What kayak loaders/carriers are the best?

[DB1448]

Hello All,
I have been a reader of this forum for about six months and have enjoyed all the pictures and stories about Kayak fishing. I was born in and dove La Jollal and Sunset Cliffs all of my wonder bread years. I currently live in Ventura. I am a free diver only-no fishing-but don’t hold this against me!! I am interested in hearing all the pros and cons that anybody has on car rack loaders/carriers for kayaks. The two that I know about are the Yakima Hully rollers and saddles and the Thule Hydro glide saddle & Set and Go saddle combination. I will be living down in Baja and driving on their famous washboard roads most of the time using a Tundra with a Yakima base rack system installed on a camper shell. The kayak I have is a scupper pro. I want loader/carrier that one will last-two will securely hold and support the kayak and three will be fairly easy to load by myself. If anybody has any other manufactures or knows of any other carriers please feel free to let me know.
Again it looks like it is a real kick to fish LJ. I wish you guys the best of times and who knows I maybe talked into fishing off a kayak for Yellow tail in Baja but believe me when I say it is also a real experience to find, stalk, shoot and fight big YT & WSB utilizing free diving techniques also.
Thank you in advance for any and all information.
D

[dtownfan]

i had a company install the thule 887xt slip stream on my thule bars this past weekend only to find out it wasn't a match for us. the max width of the slide and sets did not work well at all with my wilderness systems 135 Ride pontoon style hull and the guy talked me into foam with straps. for other kayaks it looks like a great set-up. it can be released, pulled back, and offers a roller before the slide saddles to help protect things.

http://www.thule.com/en/US/Products/...rs/196658.aspx

i used to have a set of hulley rollers and mako saddles on my jeep.....miss those!

[Piney]

I've had bad experiences with Thule racks/mtn. bikes, so have avoided that brand. My wife and I have owned Yakima racks since 1982, they are bomber and well designed. I've been carrying kayaks with Yakimas since 1994, mainly with their old-style saddles and have never had any kind of failure. This includes hundreds of miles on Baja washboard and worse. We are now using a Tundra with a "hi-rise" camper shell (about 6" above cab height), and I was a little nervous about the short span (46") between rack mounts on the shell itself carrying a 15' boat. We made one trip two years ago with a Malibu Two and a stack of longboards on only the camper shell racks with no problem, including a run to Agua Verde and the east side of Punta Conception. Last fall my buddy and I rigged-up a double bar setup with 3/4" coated steel gas pipe for a third rack over the center of our crew-cab Tundra roof to get more support for a Trident and a Malibu Two, and to match the height of the other two racks on the taller camper shell. The coated gas pipe is the same OD as the Yakima bar, and works perfectly with their towers, and is much cheaper. I'm trying to attach a photo of the set-up, not sure if it will get on this reply or not (I'm a dork when it comes to computers), anyway, it worked flawlessly on our Nov. trip to the Vizcaino peninsula, including a large dose of strong cross-wind highway driving and wash-boardy dirt roads. Only had to tighten things up one time. (And it paid off with lots of YFT filets in the icebox and a bigger than 50 lb. jurel Dennis caught off his kayak 300 meters from camp.) We had the boats mounted on old style Yakima kayak saddles and a set of those canoe/aluminum boat gunnel pads that work real well if you carry your 'yak upside down on your vehicle. I've got a set of hully-rollers, but I don't think they support the bottom of a kayak well enough to prevent "oil-canning" on rough roads, so I use them around home for the short, mostly paved road jaunts. Hulley rollers also require you to carry your boat right-side up. Depending on the boat, carrying upside down on the roof can be more secure for the long haul. It sure seems to work well for the big fat doubles like the Malibu Two. Bottom line is- use Yakima stuff, it is by far the best for the long haul, I would never consider anything else.
Jim

[aftahour]

i use the malone rack w/ loader for my xfactor.. easy to use and set up and a great value