Kayak trailers. vhf radios puchase

[fjarhead]

I just ordered a trailer from west marine. It is a personal water craft up to 13' for $799.00. Hobie has one but its over $1200.00 I have a hobie pro angler and the weight (135lbs not including added gear) was killing me lifting it up on top of my exterra. It will make loading and unloading a breeze. It is adjustable and i can adjust the bunk boards. I also ordered a vhs radio, the horizon 851. $269.00 it floats and has gps. i am using my winnings from playing poker up at delaware park. Nice soft game up there.Will be joining the rest of you down at the bridge soon.

[Grilled]

thats something i want to get also but they are so expensive. hauling your kayak ontop of your car sucks and is a pain. harbor freight has some cheap trailers but they have to be modified for the yak, seems like a good winter project.

[Redfish12]

Hey Jarhead, what were using on top of your Xterra? I just got another kayak yesterday and I am in need of a way to carry two, did you like your rack?

[Memory Maker]

The crazy thing is that I have a trailer that has a broken axle I want to use for the yaks. I have another trailer that I have to pickup for the boat that is on the broken axle trailer. I want to repair it and use it for Yaks but I don't have a place to put it right now because I have 2 trailers in the driveway now.

If someone reasonably close to Towson/Parkville has a place to park, they would have free use of the trailer. Otherwise I might have to sell or junk it.......

[fjarhead]

noodles

Hey Jarhead, what were using on top of your Xterra? I just got another kayak yesterday and I am in need of a way to carry two, did you like your rack?

the exterra has a rack on top of it so i fastened a cpl of pool noodles on top with super large zip ties and that keeps it from sliding around. It works nice, i have 2 web ratchets over the middle and one on each end to keep it from sliding around or twisting in the wind. I dont know of a way to carry two unless your using a production model to specifically hold a yak on its side.

[Redfish12]

I did something similar but bought the oversized crossbar pads. I'm going to look into using double J racks I think because I don't think the bars would be wide enough for two sets of saddles.

[DOGFISH]

Trailers

I went the distance with loading kayaks. Started using sponge blocks and blew out my right shoulder. I had surgery on that in 2008. After that I went to a nice set of roof racks. That was OK for awhile, but after fishing all day, the last thing I wanted to do was to load the kayak on the roof. Trailers are the way to go.

I have a single trailex trailer, trailex.com. It is all aluminium. It is so light that it has handles to use as a dolly. I use it quite often to launch where there are no ramps. The dedicated kayak trailers are different than small boat trailers. They have different suspension, which has less or no road hop when going down the road. Small boat trailers with kayaks are going to have alot of hop. One suggestion that I can offer on boat trailers is to lower the air pressure in the tires to reduce the bounce when going down the road.

Anyone considering a trailer, I can recommend the single trailex. It has to assembled. However, that does not take much time. It holds up to a 15' kayak. It has a 200 lb capacity. Trailex makes kits to convert the single into a double trailer. They also have double kayak and multiple kayak trailers. The single trailer costs about $1000. For me it was worth the money. I'm getting to old for the roof top thing. I wish I would have discovered kayak fishing many years ago.

[fjarhead]

hop

I went the distance with loading kayaks. Started using sponge blocks and blew out my right shoulder. I had surgery on that in 2008. After that I went to a nice set of roof racks. That was OK for awhile, but after fishing all day, the last thing I wanted to do was to load the kayak on the roof. Trailers are the way to go.

I have a single trailex trailer, trailex.com. It is all aluminium. It is so light that it has handles to use as a dolly. I use it quite often to launch where there are no ramps. The dedicated kayak trailers are different than small boat trailers. They have different suspension, which has less or no road hop when going down the road. Small boat trailers with kayaks are going to have alot of hop. One suggestion that I can offer on boat trailers is to lower the air pressure in the tires to reduce the bounce when going down the road.

Anyone considering a trailer, I can recommend the single trailex. It has to assembled. However, that does not take much time. It holds up to a 15' kayak. It has a 200 lb capacity. Trailex makes kits to convert the single into a double trailer. They also have double kayak and multiple kayak trailers. The single trailer costs about $1000. For me it was worth the money. I'm getting to old for the roof top thing. I wish I would have discovered kayak fishing many years ago.

One thing that i will be able to do to reduce hop will be, after i have the kayak loaded on the trailer i can put my safety gear and other stuff in the kayak to give it some extra weight. Yes, i can relate, torn rotator cuff in 08 as well. sucks to get older ( my doc still says i act half my age).

[jffoley]

I can relate to the getting older issue. Right now, I'm using Yakima J racks and I can lift either kayak we have up and on top of my Volvo or Cr-V without too much trouble. (both kayaks fit on either vehicle together easily) But I'm already thinking about when I can't! Yakima has a load assist bar for the side of a vehicle and a roller gizmo for the rear of SUV's. I think a trailer may be the way to go eventually.

[DOGFISH]

Trailers

I went the distance with loading kayaks. Started using sponge blocks and blew out my right shoulder. I had surgery on that in 2008. After that I went to a nice set of roof racks. That was OK for awhile, but after fishing all day, the last thing I wanted to do was to load the kayak on the roof. Trailers are the way to go.

I have a single trailex trailer, trailex.com. It is all aluminium. It is so light that it has handles to use as a dolly. I use it quite often to launch where there are no ramps. The dedicated kayak trailers are different than small boat trailers. They have different suspension, which has less or no road hop when going down the road. Small boat trailers with kayaks are going to have alot of hop. One suggestion that I can offer on boat trailers is to lower the air pressure in the tires to reduce the bounce when going down the road.

Anyone considering a trailer, I can recommend the single trailex. It has to assembled. However, that does not take much time. It holds up to a 15' kayak. It has a 200 lb capacity. Trailex makes kits to convert the single into a double trailer. They also have double kayak and multiple kayak trailers. The single trailer costs about $1000. For me it was worth the money. I'm getting to old for the roof top thing. I wish I would have discovered kayak fishing many years ago.

I would like to correct the trailex.com cite. It is best to go to CastleCraft.com. They sell small trailex trailers. The trailex web site shows mostly their larger trailers. I thought the web site where I bought mine was trailex, where it was actually Castle Craft. Just thought that would help.

[jffoley]

For those that are handy and on a budget I spotted this a while back:

http://www.kayakfishingstuff.com/com...harbor+freight

Harbor Freight has that utility trailer for $179!

P.S. castlecraft.com has free shipping going on now.

[jet]

any pics of your trailers set up?

[jffoley]

I haven't done a trailer... yet. I'm doing the car top method with J cradles. Works for me now but there will be a time in the future when I can't toss the yak up on the roof and may go to a trailer. I came across that Harbor Freight trailer customization while researching transport methods. There's seems to be as many as there are rigged kayaks!