small car, long kayak, roof rack question

Hey Everybody

I've got a question about putting my wonderful new-ish Adventure on the roof of my car. At the moment, I haul it around on the lumber rack of my truck which works OK, but it's a bit of a struggle to get it up there and the truck doesn't get the best mileage. I would really like to be able to transport it on my car, which I already have a rack for, but the geometry of that situation (the car in question is a 2000 VW Golf) brings up several issues:
1. The rack bars are rather close together (maybe 2 and a half feet apart) meaning the rack will have a pretty small grip on the middle of the boat (2.5 feet out of 16 is not a large proportion)
2. The front rack bar is lower than the rear one, meaning unless I take some sort of corrective action the boat will sit in a nose-down kind of attitude on top of the car as I drive down the road. This seems likely to put some pretty large upward-bending (or maybe downward?) forces on the front of kayak, particularly right where the front carrier's strap or whatever grabs onto the boat. I don't want a banana-shaped Adventure.
Any suggestions on how to deal with these issues? I've been thinking that I might just build a 6- or 7-foot long sort of cradle for the kayak out of plywood and put that on the rack instead of using bolt-on carriers from Yakima or Thule on the rack bars. That would allow me to support the boat better (for more of its length) and correct the nose-down problem too, but I'm a bit lazy and haven't gotten around to that yet and have been wondering if I don't really need to worry about these issues at all. Thoughts?

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'09 Adventure (getting AI kit soon!)

Sorry, but I think the Adventure is just too long to be carried on a small vehicle. I think the overhang will require you to put to much pressure on the bow and stern lines to properly anchor the kayak. You might get away on short trips under 30mph. I'm 63 and have no problem lifting one end at a time (about 30 lbs) and sliding the Adventure on the top of my truck. Think about the gas you are saving after you get to the water.

Hi Eecher,

I purchased the Thule 400 XT rack with two sets of 835 Hull-A-Port Pro carriers for my TWO Hobie Adventures to sit on top of my 1992 Honda Civic Si and they have been very stable. Because the roof is short - my order also came with the Short-Roof Adapter to provide more stability. The noses of the yaks tend to point slight downward on my roof as well. I have driven up to 3 hours at average speeds of 65-70 mph and they have been extremely stable on the car. I've never had a problem. Everything still feels tight.

Mike

I´m transporting my 2006 Adventure on a 4,25m long car with rectangular Thulebars just over 2,5 feet apart on roofrails. I put the kayak upside down (on the gunwales) with the stern to the front of the car. The rudder is better aligned to the wind (twist-and stow rudder) that way and the kayak "tracks" better in the air in reverse position. As a bonus the rudder is protected from potential "backing-into-a-lightpost-or-something-mistakes". The kayak is strapped to the bars but i also have short straps from scupperholes and drivewell to the roofrails,not very tightly strapped,just to secure it. Seems stable even in highwayspeeds and strong sidewinds.

For the record: I have never backed into a lightpost or something...yet

Mike,

I see why yours is so stable with the kayak mounted on its side. You have a lots more strength. I just tried to mount mine with the hull rightside up and had a to much flex for my liking. With the extension what is your actual measurement between the Pro holders. Sounds like your setup is the way to go. On my short bed truck I went with the trailer hitch support which gives me a good 12 feet with three supports. It's easy to load bottom down.

Eecher,

You might want to think about trailering your Hobie. There are several makes available. Hobie offers one. I have a Rack and Roll which is only 150 lbs & folds up for storage. You can pull it with a motorcycle. Just unhook it and roll it rolls by hand into the yard if you need the car before putting the kayak away. I car topped my two new Hobies for one week & then purchased the trailer.
I've never regretted buying it.
Just a though.

rackandroll.com
Bruce

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Everything before 60 is just a rehearsal!

Hi Ranger908,

The distance between my Pro holders is 25 inches (from the middle of each holder). It would be nice to have more distance - but this is what was called for in the assembly instructions. The short-roof adapter doesn't add distance between the holders - it merely increases the strength of what you already have in place by adding more feet and extra attachment points for better rigidity.

The Yakima "Rack and Roll" trailer looks appealing. However the price is a deterrent for me.

Mike

Eecher, here's a solution that should work very well for your situation. I 've also seen this arrangement used on a Corvette -- with a 25' rowing shell:




As you can see, length of boat is no problem, stability is not an issue and loading is ridiculously easy from behind the vehicle in this manner.

You'd have to go to the expense of adding a receiver for the "T" bar, but then, you would have it available for other hauling and towing tasks as well so you can save even more gas in your truck!

BTW, for your truck you may be able to lower your rear cross bar on your lumber rack, depending on your rig. This makes it a lot easier to load the Adventure:


Even the Pro Angler loads up easily (one end at a time)!

Thanks for all the excellent tips everybody! I think I'm going to see if my local yak shop will let me borrow a pair of those Thule boat-sits-on-its-side carriers so I can rig it all up and see how it feels. If that would work it would be great. If that's not stable enough I think I will give that hitch support thing a try-- I hadn't even thought of using that kind of thing on my car, and I'd like to have a hitch on there anyway.

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'09 Adventure (getting AI kit soon!)

Not sure if this helps much, but here is a picture of my VW