Re: ingenuity marches on

Posted by gober on Mar 7, 2006

Paul,

I have two MC13’s now I know that’s nothing compared to a double. I bought a Saris rack from my neighbor, hey the price was right! Now I was planning on taking these boats all the way from Fort Worth Texas to Key West Florida. When I installed the rack on my Nissan Sentra the rack looked a bit too close together especially for such a long trip. The Saris racks are sort of oval in shape. I was concerned that the boats may tend to want to slide left or right. So I went to the local big box store and bought 4 2x4x8, 4 pieces of flat metal strap (the kind used for framing a house), some carriage bolts, washers, nuts and some pipe insulation. I spent about 20 bucks. I then cut the 2x4 down to 6 ft each, these were laid flat (2 in tall 4 in wide) at the end on the racks running front to back. I drilled holes in the 2x’s then used the carriage bolts, nuts and washers to wrap the metal strap securely around the racks. One bolt on each side cinched the strap really tight on the rack. I then took the other 2x4’s cut them to a smidge longer than the rack was wide. Then I ripped them down to about 3 inches. Next laid them on top of the other 2x’s and placed the yaks on top to get an idea of where they would ride. I marked the ideal place for the yaks. I then took the 2x’s to the table saw and notched out about ¾ inch slot, nearly a foot long, where the yak would ride. Then I bolted the notched 2x’s to the others basically in a box fashion. I took the pipe insulation and taped it over the notches. With these notches the boats can not slide side to side when strapped down. By adding the 2x’s the point of contact grew from about 3 ft to 6 ft. When I take the rack off I leave the 2x’s attached so I don’t have to redo it every time. Maybe it was overkill but it only took a few hours, 20 bucks and I felt much better about driving 3200+ miles. I know your yak doesn’t have a flat bottom but I am sure you can adapt the idea. Look at what Kurt Maurer did… http://members.aol.com/mauair/Finale.htm Maybe you could incorporate both ideas. If you want I can post some pictures.

Gober

In Response to: Re: ingenuity marches on by Paul S on Mar 7, 2006

Replies:

• Re: ingenuity marches on by J.Schott on Mar 7, 2006
  • Found the pics by J.Schott on Mar 7, 2006
    • Re: Found the pics by Moe on Mar 8, 2006