Hello all,

I've searched and searched but nothing seems to hit my questions
exactly. I currently drive a Scion xA and am looking to install a
Yakima roof rack. I am also in the market for two single person kayaks.
The crossbars for the Yakima rack are 48", is that enough room for two
kayaks? I believe the carrying capacity is 168lbs.

If not, my next option would be inflatables or folding kayaks. Could
anyone offer any insight to a fairly inexpensive decent inflatable? I'm
not looking to cover more than class1-2 rapids, and most likely just
paddling around flat water. I had seen a Coleman Sport 1-person, and a
Challenger K-1 inflatable, but folks on another kayaking website said
they were garbage. Any ideas? I caught the bug after renting some
kayaks and doing about 8 miles down the Shenendoah, and I'd love to own
my own even with my diminutive automobile.

Thanks a million!
Dominic

wrote:
Hello all,

I've searched and searched but nothing seems to hit my questions
exactly. I currently drive a Scion xA and am looking to install a
Yakima roof rack. I am also in the market for two single person kayaks.
The crossbars for the Yakima rack are 48", is that enough room for two
kayaks?

Yes.

I believe the carrying capacity is 168lbs.

OK, that's plenty.

The rack bars are manufactured wider than 48 inch but an installer can not
install them wider than the vehicle (this as explained to me). You can
purchase wider bars and replace the shorter bars with wider ones using the
same mounts. To get a better idea of how wide you will need, measuring the
boat at it's widest, times two, will give you an idea of how wide your bars
need to be to accommodate both boats. Depending on the vehicle, rack
placement may be close together so will end up to be under the widest part
of the boat. If you are able to separate the bars far enough so as to
support the boats at less than maximum width you may be able to get away
with the 48 inch bars.

Bill


wrote in message
ups.com...
Hello all,

I've searched and searched but nothing seems to hit my questions
exactly. I currently drive a Scion xA and am looking to install a
Yakima roof rack. I am also in the market for two single person kayaks.
The crossbars for the Yakima rack are 48", is that enough room for two
kayaks? I believe the carrying capacity is 168lbs.

If not, my next option would be inflatables or folding kayaks. Could
anyone offer any insight to a fairly inexpensive decent inflatable? I'm
not looking to cover more than class1-2 rapids, and most likely just
paddling around flat water. I had seen a Coleman Sport 1-person, and a
Challenger K-1 inflatable, but folks on another kayaking website said
they were garbage. Any ideas? I caught the bug after renting some
kayaks and doing about 8 miles down the Shenendoah, and I'd love to own
my own even with my diminutive automobile.

Thanks a million!
Dominic

I have just gone through this exercise. I bought a 12 foot rec boat last
year and am looking to pick up a 13 foot necky manitou this year. I
upgraded my CRV factory rack to a Yakima with control towers for space and
weight reasons. I found the 48" bar was technically wide enough but the
position of the control towers did not leave enough room to mount my Mako
saddle in the needed spot. I have swapped for the 58" bars (same price).
My rec boat is 28" wide and the manitou (which I hope to have soon) is
nearly 25". Even if your two kayaks are 24" you may have difficulty with a
48" bar (unless you go with a carrier that holds the kayak on its side which
may be best for your vehicle). I considered some of the sideways systems
like the kayak stacker or hull raiser so I could stick with the 48" bars,
but read some not so favorable reviews of those products online. They may
be solid solutions, but most folks seem to agree the easiest/safest way to
mount/carry 2 rec kayaks is flat on saddles. Others may have positive
experiences with side cradling systems. I'm just going by what I could find
online. I'm certainly no expert as I'm still learning all this, but hope
this helps.

Dan


wrote in message
ups.com...
Hello all,

I've searched and searched but nothing seems to hit my questions
exactly. I currently drive a Scion xA and am looking to install a
Yakima roof rack. I am also in the market for two single person kayaks.
The crossbars for the Yakima rack are 48", is that enough room for two
kayaks? I believe the carrying capacity is 168lbs.

