Anybody Carry a 14' Kayak on 8' Bed Cap?

[EDGEWATER]

I have an 8' Bed Truck Cap and just purchased a Yakima Control Tower System to be mounted on 60" Rails.

The top of the cap is about 94" from front to back. Trying to figure out the optimum placement for Rail / Rack on the cap.

If I center the rails front to back and estimate the position of the loaded Kayak it will hang off the back of the cap approximately 3'.

Looking for someone who has some experience with this set-up. Do you like your install? Would you have done it differently?

Thanks ---

[Salty Dog]

Here is how I do mine with a Hullavator2014 09 yak loading 4.jpg

[EDGEWATER]

Looks good Salty. How is the front rack mounted to the truck? Permanent?

[Salty Dog]

Looks good Salty. How is the front rack mounted to the truck? Permanent?

Edgewater, it is not permanent, it is a Thule gutterless mount on the cab. All mounts are quick on and off including the Hullavator. Ordered the cap with the Thule aero bar system. Matching up the different size bars for the different mounts were a bit confusing since the Hullavator requires 4-6" overhand on the unloading side. After trial and error and returns of the wrong size bars I got it right. If you look close, there are surf rod holders on the other side of the mount. There are 3 bars on this setup. It has been high speed road tested up to 80MPH, from Harford County MD to Delaware to Va. without incident. It has been beach tested almost as many times. The photo has some optical illusion, the yak is perfectly centered on the truck. 4 ft between bars, 5 ft behind and 5 ft in front. What is really funny is when I am behind a tractor trailer with the yak on top, I can feel the whole truck shake. Soon as I move out of the air flow, the shaking stops.

[Bulldog]

I put the Yakima rails on my Suburban, but used two lengths on each side to reach factory holes, I carry a OK Trident 4.3 (14') The Ultra has a lot of bow flair and rocker, but she fits fine, hangs about two feet off back and perhaps two up front. bars are 56" apartP5160003_1-1.jpg
I have had four kayaks up top and can put five if needed would put five, I love the way the rack comes off in seconds and locks on.....Jack

[ngallag13]

I have a 2015 Subaru Outback and I've hit a wall with the Yakima and Thule roof racks that I can use easily. I realized that: 1) I was slightly too short to get my yak all the way up into the Yakima Jay Low and once it was up there, it looked like it was defying physics and would surly fly off at highway speed. I didn't realize how big the Native Slayer 12 was until it was on it's side on the roof of my car. 2) that the felt pads of the Thule Slid-n-glide were still too far inside the edges of my car and I couldn't get the leverage I needed to easily get it up there without scratching my car.
I ended up buying some Dakine SUP pads last night and I'm just going to ratchet strap it to the cross bars. It'll save me some money and hopefully be secure enough for long trips but idk how it'll last in the future. My main goal is ease and convenience though. Any input or better solutions? I'm kind of stuck.

[EDGEWATER]

Thanks for the input. I was planning on cutting the tracks and installing the extreme ends (front and rear) of the cap. That would result in a minimum rack to rack distance of 4', maximum rack distance of nearly 7'.

Only issue is that to get minimum dimension both racks would have to be positioned at the midpoint (front to back) of the cap. At that separation distance the rear rack is about 30" from the back of the truck.

Think I'm going to do what Bulldog did and but two sets of tracks together. This is good because it pretty much results in infinite adjustment anywhere along what will wind up being 7' of track.

[Bulldog]

I'm in Emmaus, Pa. if you want to check it out, I've ridden my bike up Morgantown hill, why would someone put a road over that I don't know! You can probably put something like a 4X4 on top of your cap to give you a sense of how the yak will fit. Come to think of it I might have a set of bars brand new in the tube, I ordered four thinking they were seperate not pairs, Oops! So my daughters jeep has a set, I used four on the Burb , and have two around somewhere........Jack

[EDGEWATER]

Thank Bulldog. See your not too far me. Do you fish locally or elsewhere?

[Bulldog]

I'm more of a salt water guy, but fish lakes around home, Jordan creek, Lehigh and Delaware rivers. I don't get to fish enough, work has long hours and there are not enough weekends to do everything! I do get to four or five kayak tourneys a year though, from Chesapeake Bay to Salem, Mass., so I can't complain!
I don't take myself or my fishing to serious though, just have fun......Jack

PS: are you interested in the rails I have, more interested in helping a fellow yakker out then making money.