Can a TI be transported on a 5' roof rack?

Good advice.. Besides melting the pipe for the scupper drain, I also used a heat gun to melt the top ends of the pipes and fold them over a little ... --- this prevents the black pipes from marking up the boat when you drag it over the pipes. If you catch the edge of the black pipe, it will mark the boat with a black mark.

If it was me I would lose that black abs pipe, were taking about ten bucks worth of pipe here, pretty much everybody is just using the white schedule 40 stuff, it doesn't leave skid marks.
But it's all your choice.
FE

edit:
After looking at your pics, I'm still thinking don't put anything on the roof rack, just slide the boat up on your really cool ramp thingy (coolest idea ever BTW), Once the boat is up there just slide a couple 1.5" dia wood x 8 ft long or or wood covered with PVC (both are available at Home Depot (cheap). under the hull down the grooves on 11" centers.
Then strap the whole works down (thats pretty much what I do). I prefer to have as little as possible on my roof when not hauling kayaks around.

Doing it this way you have nothing to line up on or to get the boat over, once on the roof, just shove the boat around until kinda close to center, then slip the poles in. The 8 ft poles give you 8 ft of solid support on the hull, and the boat won't sag when it gets hot. Should be easier to load/unload in my opinion. Once in place the ratchet straps (highly recommended), are what hold the boat down anyway. If it was me after I got the boat up there I would just put the AKA's and AMA's on to get them out of the way (handy place to keep them). Of course it's probably good to take them off before taking the boat down, because when they are on, the entire boat (with AMA's) is dang heavy.
Actually I never walk around with a scupper cart with the AMA's on, just to heavy for me, I always carry the AMA's separately to the water.

Also those closet poles are also a great way to store your boat in the garage on the floor (using the exact same poles). Basically you just put the boat on the ground slide the poles under it, then you can drag the boat around the garage on the floor (the boat is sitting on the poles), the poles are trapped in the grooves, who cares if the poles get scratched up a little dragging around on the floor. I found wherever I put my TI in the garage I have to get around it or move it to get to something else, so being able to scoot it around on the floor without any damage is a nice bonus. Of course you can do all exactly the same with any PVC poles of your choosing, I just like to keep things simple.
Ha Ha I actually took out a set of those Malone wings on our SUV, going into the parking garage at Tampa airport once, without the boat up there, you sometimes forget you have kayak carriers up there (true story), just add it to the list of crazy stuff that has happened to us.
Hope this helps
FE

I agree the white sch 40 is better --- also better for sun exposure.. I use the black stuff because it looks better on my truck, it matches all my rack stuff perfectly.. My truck is garaged all the time, so, sun exposure to the black abs is not an issue for me.

Hi fellows, thank you so much for all the input. It's all vey helpful.
The reason I picked abs plastic is because it's a softer material compared to PVC. It is going to be fixed to my truck roof yak or no yak and it would look better with my black roof rack. I think it'll come out just fine. The aluminum inserts were cut to 5.5 Ft and the abs pipe is going to be 6'. I will post some pictures when the work is done.
BTW, which internet service are you using to host your pictures? I tried Google photo but only a link works. I'd like to have the pictures appear in the post.

I use imgur to host mine, but I've seen people use other ones like Picasa, etc.

Sent from my SPH-L720T using Tapatalk

_________________
2015 Hobie Tandem Island Hibiscus
"Third Normal Form"

• Trampolines
• Hobie cover
• Davis Spar Fly
• Kayakbob's Sprayskirts
• Spine Board Hakas

Since your mounting over the cab vs over the bed with contractor bars (like my current setup on my brown truck).
I'm still concerned that the 5ft- 6ft bars might be a little sparse especially if you push the boat back so it covers quite a bit of your truck bed (keep in mind the TI is almost 19 ft long, almost as long as your truck). I know you don't want to put a hitch reciever t-bar on.
If everything works as planned no problem, you don't have to do anything else. You will find all this out the first time you set it all up. I'm the type that always thinks thru all the alternatives just in case an idea doesn't quite go as planned.
I really love your roller ramp idea up over the front, that's one of the coolest designs I've seen so far and will make loading/unloading the TI a breeze.
The alternatives I'm describing below only apply if once you get the boat up there and drive around a bit, and find the rear of the boat is not supported enough here are a couple things to try.
Option 1: add a set of adjustable contractor bars like my Thule Aerobars to the truck, yea their kind of expensive, but boy are they well made and the height is adjustable. They are removable and I take mine off and put my bed cover on when not planning to car top for a while (we also have another vehicle and a trailer for towing (because as you will read later, I'm banned from using this one)).
Yea that's an expensive option and likely not what you want to do.

