J-racks for sea kayaks
 

I have a glass boat (Impex Assateague) that I have been carrying with
old Yakima saddles. I have been looking at the Thule Hull-a-Port and
Yakima HullRaiser J-racks, which make it easier to put two boats on a
narrow car. Anyone have any idea whether one is better than the other,
or a reason not to use either of them?

Thanks.

Dan

[remove "no.spam." for replies]

On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 20:05:36 -0500, Dan Koretz
posted:

I have a glass boat (Impex Assateague) that I have been carrying with
old Yakima saddles. I have been looking at the Thule Hull-a-Port and
Yakima HullRaiser J-racks, which make it easier to put two boats on a
narrow car. Anyone have any idea whether one is better than the other,
or a reason not to use either of them?

I'm been using the Yakima J-cradles (I don't think they were called
"HullRaiser" when I bought them) to haul my Impex Montauk around for
three years and they've done very well.

However!

I've found that the distance between the bars holding the cradles is
important. My bars were about six feet apart on my pickup truck.
The Montauk, at around 16 feet, fit in the J-cradles very well. But
when I loaded up my new Arctic Hawk, which is two feet longer, and
therefore has a longer middle (wide) hull, the J-cradles were a
little too close together, so that the Hawk did not nestle quite as
snuggly as the other boat had. If I could have moved the cradles
farther apart they would have worked swell. I'm now working on a
whole new rack system and hope to get the bars a little farther
apart, but I think I'm going to keep the Montauk in the Js and put
the Hawk in the TLC/Roller combo.


Mike Soja

Dan Koretz wrote:
I have a glass boat (Impex Assateague) that I have been carrying with
old Yakima saddles. I have been looking at the Thule Hull-a-Port and
Yakima HullRaiser J-racks, which make it easier to put two boats on a
narrow car. Anyone have any idea whether one is better than the other,
or a reason not to use either of them?

J-cradles put more stress on the crossbars, due to the leverage they
have. They also create more sail area in a crosswind. Depending on how
strong your rack installation is, this can be an important consideration.

MikeSoja wrote the following on 2/12/2005 10:10 PM:
On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 20:05:36 -0500, Dan Koretz
posted:


I have a glass boat (Impex Assateague) that I have been carrying with
old Yakima saddles. I have been looking at the Thule Hull-a-Port and
Yakima HullRaiser J-racks, which make it easier to put two boats on a
narrow car. Anyone have any idea whether one is better than the other,
or a reason not to use either of them?


I'm been using the Yakima J-cradles (I don't think they were called
"HullRaiser" when I bought them) to haul my Impex Montauk around for
three years and they've done very well.

However!

I've found that the distance between the bars holding the cradles is
important. My bars were about six feet apart on my pickup truck.
The Montauk, at around 16 feet, fit in the J-cradles very well. But
when I loaded up my new Arctic Hawk, which is two feet longer, and
therefore has a longer middle (wide) hull, the J-cradles were a
little too close together, so that the Hawk did not nestle quite as
snuggly as the other boat had. If I could have moved the cradles
farther apart they would have worked swell. I'm now working on a
whole new rack system and hope to get the bars a little farther
apart, but I think I'm going to keep the Montauk in the Js and put
the Hawk in the TLC/Roller combo.


Mike Soja


Hadn't tought about that. A lot of cars, including both of mine, have
fixed mounting points for Thule or Yakima racks, and they are pretty
close together. And the Assateague is a very long boat.

On Sun, 13 Feb 2005 16:21:52 -0500, Dan Koretz
wrote:

MikeSoja wrote the following on 2/12/2005 10:10 PM:

I've found that the distance between the bars holding the cradles is
important. My bars were about six feet apart on my pickup truck.
The Montauk, at around 16 feet, fit in the J-cradles very well. But

Hadn't tought about that. A lot of cars, including both of mine, have
fixed mounting points for Thule or Yakima racks, and they are pretty
close together. And the Assateague is a very long boat.

Both Yakima and Thule have "short roofline" adaptors, for the same
reason of spreading the bars further apart.

Won't work on every vehicle, but worth a look.

Happy trails,
Gary (net.yogi.bear)
------------------------------------------------
at the 51st percentile of ursine intelligence

Gary D. Schwartz, Needham, MA, USA
Please reply to: garyDOTschwartzATpoboxDOTcom