guitar1999
New member
Hi All!
I come to you seeking advice (and examples) of rack setups for hauling long kayaks (or canoes) on trucks with shells. I have an '07 Tacoma Access Cab with a Snugtop shell. The kayaks are 16'6" and 17'7" long.
My initial thought was to use a Thule track system with Yakima saddles and rollers on the shell. However, with this setup, in order to have the roller far enough toward the back of the shell to be useful for loading, I'll have ~5' hanging off the back of the shell and it'll be a stretch to get a bow line down to the hooks too. Does that seem like a reasonable solution?
Or, do I add a third load bar and more saddles, and just use the rollers to get the boats up in to the saddles on the front and middle bar?
Or, do I put a load bar on the cab? This seems like a bad idea given the independent motion of the cab and the shell. Is it as bad as I think?
Or do I put two racks on the cab, ditch the roller, hit the gym and lift the boats on from the side? This will center the boats over the truck.
Or something else... As you can see, I'm over-thinking this but I'm going to invest a chunk of money in this. I'd also like to make loading as simple as possible, esp. when I'm out solo. I'd also like a strong solution that will stand up to long drives on bad dirt roads and worse highways. So what have you done to move your kayaks around? What do you like about it? What would you do differently? Thanks in advance for your thoughts and I'd love to see some pictures of examples.
Jesse
I come to you seeking advice (and examples) of rack setups for hauling long kayaks (or canoes) on trucks with shells. I have an '07 Tacoma Access Cab with a Snugtop shell. The kayaks are 16'6" and 17'7" long.
My initial thought was to use a Thule track system with Yakima saddles and rollers on the shell. However, with this setup, in order to have the roller far enough toward the back of the shell to be useful for loading, I'll have ~5' hanging off the back of the shell and it'll be a stretch to get a bow line down to the hooks too. Does that seem like a reasonable solution?
Or, do I add a third load bar and more saddles, and just use the rollers to get the boats up in to the saddles on the front and middle bar?
Or, do I put a load bar on the cab? This seems like a bad idea given the independent motion of the cab and the shell. Is it as bad as I think?
Or do I put two racks on the cab, ditch the roller, hit the gym and lift the boats on from the side? This will center the boats over the truck.
Or something else... As you can see, I'm over-thinking this but I'm going to invest a chunk of money in this. I'd also like to make loading as simple as possible, esp. when I'm out solo. I'd also like a strong solution that will stand up to long drives on bad dirt roads and worse highways. So what have you done to move your kayaks around? What do you like about it? What would you do differently? Thanks in advance for your thoughts and I'd love to see some pictures of examples.
Jesse