Option 2: since you don't want to put a t-bar hitch reciever in ($79 bucks on amazon), you can always just make a wooden T from pressure treated 2x4's that just supports the back of the boat over the truck bed. The thing is not attached to anything on the truck so it's removable and can be stored in the garage when not transporting (shouldn't cost more than $10 bucks to make). Basically you would put the boat on the roof and strap it all down as planned. If the rear is not quite as supported as you like you can make a T by measuring the length you need, cut the board to that length, screw the rest of the board to the top of the T with deck screws. Now lash the T to the bottom of the boat in the way back. Then just wedge the 2x4 in so the bottom is sitting in the truck bed (wherever it ends up, I'm just guessing here, likely somewhere near the middle of the truck bed. Now attach a a couple ratchet straps hooked to the rear most truck bed hooks (all trucks have them) up to the rear of the boat and around your T. This will secure and support the entire rear of the boat and prevent the boat from blowing sideways in side winds on the highway (the biggest problem you will have). Look at the pictures of my brown truck, your ratchet straps will look like that. This will also prevent ripping the roof rack off the car when you go over bumps and railroad tracks. These straps also prevent the boat from becoming a missile and fly off the truck if you have to stop fast (ripping the roof or roof rack off your vehicle). Think about it what you have now is a giant tider tader if the 19 ft boat starts rocking back and forth as you go over bumps the result is you will cave in the roof (we actually did that on one of our suv's), or the roof rack rips off the top of the truck. All caused by the boat rocking forward and back either when you roll over bumps like railroad tracks, or you have to break hard at an intersection.
Even with all that I would still add V ropes to the tip of the bow as well. Trust me on this one, that rocking motion of the boat forward and back, or the side forces from the wind on the highway will rip your roof rack off the car and wreck your roof (that happened to us on one our yukon's, we actually caved the roof in).
Of course it's you boat, and your truck and you can do what you please, I'm just describing what actually happened to us with a similar setup with a much heavier roof rack system than yours (the yukon roof rack is good to 250lbs (I think the strongest one out there), and with a TI on it not supported properly we caved the roof in, that was 3 Yukon denali's ago (yea we wore out 3 of them toting TI's and Hobie around the country on the roof with trailers in tow). Yep I trashed three $75k vehicles, now I'm not allowed to drive or use the the wifes vehicles.

One other pointer, if you go in salt water at all be very careful, we actually rusted out the entire roof on one of our Denali's and the entire roof of the Yukon had to be replaced, just sayin, watch out for that salt water.
Just a few pointers based on our experience with our 3 TI's over the last 6 yrs.
Hope this helps
FE

Well, wind is what I am most concerned with. Avoiding the T bar is just for the purpose of less garage clutter and less time in the overall experience.
I did read your salt water comment in previous post and taking it very seriously. My roof rack is 300 lb rated and it cost accordingly... The V ropes back and front are a definite part of the plan.
The way is is set up now (in theory), the Rack is going to cover almost a 1/3 of the length of the boat. in a very sturdy rigid platform. If on the first drive I will sense the yak is unstable, I will get that T bar in a hurry. I will post pictures as the project advances.

Well, I am 99% done with the rack. Now all I need is the Tandem Island to see how well it works.
Remember, I wanted a simple and fast 1 man solution for loading and unloading the boat on the roof of my Tacoma.

* The rack I used made by Front Runner and is rated for over 300 lb (unlike other most brands at 160 lb)
* The black PVC is spaced at 11' apart and has aluminum square tubing reinforcing through the PVC. Additional tubes are on the sides for the amas has no reinforcement since the amas are light (the plan is to load it while it's apart).
* The PVC pipes position can be adjusted if needed.
* I got 2 aluminum roller bank ( https://www.etrailer.com/Boat-Trailer-P ... 21741.html ) and created brackets to hold them in place while loading/unloading the boat.
* I got an expensive REI stern wheel cart to tie to the front of the yak while I load it in reverse with the back side up, the front will roll on the ground ( https://www.rei.com/product/738003/quan ... heels-cart ) I think there is a cheaper solution, except I saw a video of a guy using it on a TI and knew it'll work. I just didn't feel like more research.

After attaching the rollers, I can drive down to the water to unload. While the car is parked, the rollers are going to stay on and secured (unless a thieve has a huge hard on for my rollers so a wrench is what needed to take it off).

I got a feeling this is going to work. Here are some pictures of the work and end results.

I use a Rhino Rack T Loader and couldn't be happier. I also bought the Hobie cradles and mounted them on my Thule square bars. Yeah, they are pricey, but the few hundred bucks, compared to the price of the TI (fully outfitted) seemed like a reasonable thing to do. I only use two tie down points, located at the handles, plus bow & stern line.

Other than a trailer or winch system, this seemed like the best option for a single person loading a TI on a SUV or truck.

What is the spacing between your cradles with this setup?

Option 1) If you mount the cradles on the thule crossbars and use the T Loader for extra (non-cradle) support on bow or stern, you can't get the required 67" distance between the cradles.
Option 2) On the other hand, if you mount one cradle on a roof crossbar, and another on the T loader to get 67" between cradles, then the position of the loaded TI would end up being very far back to the rear, centered over the rear wheel. The boat would stick way out past the rear of the vehicle.