If not, my next option would be inflatables or folding kayaks. Could
anyone offer any insight to a fairly inexpensive decent inflatable? I'm
not looking to cover more than class1-2 rapids, and most likely just
paddling around flat water. I had seen a Coleman Sport 1-person, and a
Challenger K-1 inflatable, but folks on another kayaking website said
they were garbage. Any ideas? I caught the bug after renting some
kayaks and doing about 8 miles down the Shenendoah, and I'd love to own
my own even with my diminutive automobile.

Thanks a million!
Dominic

Bill wrote:
The rack bars are manufactured wider than 48 inch but an installer can not
install them wider than the vehicle (this as explained to me). You can
purchase wider bars and replace the shorter bars with wider ones using the
same mounts. To get a better idea of how wide you will need, measuring the
boat at it's widest, times two, will give you an idea of how wide your bars
need to be to accommodate both boats. Depending on the vehicle, rack
placement may be close together so will end up to be under the widest part
of the boat. If you are able to separate the bars far enough so as to
support the boats at less than maximum width you may be able to get away
with the 48 inch bars.

A 48 bar rack can handle considerably more than 2, 24" wide boats. If
the outer cradles are mounted at the ends of the bars, you will easily
gain at least another 6" in capacity and possibly more, as the boats
will overhang the ends of the bars.

Dan wrote:
I considered some of the sideways systems
like the kayak stacker or hull raiser so I could stick with the 48" bars,
but read some not so favorable reviews of those products online. They may
be solid solutions, but most folks seem to agree the easiest/safest way to
mount/carry 2 rec kayaks is flat on saddles. Others may have positive
experiences with side cradling systems. I'm just going by what I could find
online. I'm certainly no expert as I'm still learning all this, but hope
this helps.

I was hoping to use the Yakima stacker system, which is one of the
systems where the kayaks are on their side. I would be using the bar
padding (as reccommended by Yakima) and I can't think of any reasons
this would be bad... if you have them could you point me to these
negative reviews. I'd hate to buy two new shiny kayaks, and the $175
for the stacker attachments just to ruin them.

I am careful about altering my driving habit to my load, so if the
complaints are more along the lines of user error, then I'm not so
worried. Like driving 85MPH with two kayaks on a Scion xA in 30 MPH
winds, or not using the bar padding and the boat was damaged... those
types of complaints are just stupidity on the owners behalf... but if
there are legitimate concerns I would like to know them.

Thanks again,
- Dominic

I think with a taller roofed vehicle, that is higher than a sedan, the 58"
bars would be more versitile as well. I use them on the cap of my Toyota
Tacoma, with stackers, I can get 6 white water boats up there easily, or two
WW canoes, two sea yaks and 3 WW boats, all kinds of configs as I have alot
of boats. Go with the 58's.

"Dan" wrote in message
news
I have just gone through this exercise. I bought a 12 foot rec boat last
year and am looking to pick up a 13 foot necky manitou this year. I
upgraded my CRV factory rack to a Yakima with control towers for space and
weight reasons. I found the 48" bar was technically wide enough but the
position of the control towers did not leave enough room to mount my Mako
saddle in the needed spot. I have swapped for the 58" bars (same price).
My rec boat is 28" wide and the manitou (which I hope to have soon) is
nearly 25". Even if your two kayaks are 24" you may have difficulty with
a
48" bar (unless you go with a carrier that holds the kayak on its side
which
may be best for your vehicle). I considered some of the sideways systems
like the kayak stacker or hull raiser so I could stick with the 48" bars,
but read some not so favorable reviews of those products online. They may
be solid solutions, but most folks seem to agree the easiest/safest way to
mount/carry 2 rec kayaks is flat on saddles. Others may have positive
experiences with side cradling systems. I'm just going by what I could
find
online. I'm certainly no expert as I'm still learning all this, but hope
this helps.

Dan


wrote in message
ups.com...
Hello all,

I've searched and searched but nothing seems to hit my questions
exactly. I currently drive a Scion xA and am looking to install a
Yakima roof rack. I am also in the market for two single person kayaks.
The crossbars for the Yakima rack are 48", is that enough room for two
kayaks? I believe the carrying capacity is 168lbs.

