Sea kayaks on vans (1 Viewer)

[bazil]

First thanks to everybody who replied to my 'dogs in van' post, here's another queery for you all.We would like to carry two sea kayaks on top of the van does anybody all ready do this? the boats are 18ft long 22inchs wide and weigh approx 55Ib, on a car they are no problem getting them on to a van will be interesting.
Thanks again
Bazil

 

[peter marshall]

:thumb:Hello Bazil
i have not done this myself, but I have seen a van near me that as them on the top on a roof rack naturally, my son in law and grandson go kayaking and sometimes carry them on the top of his hi top transit on a rack, they are pulled up from behind, hope this helps . Pete :thumb:

 

[zaskar]

Seen it done on a Kontiki some years ago. Obviously, weight on the roof panel itself is an issue so what the guy had done is make/have made some "L" shaped brackets which fitted at the edge of the roof/sidewall. They bolted vertically into the roof and horizontally into the top of the sidewall. Not pretty, it has to be said, but very effective and much safer.
Thought about it myself but shied away.............which is why our new toy is a Sterns BackCountry and not a rigid. We love it to bits, far better than the near divorce causing heap that we had 20 odd years ago. Weekends away have taken on a whole new dimension and paddling water within reasonable distance of the site is noew MUCH sought after.

Zaskar ( MHFun & Song of the Paddle).

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[jaygee]

We carry a kayak on a roof rack on top of our hymer

 

[bazil]

Jaygee
How do you get it up there?

 

[Jim]

We regularly carried two Tarpon twin sit-on-tops, they weighed 35kg each on our autotrail roof. I raised the roof rack 5 inches, by attaching a cut lightweight alluminum ladder to the rack, this raised the canoes higher so that they did not interfere with skylights.

Its a lot of weight to have on top, but we were always so overweight we were never top heavy

With that kind of weight, along with the addition of my considerable bulk on the top whilst strapping them down, means that the roof will flex. You must check the sealant on all your roof furniture regularly, and renew as soon as it appears inflexible or you will spring leaks.

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