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#1
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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] |
#2
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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 |
#3
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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. |
#4
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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. |
#5
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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 |
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