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I'm hoping for a little advice on carriers. I finished my Auk 17 last winter and had a great time paddling this past season. We have three boats, the Auk and two shorter plastic boats. The Thule yak carrier on my wife's Forester worked well for the Auk, and the factory rack worked fine for the shorter boat. I have a full size pickup truck with a cap on it, and used to carry the two short ones in the back, that won't work for the Auk...too long. I can put the Auk on the top of the cap and truck using foam blocks, but the short boat is too wide to put next to it without a factory style rack, either putting on it's side or flat. If I put a rack on the cap....the short one will be fine, but it puts the Auk too far off the back of the truck. Any ideas what system...factory or otherwise, I could use to properly support both length boats? It seems like it would be in the area of $1000.00 to fit out the truck and cap to fit both boats. I plan on building another boat, but it will still be a shorter lighter one for my wife. TKS
3 replies:
RE: Carrier Advise
Duanne, I carry an Auk 17, n Auk 14 ( wife) and two plastic kayaks (Kids)on my short bed crew cab Ford. I used Yakama bars attached to the camper shell. with one Kayak stacker in the middle and two J carriers on the outside. Yes it was expenseive but most parts came off Graigs list. Best part is the whole family is able to make the trip. Not sure what to do after I finish the SW 16 for my son. Dave
RE: Carrier Advise
Thanks for the input, I didn't think there was an easy or cheap way to get this done, but I thought I'd ask. Looks like I will have a professional install a nice rack on the cap, and then get a bar for the truck roof. That way I can put both on their sides with "J" racks, or the short one flat, and the long one between the two widest bars in a rack. Have a good day.
RE: Carrier Advise
» Submitted by dave10990 - Sat, 12/1/12 » 1:09 PM
That's a battle I fought. I was in the process of purchasing a new, short bed quad cab pick-up at about the same time I finished my SW Sport. I purchased a "T" bar that went in the reciever, and a single rack for the roof. The SW Sport just made it between the "T" and the rack. The smaller boats didn't. I did carry the SW on the rack and put the to plastic boats in the bed. I wound up buying one more rack for the roof, so I can now carry any combinations of lengths on either just the roof, or on the "T" and the roof. If nothing else, it also allows me to carry ladders. You might need to do cap racks and a roof rack with "J" racks to hold all the boats. And yes, $1000 is possible. And we thought this was an reasonable priced activity.