Kayak carrier options for JK?

[Espo78]

I'm trying to come up with a solution to haul a Kayak on my 2 door. I don't want a permanent rack, and I want to be able to haul a kayak with the top up or down.

I figured I could do the Rugged Ridge light bar over the windshield, and leave that on permanently, but I still need a way to secure the kayak above the top in the rear. I came across the Bestop Highrock Overhead Rack, which looks like it could work, but I've never seen a review of it from anyone other than Bestop.

http://www.quadratec.com/products/12034_0402_07.htm

My concern is that the vertical bars are only held on with clamps so I feel like they would not be stable while driving. Maybe I'm off base but I've never seen it in person to see how sturdy it is.

The other option I came up with for the rear is this:

http://www.usrack.com/extend_a_truck.php

However I do not have a hitch receiver so that would be added to the cost and I don't like that I won't be able to open the tailgate with it installed either.

Any thoughts, opinions, reviews on these setups or any other options to consider?

 

[onetraveller]

Do you have a 2 door or 4 door? A hard top or soft top?

Mike

 

[Espo78]

2 door soft top JK

 

[Espo78]

Well I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the Bestop rack. JC whitney had the lowest price I could find, plus a 15% off valentines day sale, plus free shipping. It ended up being about $100 cheaper than anywhere else I could find so I just went for it. I'll post up how I like it once it gets here. I still need the RR Light bar, oh and a kayak to put up top haha.

 

[Septu]

Well I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the Bestop rack. JC whitney had the lowest price I could find, plus a 15% off valentines day sale, plus free shipping. It ended up being about $100 cheaper than anywhere else I could find so I just went for it. I'll post up how I like it once it gets here. I still need the RR Light bar, oh and a kayak to put up top haha.

You don't need anything on the front. I did a 5000 mile road trip with my bikini top and a kayak on it. Get a foam pad thats meant for kayaks and it'll sit on the top of the window frame. I have TrailSkins limb raisers that I use for a tiedown, however on my road trip I tied it down off the front bumper. Less than ideal, but it worked.

 

[Espo78]

Thanks for the tip. I'll have to wait till the rack gets here but it sticks above the roofline a good 5 or 6 inches from what I can tell so I'm not even sure the kayak would come come close to the top of the windshield if I use both support bars on the rack. Maybe I'll try just using one and see how it works out. I'll have to borrow my friends kayak and do some testing once it comes in.

 

[Espo78]

The rack came in yesterday. Huge box so I'm glad I had a free shipping deal. I got this rack for $175 shipped from JC Whitney. It's listed on quadratec for $275 before shipping so definitely shop around. For the price I paid, its a decent rack.

I haven't put any weight on it yet or hauled anything with it, so I can not comment on how well it functions just yet.

I would like to detail a few points for others who may be considering this rack as I was. I wanted a non-permanent rack that allowed for easy operation of the soft top, and could be used with the top either up or down. I thought the whole rack would be made to be easily removed from the vehicle, but that is not the case. The channels that bolt to the side rails of the Jeep are such a pain in the *** to get on I don't want to take them off. This could be remedied by using larger nuts perhaps with a knob like the hardtop kits for quickly removing the hardtop. The foam backing that goes on the back of the channels is to thick which makes bolting the channels in place very difficult. Overtime it will probably compress I assume.

Overall this rack has a good design, but in my particular case, was flawed by bad tolerances. Several bolt holes did not line up during assembly and I was forced to ream them out with a drill to make everything fit. Sliding the completed rack bars onto the side channels is not a smooth operation, and you can see where bad tolerances have the guides that go into the channels at a different angle than the channels themselves. The bars are supposed be able to move freely through out the channel but I can only get mine in a few inches, which is fine because that gives the widest distance between the rack bars.

Customer service at Bestop was moderate to good. I called and spoke to a gentleman named Rick that helped walk me through a few ways to try to fix the problem. In the end we both concluded the parts were just drilled incorrectly. Rick said he would gladly send me new parts, if they had them but they do not because they are not made "in house". I.E. this is chinese made garbage. I asked about opening another package and sending me the parts I need but that was a no-go. So while I was not able to get any actual help from Bestop, short of me boxing up this gigantic package and shipping it back to them at my expense, Rick was friendly and took my suggestions for a future generation of this rack and said he was actually working on revising it. After speaking with him and then drilling out the misplaced bolt holes, I had the rack on the Jeep quickly.

My Jeep is not very tall, about 1 1/2" higher than stock, and the rack clears my pretty low hanging garage door just barely. In the future I will just remove the bars before pulling into the garage to be safe.
__________________

 

[Septu]

Any pics?

 

[Espo78]

Yeah I meant to get them earlier but for some reason the photobucket app was giving me trouble so I had to upload from my home PC.

The giant box it comes in:

You can see how the channel and the rack don't quite line up right here. Nothing is tightened down yet but it's still a tight fit to get it in the channel:

misdrilled holes:

And finally the rack on the jeep after several modifications:

 

[horrocks007]

Looks nice on your 2 door!

I was looking at all the same stuff, but ended up with a Gobi rack.

 

[Espo78]

the GOBI is probably the best rack on the market. However I don't want or need a rack for 99% of the time I'm driving my Jeep. I put my top down as much as possible. I also did not want to do any drilling at all into the Jeep.

Do the rear legs on the gobi drill into the plastic bumper or is it tied into the frame underneath?

 

[horrocks007]

It bolts to the frame underneath. There is absolutely no drilling.

It does come off pretty easily, and some people take it off for winter. Being that I have a 4 door, I'm not going to bother taking it off, but on a a 2 door, I think it would be a breeze.

They have quick disconnects for taking the top down with the rack on. Check out their website.

 

[Espo78]

Yeah the Gobi is a great rack. Just not for my application. I wouldn't be able to fit in my garage with one of those, my garage is really low.

 

[horrocks007]

Yes, I don't have that problem at home. But I don't fit in the Philadelphia Airpot Parking Garage. Going to get worse when I get bigger tires.

 

[Espo78]

Yeah I park in a garage at work and the closest one is only 7' tall. Between that and my home garage a permanent rack is pretty much out of the question.