RV Rear Rack for Kona

RV Rear Rack - Kona Kayak. Has anyone tried this yet? Install the Kona, "on end", on the back of an RV? At 11'6" it will stick up above the RV 2'6". Putting this on the roof is trouble & awkward. The new rv roofs are a rubber sheet & expensive & I don't want to put holes into a perfectly good roof. I have seen websites with 8' kayaks on end, but not this. Ideas? Disasters? Thanks

The first RV rack I made mounted a pair of Sports (about 10 feet) diagonal across the back, stacked 2 deep. It was too difficult for me to load, so I made another rack. That diagonal rack did fit the kayaks pretty much behind the coach, and I even had a 13 foot Classic on it at one time (which was actually too tall for my tastes).

Figuring 8 feet wide and 8 feet tall (body), you've got 11.3 feet on the diagonal. The problem is..... taillights and license plate, which means you can only use the "middle" 6 foot wide section of the coach. Using the 6 foot width and 8 feet of height, you can get 10 feet of the kayak behind the body (on a smaller diagonal), with an extra 1-1.5 feet sticking up. This is about the height of your roof A/C, and what I've been using for years on my current rack arrangement.

Go to http://home.earthlink.net/~leinfam/index.html and look at my current rack setup (some pics are from my older, smaller motorhome). I now use a swinging gantry arm, with electric winch, to load each kayak (easier and also safer when loading in high wind).

My thought would be a lower cup (for the bow or stern), mounted from your trailer hitch (offset mount), and an upper carrier (padded U-loop) mounted to your ladder, if you have one. Otherwise, you'll need to build from your hitch (or bumper, like I did). You could use a simple block and tackle to swing the kayak into the upper mount, if you made the lower cup mount with a pivot (unless it's easy enough to swing up by hand).

If you need to put the spare underneath, like I did on the last 2 coaches, use a "chain hoist spare tire carrier" from old Toyota pickups in the junkyards. More than strong enough for the big spares, and no crawling underneath to take out or put away the spare. They bolt onto a steel plate (you'll need a 12mm wrench to remove it)...I made a simple frame clamp on a crossmember tube, and bolted it tight after the spare was properly positioned. Wear gloves while pulling one in the pick-a-part, and if the bolts are too rusted, just pull tighter until they snap off. You can easily weld the hoist body right to the new carrier support......no worry about bolts coming loose, that way!!

Hope this helps.
Regards, JimL

I'm planning a pivoting cantilever frame for the rear of my van and a block and tackle to pull it upright.

Fabrication will be steel and alloy tube with Key clamp connections, welded where its steel to steel and bolted where its steel to alu.

The frame will be lowered onto the kayak at horizontal, strapped on then lifted to vertical.

Sounds simple now.... just need to build it......

lucas....if you need a trick and strong pivot, look at a bolt-on rear hub from a front wheel drive car (in the junk yards). Many of them bolt onto a flat plate with 4 bolts on the back of the spindle, and you can use the hub side lug nuts to bolt to your rack. They are very compact and extremely strong...much better than trying to rig up bolts and bushings or whatever.

I was considering building a rack that would rotate on a single hub, placed at center of gravity for side by side kayaks, to allow hand rotation down to an easier to load position. You could also pivot at bumper level, if you used the hand crank mechanism out of an old boat trailer winch.....might be a safer rig and nobody gets hurt!

Regards, JimL

Actually the rv is a Jazz 3180BH 5th wheel with a small 3' deep so called garage on the rear. This shouldn't change any of the answers. Thanks for the ideas. I shall now ponder.