richsteeves1 :
I am assuming you have not checked the price on the cradles, they are $227 dollars, vs $5 dollars for the PVC tubing (which in my opinion works much better). Yes they are very pretty but I simply don't have that kind of money (it's just a cradle, that's more than you would pay for a great GPS, or an FM offshore radio, or a fancy rod holder system (just trying to put things in perspective here)). Plus even if you mount them on the Hobie recommended 63 inch centers you still have 7 1/2 feet sticking out both the front and back of the boat totally unsupported, my opinion is (from my own experiences) that overhang will get you in trouble especially in a place like Florida (where I live) and the hot weather all year round. The hull will collapse and fold if unsupported, I've seen pictures that people have posted on this forum of their folded kayaks.
When I am storing my boat in the garage, to save space I bungy the AMA's on top of the boat (takes up much less space that way), so you wouldn't even be using the outer part of the cradles when storing.
If your dead set on having some sort of contoured cradle to fit the shape of your boat (instead of the PVC tubing), you can go to any pool store and get pool water tubes or get them from amazon (
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZWBZVM/ref ... B004ZWBZVM )
Just get your trailer ( or rack, or a sheet of plywood) all ready so you have at least 3 support points well spread apart. Fill the water tubes with that canned insulating foam (Home Depot), then set the boat on the tubes while the foam is wet. Once the urethane foam sets up It will fit the contour of your hull perfectly, and will be fairly rigid and strong (those tubes are very thick vinyl), you can sink screws thru it or just glue it down to the board (or rack). Shouldn't take more than an hour of your time and won't cost more than $50 dollars or so, and will last much longer than your boat.
If you don't like the PVC plastic, you can use cloth tubes, those Blue Hobie cloth kayak sail bags work perfectly (the bag that the Hobie Kayak sail comes in when you buy it), we always have 4 or 5 of those things just sitting around the garage, just lay it down fill it with urethane foam, and sit the boat on top of it, once the urethane sets up 'Walla' you got a TI rack.
I don't like to be critical of things, but for the price you have to pay for those cradles you can almost buy a Mirage drive, and look how many precision parts are on that mirage drive and the complexity, let alone the dozen or so injection molds required to produce it, including the massive R&D to develop it. Then you look at the cradle, about $10 worth of ABS plastic, thermoformed (takes about a minute, in a very inexpensive mold), It was probably designed in an afternoon, no assembly of anything, except maybe glue on a couple die cut pads again not rocket science or expensive ( a steel rule die costs about $500 bucks, vs $75,000 for any of the mirage component injection molds) and it's done and ready to ship. I'm in manufacturing and know the real costs of all this stuff, and just refuse to be gouged like that, it's an insult to my intelligence. If it was a one of a kind custom thing, that would be a totally different story, but I'm sure they sell thousands of the things (probably more).
I hate to go on and on (too late), but you can buy a brand new molded front Facia for a Camaro (basically the whole front of the car) for under $225 bucks, I've built hundreds of these type molds, and as manufacturers we would get about $60 dollars for molding them (most car models), and they are 3-5 times larger and way more complex.
OK I'll get off my soapbox now
Bob