H-Rail for custom tripod?

I'm looking for ways to take my DSLR on my 2019 Outback for bird photography. It's a heavy outfit; between the camera body, 500mm lens, ball head, and gimbal mount, I need to solidly support about 15 lbs. I know I could use a couple of rod holders to support the legs of my Gitzo tripod, but it seems like H-rail tubing might make an excellent and compact custom tripod if I can figure out how to build and attach it to the existing accessory H-rails. I envision it looking like a mini version of the stand up H-bar but mounted close to the seat, allowing me to mount/work the camera at eye level and not interfering with the mirage drive.

Has anyone done something like this? If any Hobie guys are lurking, can you suggest a combination of parts that might accomplish this?

I am in a similar situation and have just purchased a 2020 Outback specifically for wildlife and landscape photography. I hope to take the kayak out for a test run next Monday as I am still working on more basic details regarding transportation and other essential accessories needed .

I have gone ahead and purchased the H-Bar rail in anticipation that I will come up with a way to mount the tripod head/gimbal from the top middle rail. In this scenario, the gimbal head would be installed upside down potentially of a H-Rail mounting plate. There may be other ways to mount as well but still have not finalized what the specific setup would be.

I am also planning to get the Sidekick AMA kit to improve stability.

To clarify, by H-bar rail, I meant the stand up H-bar.

Also, does anybody know what the load capacity of the H-Rail universal mounting plate is?

We don't have a load rating, but should be robust enough for a camera.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

I’ve been thinking about cutting down an H-bar to work at seated height, mounting all four feet to the side H-rails near the seat. Then I could clamp the universal plate directly to the top of the H-bar and my attach my ball head to the plate. I use a RRS BH-55 ball head with a Wimberly Sidekick for a gimbal. Since the H-bar tubing is a dodecagon (love that word), there should be no twisting of the mount on the bar, and all the weight would be on top of the bar. H-bars may be expensive kayak accessories, but relative to a tripod, they’re not bad.


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The standup H-bar came in and I was locally able to pickup a mounting plate. I did the H-bar install as per the Hobie instructions. With the rear rail all the way back, the camera still ends up being slightly too high. I am 5'9" but for somebody taller, it might work ok. (Seat was in high position).

I am not sure that the H-bar legs can be easily shortened based on how the attachments/joints are configured. An alternative would be to move the front foot mounts forward 6-9". I think this would not be an issue if the H-Bar is removed during transportation. Otherwise the bar will go beyond the bow of the kayak in the lowered position. I will post some additional images once I have moved the foot mounts forward.

The camera and lens (Sigma 500mm/f4) feels fairly secure on the mounting plate/H-Bar although it would be good to come up with a secondary securing method.

I mostly plan to use the kayak for landscape photography (http://www.shootingnomads.com), so this long lens is probably the worst case scenario for me

If you decide to cut the H-Bar, it will probably be the easiest to shorten it at the top end. Consider getting the H-Bar kit 84500114 as it has a longer horizontal rail (for the Proangler) as well as the shorter one for the Outback. Cutting the bar at the top end will probably require a slightly longer horizontal bar length. We had picked up this kit locally for a Compass and surprisingly it was cheaper than the dedicated Outback kit (84500120) even though it has more parts inside.

Yes ... that’s exactly how I was thinking of doing it ... cutting above the legs, reusing the corner brackets, and replacing the short horizontal top bar with a longer one at just the right height. I think that would provide a solid connection to the boat and one I can remove easily when I’m fishing. Do you feel the universal plate is robust enough to hold your rig steady? Any lens droop?


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Your proposal sounds good. The potential challenge will be figuring out how to safely remove the rivet without damaging the bracket. Would love to hear how you approach it.

The universal plate appears fairly robust with no camera creep keeping in mind that I had the camera mounted on the bar for a very short period of time. Personally, I would prefer to have the gimbal/ball head weight distributed between two of the mounts but currently there is not enough space on the horizontal bar to accomplish that. Widening the bar using your approach might allow for that possibility.

Appreciate if you can post your results once completed.

Will do, but it’s going to be awhile before I tackle it. I’m moving the boat to Florida and will be doing the mod there for bird photography.

I noticed in your post you’re sorting out transport options. I went through that too ... the Outback is a heavy boat. I used to have an F150 Supercrew with a bed cap. For long trips with a lot of other gear in the bed, I roof-topped the Outback and my wife’s Pungo. What a PITA. For short trips though, the pickup bed and a BooneDox T-Bone bed extender made transport a breeze. I’ve since traded the truck for a Volvo V60 CC. The roof is low enough for car-topping and I’ve had the Outback up there, but when my wife and I both go the roof isn’t wide enough for two yaks. I finally broke down and bought a Yakima Rack and Roll trailer. Expensive, but it is sooo easy to load and unload. I wish I had gone straight to a trailer years ago.

Regarding storage, here’s how I do it. In the pic below, the ceiling hoist is a Harkin Hoist, the web straps (from Strapworks) are 2” wide with D-rings, and the Rack and Roll is standing up against the wall with the tongue retracted. I can lower the boat, rotate it hull-down while still in the straps, then drop it right onto the trailer. I then use the trailer like a big hand cart to walk it out to the car. In Florida, I plan on leaving the boats on the trailer full-time as we’ll be using them frequently.






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Thanks, this is very helpful indeed. We travel full time and live in a motorhome. Due to the large size of our MH, we also have a truck with a popup camper and then tow a jeep behind. It would be possible to add a trailer to our setup but our concern is getting into campgrounds due to our large footprint. So, we opted for a rooftop setup on the jeep with a Rhino S loader. So far, we have loaded and unloaded the kayaks (an Outback and Compass) twice and it is quite a chore for sure . The dealer had also suggested going the trailer route upfront and that a lot of people make the mistake of spending twice the money on transportation options as they eventually come around to getting a trailer. The Yakima does appear to be very compact. Wonder how it will holdup long term over 40-50k miles of travel.

Wow ... now that’s a lifestyle statement! Good for you guys. All the best!


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Hello! Did anything come of this project? I’m looking to do something similar for my R5ii and 100-500 or 200-800 lenses. Would be great to set it up using this H bar because it looks the most stable, but not sure the best way to modify it so I can operate a gimbal comfortably from sitting. Any advice would be great, thanks!