Outback Transport Question - Newbie

I am planning to buy a new Outback this spring. I am going to use my Toyota Tacoma long bed to transport it and plan to slide it in, hull down, stern first. The supported distance from the cab box wall to the end of my lowered tailgate is 94 inches. The furthest I would transport it is about 150 miles one way (once a year) and normally once a week 30 miles one way and paved roads. My question is would it be safe to haul it this way without a bed extender support or would there be risk to damaging the hull hauling it without extra support???? Thoughts? Thanks, in advance, for any consideration!

Thats how I haul mine around for every local trip, except I haul mine bow first to avoid damaging the rudder system . Long distances, it's hauled hull up on my Yakima rack atop my camper shell. Oh yeah, I have a Nissan Frontier king cab, I suppose the same length bed. The main reason is carrying around hull down, I can leave everything in the yak, rather than when carrying hull up on rack, it has to be stripped of everything. Something I don't want to do for every trip. Never had an issue. Don't forget a red flag.

Wedge some padding under the sides to help support it so it doesn't dent the hull bottom.

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

Thanks for the quick feedback and help! Now I am better prepared!!!

I have a short box 5.7 ft Ram. The couple times I had it in the truck I put it in nose first and on an angle. Only carried a couple kms though. I also have a bed extender that goes into the hitch. If this was gonna be much longer I'd put the extender in.

I have been carrying my Outbacks in the bed of a Toyota Tundra double cab since I got them (first in 2011, upgraded to a 2019 in December of 2018). I load bow first. When I am loading the 2019 at home I used the provided block to protect the rudder.

At the water, I scooch the kayak back enough to plug in my cart and then slide the kayak out until the nose is just on the tailgait. I have a rope tied to the front so that it can't slide off. I can set the back down like this (cart lifts the back end enough to protect the rudder). That works for me. If my truck were higher off the ground this would be getting dicey. I don't use the cart at home because of how I store the kayak.

It would only be better to support the kayak inside the truck but I have never bothered. The longest round trip I have made with it was a little over 100 miles and most round trips for me are less than 30 miles.

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Fish tremble when they hear my name

A ship in harbor is safe -- but that is not what ships are built for.
--John A. Shedd, Salt from My Attic, 1928