Share Your Innovations

[JKay]

OK, I've been shamelessly stealing some of these great ideas from some of you sharp West Coast guys. Time for me to try to contribute something.

Here's a rolling rack project that I did about three years ago and posted on a few other sites. Some changes that I've made since then:

I made slings for all three bunks. I keep a Revo, Kaskazi DII and Ocean Kayak P-13 on this rack. All three kayaks are kept hull down in the slings. I know some folks advised hull up on the bunks, but I've never had a single issue with oil canning and it's much more convenient this way. Anyone hanging a kayak from a hoist would have a similar arrangement. The other boats are relegated to an A-frame rack on the side yard.

Here's a day project that might help free up some floor space in the garage. Good for burning a snowy day! We have a single car garage and were constantly stumbling over both the kayaks. I didn't really want to store them outside; we live in NJ...I didn't want these kayaks boosted

I wanted a rack that could hold up to 3 kayaks, but be able to get them all out of the way if needed. I found some other similar designs on the web, but adapted some of the better features to make something that would work best for me. A trip to the Home Depot got me the wood, hardware and misc supplies needed.

Overall outside dimensions are 72" x 39". The inside width dimensions were dictated by the fattest boat (OK Malibu 2XL).

I wanted to be able to slide the kayaks onto the crosspieces or bunks, so I used black foam pipe insulation and covered them with indoor/outdoor carpet. I wrapped the carpet around the top and sides and secured it to the bottom of the 2x4's with staples all the way across. You'll need a staple gun for this.





The OK sits directly on the bunks. I don't really worry about creating permanent dents in the bottom of this boat. They're built like tanks and because of the bottom design, not likely to get damaged. I was a little more concerned about storing the Revo in the same fashion. I decided to create a sling. I bought some 4" wide winch strap material from online. I doubled over the material on the one side and screwed it to the 2x4 using fender washers and screws. You can easily poke holes in the material using a pencil soldering iron. On the other side I installed a d-ring and secured it using a small bolt, nut and lock washer. This side gets hung on the hooks. When I want to use the boat, I unhook both D-rings from the hooks, ease the boat onto the bunks, and slide the Revo out.



I used these corner brackets that I picked up at HD to secure all the cross piece bunks to the uprights and horizontal long pieces. They save a bunch of time and worked out pretty well.



I got some heavy duty rolling casters from Harbor Freight. I made sure that they had real ball bearings and could handle quite a bit of weight. I screwed in short pieces of 2x4's to the bottom so that I could get some long screws into the bottom to mount the wheels on.



I've had the rack in use for several months and it's working out great for us. When I want to get something off the shelf in back of it, it's fairly easy to roll it out of the way. I can roll it right out into the driveway if I want to clean the garage. Make sure that you have some wheel chocks ready. You don't want to be chasing your rack and yaks down the driveway.

Sorry for the varying size of the pictures. Couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get the first shot the same size as some of the others.

[DanaPT]

nice rack. Any pictures of fish?

In all seriousness hope all is going well for you and your neighbors.

[SABA]

How about a solar Battery charger straped to the deck!! So we can keep charged our 12 volt for longer trips. Also you I phone users to. My girl saw this at Cost Co and wants to use it.

http://www.goalzero.com/

Maybe it will help Cheers Saba

[Baja_Traveler]

Originally Posted by SABA

How about a solar Battery charger straped to the deck!! So we can keep charged our 12 volt for longer trips. Also you I phone users to. My girl saw this at Cost Co and wants to use it.

http://www.goalzero.com/

Maybe it will help Cheers Saba

I have a 30 watt flexible panel intended for RV's that I put on the front hatch of my Scupper Pro for extended Baja trips. It connected direct to the finder/bait tank battery to keep it charged. Havent decided yet if I'll set it up on the new PA though - I went the Aussie way and put in a manual whale pump for the bait tank this time, and can charge the finder battery in the truck when it needs it...

[MrPatrick]

Please show the whale pump installation. I'm very interested in that.

[Baja_Traveler]

Originally Posted by MrPatrick

Please show the whale pump installation. I'm very interested in that.

Here's a few pics of the whale pump install. Its a Whale Urchin from West Marine with 3/4" flex hose from the same source. A piece of 3/4" pvc pipe goes through the scupper hole to a 3/4" street elbow from Home Depot. The pump is easy to reach from the seat and pumps quite a bit of water with each stroke, so 3-4 pumps every 10-15 minutes should keep bait nice and healthy.

[fongman]

When a Hobie is cruising above 4 mph, the power produced by the turbo fins forces an excessive amount of water up through the Mirage drive opening. To minimize this, I cut a piece of 1/4" rubber to fit snugly at the end of the drive opening. 2 screws holds it securely to the drive unit. The last picture shows the amount of water in the kayak with the dam in place and peddling about 4.5 mph.

[inbx3]

So I was getting tired of having my cradles rotate everytime I hit with my kayak. The Yakima bars are round and no matter how much I tighten them the alwys end up like this.



So I figured there has to be a way to keep them straight so over to Home Depot I went and $8 later here's the finished solution.



I took a couple of 3/4" electrical conduit, cut it to the correct size, drilled a couple of holes in each end to line them up with the J cradles, flattened out the ends a bit and now they don't rotate.

[bus kid]

So I'm considering a hobie bait tank, but having the the toro sprinkled head holding my transducer in place no water can get out.
so it was time for a change. I came across a guy that made a custom mount for his here,

http://www.yakangler.com/forum/21-lo...son-kayak-cuda

After looking it over as well as the Lowrance one I decided it cant be that hard to make one that allows water to
flow out if I do decide to get a Hobie bait tank. The Lowrance uses a plastic piece of all thread as well as a "doughnut" to hold the transducer in place which to me seems like a design flaw.
So I got some 1/16 thick aluminum, a 1/4 dia x 1 inch long stainless nut, bolt and lock washers,
a 3/8 by 3 inch long all thread and the nut to go with it. last a 4 square inch 3/16 thick piece of ABS plastic. After all the measuring this is what I came up with.
I plugged the open scupper filled my current bait tank to the brim and let it drain into the well area as the hose was running keeping the tank level for about 20 mins, it didn't flood and looks like this might be a viable option but
without being on the water I'm not 100% sure that it will drain. So some OTW testing will be needed before I commit to the Hobie.

alum stock.jpg

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