If not, my next option would be inflatables or folding kayaks. Could
anyone offer any insight to a fairly inexpensive decent inflatable? I'm
not looking to cover more than class1-2 rapids, and most likely just
paddling around flat water. I had seen a Coleman Sport 1-person, and a
Challenger K-1 inflatable, but folks on another kayaking website said
they were garbage. Any ideas? I caught the bug after renting some
kayaks and doing about 8 miles down the Shenendoah, and I'd love to own
my own even with my diminutive automobile.

Thanks a million!
Dominic

For rack system reviews look he
http://www.paddling.net/Reviews/Accessories.html

There are quite a few negative comments about the hull raiser. I was on the
fence about the kayak stacker. The stacker isn't going to ruin your boats
from what I read. It's just more difficult if you have a tall vehicle to
get it up there and all tied down compared to saddles. It also seems geared
to WW boats. I found this Xterra owner's story helpful.

http://www.xterraownersclub.com/ubb/...;f=32;t=000179

Clearly the kayak stacker seems to work fine for some folks as another post
stated. I went for ease of use.

Dan



wrote in message
oups.com...

Dan wrote:
I considered some of the sideways systems
like the kayak stacker or hull raiser so I could stick with the 48" bars,
but read some not so favorable reviews of those products online. They
may
be solid solutions, but most folks seem to agree the easiest/safest way
to
mount/carry 2 rec kayaks is flat on saddles. Others may have positive
experiences with side cradling systems. I'm just going by what I could
find
online. I'm certainly no expert as I'm still learning all this, but hope
this helps.

I was hoping to use the Yakima stacker system, which is one of the
systems where the kayaks are on their side. I would be using the bar
padding (as reccommended by Yakima) and I can't think of any reasons
this would be bad... if you have them could you point me to these
negative reviews. I'd hate to buy two new shiny kayaks, and the $175
for the stacker attachments just to ruin them.

I am careful about altering my driving habit to my load, so if the
complaints are more along the lines of user error, then I'm not so
worried. Like driving 85MPH with two kayaks on a Scion xA in 30 MPH
winds, or not using the bar padding and the boat was damaged... those
types of complaints are just stupidity on the owners behalf... but if
there are legitimate concerns I would like to know them.

Thanks again,
- Dominic

Melissa wrote:
The Yakima racks with "Stackers" should be able to fit two boats very
securely on your car with the 48' cross bars, but if you want, I see
no problem with getting the 58 inch bars (I use 58 inch bars on my
Subaru GL wagon, and I've carried two single and one tandem sea
kayaks on it without any problem). Most of the time, however, I just
carry one or two singles, both in the old TLC cradles (these work
better with my hard chine boats than the newer "Mako" cradles). I
tried the Mako cradles at one point, and returned them right away.

Now, I too have been told that we *shouldn't* use cross bars that
extend beyond the sides of the car, but I've been using my long bars
for many years now, and 1) they've been very useful in that
configuration, and 2) I haven't yet been arrested for it. :-)

58" bars are the minimum for serious boaters, I think. The issue isn't
so much getting arresting as clipping something, say a passing car or a
McDonalds's drivethrough window, with the end of the bar. Rule of thumb:
bar ends--and anything mounted on the bars--should not extend past the
end of your mirrors.

The old vertical bar Yakima stackers are the best, the new vertical bar
stackers are about as good. Avoid the inverted U's, they will not stay
upright. OP was going to haul rec boats. Fine, slap them on the bars
edgewise and head out. Just tie them down to each bar plus bow and stern.

Steve

--
Steve Cramer
Athens, GA

Most kayaks are 24" or less. Even a little overhang is ok. Yakima (and
others) make wider bars. Check local laws, but typically bars can be as wide
as the furthest point of auto to the left, and 6 inches wider to the right
than the furthest part of car. I'd go with rigid if possible, but most
anything is still a lot a fun.