A Matter of Weight – A Few Thoughts

[bunnielab]

I want a sprinter van so badly that it gives me a headache to think about them too much. I spent a ton of time in one at an old job and they are just amazing vehicles all around. They do hold their value very well and even a used one would be far beyond my means for such a trivial use. I do hope with the strong showing in the market from the Transit vans that the pieces of both on the used market will comedown as early adopters cycle early ones out of their fleets.

I drove a hand-me-down minivan through most of my 20's and all the teasing was worth it as I would never get pulled over or broken in to. Eventually I pulled all the seats, other then the driver's, out so I could more easily haul lumber in it. I have been casually checking Craigslist every few weeks looking for a good deal on a used van, but the perfect one has yet to appear. I have never found a way to cartop my yak in a manner that does not cause a huge amount of wind noise, which after and hour or so on the road begins to really get to me. I have plans to rig up a rope front and rear tie downs in hopes that it will catch the wind less then a strap, but I seem to prefer spending my free time fishing, rather then messing with ropes and hardware.

[Mark]

...I have never found a way to cartop my yak in a manner that does not cause a huge amount of wind noise, which after and hour or so on the road begins to really get to me. I have plans to rig up a rope front and rear tie downs in hopes that it will catch the wind less then a strap, but I seem to prefer spending my free time fishing, rather then messing with ropes and hardware.

Drew,

I use only two ratchet straps to tie down my Revo and Ultimate, no bow or stern tie-downs.

See here:

K.jpg

I hear no noise from either my Revo (13 feet) or my Ultimate (12 feet) which I tie down the same way.

I do have a luggage rack that my boats rest on. Actually my kayaks rest on foam blocks attached to the rack's crossbars. Being raised on the blocks and rack allows wind to surround the kayak and perhaps reduces resistance and therefore lowers noise.

I have found it important to put a few twists in each strap. Otherwise they vibrate in the wind like a bass fiddle. That could be the noise you are hearing. Try twisting yours a few turns before cinching them down.

My kayaks ride so quietly, even at highway speeds, that I open the moon roof so I can peek upward to make sure they are still there!

[bunnielab]

I used to only do two straps around the middle, but then felt bad about it and added the other two. I also have a rack and I do feel that my Slayer is more stable then my other boat with just the middle ones. I work in the entertainment industry and have been loading trucks my whole life, so I am perhaps overly cautious in securing loads. I have tried the twisting trick and it seems to work sometimes, but not others. I was recently shown another by a long haul trucker, in which you take the dead end of the strap and tie it back to the tensioned line via a series of hitches. It seems to work, but I have only done it once. I may also just buy some better straps and just go back to two middle points.

In anycase, now that I have two yaks I need to come up with a way to car top them both at the same time. I love my Slayer, but it is a wide and thick little thing and non of the J-cradle type products I have found will work well with it.

As we have gone a bit afield from the original topic, can anyone recommend a shop local to Annapolis that will install aftermarket roof racks? I would like to get a wider and longer rack installed but don't feel up to it myself.

[Oldbayrunner]

Coming from 50 years of surfing and having a couple of longboards come off the top of my vehicles, one going through someones windshield, I've learned to take precaution. Two straps tied across will not stop a kayak if brakes have to be slammed on. So with that in mind I use an additional straps from bow to rack and stern to rack as surge protection as well as rope on the bow and stern to prevent air lift.

[Huntrava]

Two straps tied across will not stop a kayak if brakes have to be slammed on. So with that in mind I use an additional straps from bow to rack and stern to rack as surge protection as well as rope on the bow and stern to prevent air lift.

Agree. I worked at a canoe/kayak shop during college and loaded them onto all kinds of vehicles. Bow and stern straps work together to keep the yak from sliding forward/backward, and the strap around the middle to keep it centered. There's no single right way to car-top a yak, but after renting hundreds (maybe thousands) of yaks onto a small fleet of cars, we never lost a single one with this method.