Revo Roofrack

I just pulled the trigger on a 2015 "almost new" Revo 13. I now need to decide how I want to carry it on my Mercedes ML SUV. Anyone using the Malone Saddle Up Pro? I have looked at multiple options for one man loading, but that will partly be determined by what car top carrier I get. I will be sometimes making long distance transport. Suggestions?

I car-top my Revo13 on a Mazda CX5 with Thule crossbars. The majority of the times I take off all the gear and lift the kayak overhead and place it keel-side-up on the crossbars and secure with two straps across the kayak. That has been sufficient for 99% of my travels (up to 1 hr on highway traveling up to 75mph). If I was going on a long haul on the highway (>2hrs) I would also use rope to tie down the bow and the stern to appropriate points on the car.

I also have a set of J-racks, but I only use those when I am carrying a second kayak. Carrying the kayak upside down on the bare crossbars is more stable at highway speed.

With a hitch and T-bar you can load from the back. When lifting you can rest one end of the boat on the T-bar then lift only the other end.

Upside down on padded crossbars would be the answer. And to help you get it on and off, something like the Rhino Rack T-Loader (Hobie part number 72040011) or the Rhino Rack Universal side loader (Hobie part number 72040013 reciever mount, or 72040014 ball mount) will make it pretty easy for you.

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Howie Strech
Parts & Accessories Product Manager
Hobie Cat USA

ok--question. If you load upside down on padded racks--what about the rudder? I will be loading from back of the SUV. If I load bow first the ruder on stern will be resting on the ground. If I load stern first then how do I slide the kayak across roof racks without damaging rudder?

I like to load from the side by lifting the Revo clean overhead and putting it on the crossbars, and I orient it with the bow to the front of the car and the stern to the rear of the car. I'm not too sure about sliding the kayak up there, but if that's the case slide the bow on first.

With the rudder up, you shouldn't have a problem.

_________________
Howie Strech
Parts & Accessories Product Manager
Hobie Cat USA

The deck of the boat is not entirely smooth so it is cumbersome to load from the back upside down. I find it easiest to load the boat right side up. If you don't have saddles, you can flip the boat once it is on the rack by standing on the door sill or tire (depending on the vehicle.
1. roll the boat up to the rear of the vehicle
2. place a carpet scrap where the stern will sit on the ground to prevent scratches
3. lift the bow on to the rear bar
4. go to the rear and lift / push, letting the cart fall away
5. flip the boat so it rests upside down on the bars

Here is a similar sequence being used on a much larger Tandem Island. If you look closely you can see the hitch mounted T-bar (actually a bed extender rotated up).

We have had quite a few different Hobies including a couple revo 13's. We have used many different types of racks including the malone wings, and the ones with adjustable rubber pads (several brands), they all have the same thing in common,,,, they all dent the hull and are hard to remove when not hauling kayaks. Our vehicles (GMC yukon and sierra denali's) are all pretty tall and I have destroyed more than one set of malone wings going into parking garages, and with them on, and we can't put our vehicle in our garage at home with the wings on,( too tall).
Almost all vehicles can have an aftermarket hitch reciever added from kurt or reese, and it only takes a few minutes to install yourself (no welding) if your vehicle doesn't have one from the factory, they all come with simple instructions and typically cost under $150 bucks. Once you have a reciever you can add a T-bar to the back that fits in the reciever. The one we have was $79 dollars from amazon, it's not the tilting type, though the tilting ones are way better, they are also way more expensive.
All of our yukons came with a standard roof rack with two cross bars. If your vehicle didn't come with a roof rack, the Thule Aero bars are very nice, I'm sure there are many other good ones as well.
As far as saddles go I don't recommend using any saddles at all with Hobies, I also highly recommend not storing the boat upside down, (too great a chance of scratching your roof flipping the boat over ( upside down) up there, with zero gain). Plus our kayaks are on the roof sometimes many months sitting in the key west sun, I prefer to protect the bottom from the sun (don't care about the top).
Before getting the T bar we had 3 sets of malone wings on our roof all with the combo loading option on both the front and the back, that's like ($1200 dollars worth of saddles, that dented every one of our hobies, even though we had 4 contact points on each hull).
We stopped using any saddles a long time ago. All Hobies appear to have grooves on 11" centers running the entire length of the bottom. Depending on which model you have you use different diameter PVC tubing to put the boat on (about $10-$15 bucks worth of tubing. On our TI 1.5" pvc seems to work best with just wooden broom poles shoved into the PVC for added strength, on an outback or PA you would use maybe 3" pvc, ( no additional re-enforcement needed because the stuff is pretty strong all by itself). On the our revo 13's and our TI's We used standard 1.5" diameter wood closet poles around 8' long. We got ours at home depot, they have solid wood poles and also PVC coated poles, we bought the pvc coated poles (I think they were around $10 bucks each).
What we do is get the boat up onto the roof by any means possible so it is sitting on the bare roof racks, and on the T bar (if you have one. We then just slip the loose poles under the boat into the grooves under the boat. If you have a newer model hobie with the scupper drains you may need to notch out the poles to clear the drains ( most don't bother).
Then just strap the boat down like normal. The T-bars are great because the support 500 lbs and provide the biggest safety margin. Before getting the Tbar we have dented a few roofs with just standard crossbars when going over railroad tracks and bumpy roads. And if you have to stop fast there is a high risk of ripping the entire roof racks off the car (we have seen this happen several times, where people have to break hard on the interstate and the boat launches off thecar, taking the factory roof racks with it. That's why we bought the Tbar, (after seeing that). We travel a lot and have well over 200k miles with trailer in tow and kayaks on the roof. Actually today we are in Moab Utah on an 8000 mile three month adventure visiting all the national parks. Lol I paid ten bucks for my lifetime national parks pass and want to get my moneys worth.
When we are not hauling kayaks we just toss the poles in the garage or under the camper.
Best setup we have had, and we have tried many.
Hope this helps
FE