PHOTOS WANTED OF CAR TOP RACKING OF TWO HOBIE KAYAKS

I am struggling to find any variety of ways to carry two kayaks on top of a car. I know with all of the rack varieties out there that there must be a variety of successful rack combos. I want to stay with as little rack hardware as possible to carry two Revos. We are full-time on the road, so a trailer is NOT an option as it is often suggested. Can one of the center post racks work where a kayak is on pads on edge on each side of the post? We're closing in on purchasing a Revo 11 & 13. Would love to see some actual pics. Thanks,
billgill

There are lots of solutions, but this depends on what kind of vehicle you have -- sub compact, SUV, truck, etc. This affects vehicle-rack weight limitations and methods to mount the kayaks (side our rear), which in turn bears on which equipment you would want.

The simplest and least expensive way to carry 2 overhead is with simple 66" or 72" wide load bars with the boats side by side, upside down. The question is whether that is feasible for you -- is this too wide for your car, are you mounting gear on the kayak rails that prohibits this arrangement, can you lift the boats overhead from the side or would a rear mount be more favorable?

So give us a few more details about the vehicle and how you envision loading the boats.

bigdrop,

As roadrunner stated it does depend on the carrying vehicle as to what options you have. I have an Xterra and use 66" square Thule bars and towers attached to my luggage rack. I installed Yakima Land Shark Saddles (lowest cost saddles out there at 2 pair for under $80.00 at amazon.com) on the bars and I transport my two revolutions side by side and upright. I slide the revolution up the back of my SUV on a Thule Water Slide pad ($45.00) to prevent scratching the vehicle. You can use a towel or a blanket to achieve the same result. I use to carry them only on a pad on the bars but found under gusty conditions the kayaks rotated on the bars alone. You had to tighten down the straps so tight it would deform the hull.
The saddles hold the kayaks in place and you do not need to over tighten the straps.

These are pictures prior to the Yakima saddles:







The rack with saddles a much more secure transport (the kayaks don't budge and it is easy to slide them in place):







I hope this gives you some ideas.

Revo

_________________
I would rather be kayaking and think about work than to be at work thinking about kayaking.
A Thrill Ride is being dragged around in your kayak for 40 minutes by an extremely large fish.

I hear what you're saying about getting limited pieces and parts for a rack, but the flip side is you want something easy to use, and something that is going to protect your boats.

This is Yakima cross bars with Mako Saddles. This is an AI, with a Revolution on the other side. You could use foam blocks, to save money, but the Mako Saddles add simplicity in loading and securing, not to mention they're better for the boat.

_________________

I don't have a photo but this is not difficult at all.

I have a bog standard Nissan stationwagon (i.e. not a large car). I get 2 Adventures on it side by side by using longer than "normal" bars and 2 sets of kayak cradles. My mate does the same with an Adventure and an Oasis on a Golf SW.

I find that there are several advantages to using the cradles and I will never go back to cartopping them upside down:
1. Easy for one person to load - just put a cloth or cloths over the cradles and you can slide the kayak to the correct position fore/aft before removing the cloth(s)
2. With the kayak sitting upright you can easily stow stuff inside it - I usually transport rods, kayak clothing, lifejackets, paddles, masts and sails inside the kayak. You can also transport bigger/heavier items in the parcel shelf - e.g. tackle boxes, carts, daggerboards, drives (being careful re security when you stop, of course) and if you are nifty you can transport the kayaks of the roof with the drives installed (I load min after putting the kayaks in the cradles by lifting up the front of the kayak enough to be able to insert the drive then I use the pedal retaining bungee & hook to keep the fins up against the hull). I transport my kayaks with the stern pointing forwards so that I don't even have to remove the seats - I just fold them down to reduce windage a bit.
3. With cradles you don't have to crank your straps particularly tight to hold the boats on the roof - you would have to go over a massive bump to risk them jumping out of te cradles and the cradles are quite grippy with respect to preventing the boats from sliding fore/aft under acceleration/braking so moderately tight straps is all you need to secure them.
4. You don't have to worry about on-deck accessories interfering with the loading - you can have anything you like up sticking out of your deck and you don't have to remove it all to load up & reinstall to get on the water... which makes getting out on the water a whole lot faster.

Thanks for all the responses to date. As I stated in my initial post I'm interested to see if anyone uses the Thule/Malone/Yakima center posts (all have different names) and strap the kayaks on edge up against the post, one on each side. I have a Jeep Grand Cherokee, but being on the road full-time I hope to use a narrower bar set, without the big overlap. On the road in a bus, the Jeep is our only vehicle when we park to live, so it needs to do everything, from grocery shopping to mtn. biking to the now added kayaking. Staying as compact as possible, with as few hard parts to store, mess with etc. is part of the critical decision making. Thanks for any additional variety of photos, each one helps me do a better analysis.
billgill

bigdrop,

My experiences with the vertical post type of rack was not a good one. I used the Yakima kayak rack for a Nissan Pathfinder which was not much more than an inverted 'V' tubular folding center post. Getting the straps up and over the kayaks from the middle of the roof over a kayak on its side atop an SUV was a pain in the butt and never seemed to tighten down adequately no matter how tight you pulled the strap. The straps would slip and the kayaks would shift. On a blustery day the kayaks on their side were like sails and wind buffeting on the expressway was at times scary. I found myself stopping often to check the strapping. The wind buffeting was my sole reason for changing to carry them flat. I crossed over a bridge where the expressway was sheltered by screen walls except for the top of the bridge and the 25-30 MPH gusts coming over the bridge was a wind tunnel and had me seriously fighting to keep from being blown into the next lane.

A single post IMO is nothing better than a leaning post and a "J" type rack offers a more secure hold if you want to carry them on the side. I know people who use the "J" racks and have had no problems with them. The wind buffeting of course comes with carrying your kayaks that way. On narrower bars you can carry one on the side on "J" racks and one flat. The folding "J" racks are best so you can drop them if needed.

Revo

_________________
I would rather be kayaking and think about work than to be at work thinking about kayaking.
A Thrill Ride is being dragged around in your kayak for 40 minutes by an extremely large fish.

Boy you brought on a big DUH from me..... great idea to load one upside down, one not. The narrow racks are critical to our being on the road full-time, although I did not go with factory racks, but Thule Aero bars which have a slight arch built in. I like that combo-option you suggested.
Thanks