (Redfish)… as I can’t really lift it to put it on J bars (just not good enough hand holds to lift it up and onto the J Bars). I like the rollers, as all I have to lift up is the front of teh boat and put it between teh rollers… then slide it up onto the car from the back of the boat.
Thule makes a J-bar like rack that rotates down the side of the car… I think it sits then about chest or gut high. Then it pushes up onto the roof, and the boat lays flat. (see it [url=http://www.thuleracks.com/thule/carrier_water1.asp:46ecd]here[/url:46ecd]).
Hi Hextall,
I drive a user friendly truck. This querry is for anyone starting to
experience similar problems as a result of questions from a friend.
Appreciate any thoughts/ideas you folks may have in resolving the
issue. Warm regards, Jim
I have the Yakima rack, and went the extra mile (i.e. paid the extra $75) for the rod that slides out making it possible to load one end of the canoe at a time. Works VERY well for me!
Maybe someone else can help me find it … I got tired of looking. There’s a kayak rack made by ??? out there that swings down to the side of the vehicle. You load the kayak and the whole system swings back to the top of the vehicle.
I’ve seen it … I just can’t find it. 
Help!
There was one made by Thule. I heard that they discontinued it a year of so ago. I tried looking on their site but it is a pile of poop and I cannot get it to load properly.
I am using the hydraglide which works pretty well.
Just had a quick squizz using Google searching “kayak roof rack loader”
The Thule one is #847 Thule Outriggger it works on the same principle as the Yakima EZ Loader
Its in the link in my post above.
Hi, folks. I’ve got the rack that slides out and down to the side of the vehicle. It’s actually a combination of that rack and some Yakima equipment. When I bought it, it was made by Talon but they sold the rights to that rack to Thule who has made some changes and has even discontinued it at one point due to some design problems.
Overall, I’m thrilled with the rack because it allows me to get out alone with my canoe. BUT I wouldn’t ever say that the design was excellent. It’s a bit finicky when lifting up again, has a weight limit of 100 lbs, and was very expensive. Still, I’d buy it again because I’m not going to lift anything like a canoe up over my head again.
Here’s a photo album of my canoes. Some of the photos show the rack in action:
http://www.dmaluso.photosite.com/Album14/
…Diane
As far a kayaks are concerned, I think the loading bar is the best solution if you have a roof rack that works with one. It makes it really easy to load the kayak.
However, I have a two-door car with a short roof – and there are few roof racks, if any, available for me. So I use foam pads with straps that I pass through the cab of the car – as well as fore and aft ties. So loading bars are out.
Instead, I use something called a roller loader. It’s a bit pricey, but worth it to me. There’s a patent pending on it. Even though the 'yak is about 60 lbs, it’s an awkward weight and I would struggle to get it up there without the rollerloader. Here’s a web address:
There are canoe loaders available based on a similar design – from rollerloader.
Hey BFB,
Your right, that roller loader is an interesting concept. But it ain’t cheap!
G I gotta do some soul seaching on that one. Thanks for the heads
up though. I gotta say, it’s the best one I’ve seen yet. Warm regards,
Jim
Jim, you can make your own roller loader sort of thing. I saw one that a guy made with the roller you’d find on a tablesaw outfeed table… looks like a rolling pin shape. He basically had it on a pole that mounted to his hitch on the back of his car.
Jim,
I found this link on kayakfishingstuff for a [url=http://kayakfishingstuff.com/articles_view.asp?Kayak_Articles=47:34806]Pickup Kayak Loader.[/url:34806] It looks like it would work great, if I had a pickup.
I have and have used a canoe loader that attaches to the slide-in trailer hitch and swivels the canoe onto the roof of the vehicle. Mine was store-bought and I’ve found a few sporting goods stores carry them. The canoe should be loaded upside down.
It consists of an adjustable upright bar with a cross-bar (tee) on top which swivels. The cross-bar has a D-ring welded at each end to attach a bungee cord. You set the height of the upright so it supports the canoe just above the vehicle. Hook one end of the bungee to a D-ring, then set one end of the canoe onto the cross-bar, stretch your bungee over and attach to the other D-ring. This keeps the canoe on the cross-bar while you lift the other end of the canoe and swing it around over the vehicle, placing it on the rack or foam blocks.
I used mine for several years and it was the only reason I used my canoe as much as I did. My canoe is difficult to turn upside down and load. The loader was like having another person to hold it up while I got it on the vehicle.
I no longer use my canoe and have agreed to forward it to my younger brother and his family. It’s a hand-laid fiberglass type from a mold. I bought it from the maker for $50, his wife was kicking him out and he had to get rid of it.
The bow and stern turn up, what I would call a traditional shape, and it is very heavy. That’s what made it so difficult to turn over. When I’d get it over, it would sit just on the tip of the deck point and the weight of the hull would flip it back down. I nearly broke my wrist a couple of times. The loader reduced the problems immensely.
Hey Diane,
Interesting idea. Definitly food for thought. I love it when we come up witha better mousetrap.G Warm regards, Jim
Oops, sorry Hex. :oops: I didn’t see the link imbedded in the word “here”. They need to make that blue hue a little darker. HA!
I guess if I’d have read your post a little slower I might have seen that or at least had your description of the rack sink into my skull. ha!
Yakima makes rollers that fit onto roof racks for about half the cost of the roller loader gizmo. They call them “Hulley Rollers” since they roll along the hull of boats, canoes, or kayaks as they’re being loaded. More info can be found on Yakima’s web site at:
http://www.yakima.com/Product.aspx?id=48
Thule likely has something similar/competitive.
For loading my yaks onto my truck, I have extender bars that slide into the Yakima bars when not in use. I loosen a single nut (which has a nice t-handle so no tools required) and extend the bar front and back…that lets me military press my yak right onto the extended bars (vs. having to lean/reach over the truck when I didn’t have the extenders).
Once the yak is over head (but beside/parallel to the truck), I can easily manuever one end at a time onto the regular bars, then un-extend the pullout portion before I drive off.
I hold the yaks in place on the bars with web straps and bow/stern lines.
Hey Moturke,
Interesting loader for sure. I like it! I used to load my boats with a
similar rig. I put a pipe style rack made from PVC against the cab and
my tailgate had a heavy plastic cap on the top edge. I was able to
accomplish the same thing without the roller just sliding the boats on
the plastic cap up onto the cab rack. On an earlier model truck, I had
used a single clamp on luggage bar on my cab with the same effect.
I hate that the drip rails went away. Was handy to be able to pop a
rack on. Warm regards, Jim