Custom made roof rack? Does anyone know

[Sebb]

I guess the other thing to keep in mind is that losing a kayak off the roof won't just **** up a brand new kayak. It's also liable to hit another car doing 100km/hr coming the other way. Quite apart from all the paperwork involved with killing someone I think there's laws about making sure your load is secure that could result in a fine if something falls off.

Okay now I'm really thinking this twice...

Your best bet is to add a towbar and a second hand trailer.

Get the towbar from a wrecker. Will be cheaper. Make sure you get the wiring harness with it.
That way if you want to tow something else like a box trailer or perhaps a small boat then it can still be done.

Guess I could do that. Call around wreckers see if any got a tow bar for my car. The kayak trailer will cost me a good few hundred dollars too. Do you know how much of where I can get kayak trailer? Second hand id possible. There's few boat trailers but not kayak trailers.

[Tim399]

Your mate might need to go with this configuration

[Sinsemilla]

Seb, a good mate of mine makes kayak trailers. His name is Jason and runs a business that's called Red Tide Trailers. Steve Starlo is on board with him and uses his trailers. They are good quality and he builds them out of Melbourne. I think down south if I'm not mistaken.

Cheers, Anth

[Sebb]

Seb, a good mate of mine makes kayak trailers. His name is Jason and runs a business that's called Red Tide Trailers. Steve Starlo is on board with him and uses his trailers. They are good quality and he builds them out of Melbourne. I think down south if I'm not mistaken.

Cheers, Anth

Thanks Anth.
With all the input above, having a trailer seems to be the safest, easier to load/unload too. But concern about the money for the tow bar, since potentially changing to a diff car next year.
See if i could find a second hand tow bar first, then would consider a trailer.

Your mate might need to go with this configuration 23126612-588F-457E-9B9B-4DA49EB2FC90.jpeg

:rofl:

[purple5ive]

Build your own trailer. It's not that hard especially if it's not going to be dunked in the water..aka a mild steel trailer/box trailer frame. No need for a galvanized frame

You can buy kits from Ebay or online. Everything is almost bolt together.

If your not confident in doing that then wait for a second hand jetski trailer and convert it
Be aware when buying a second hand trailer if your not sure take someone who is knowledgable about it with you.

I can see this exercise costing you atkeast 1k that's being generous, so might be cheaper. With trailer second hand or build your own road trailer(not boat/marine) and add registration plus the tow bar and fitting plus electrical wiring work.

[Sinsemilla]

Seb, a good mate of mine makes kayak trailers. His name is Jason and runs a business that's called Red Tide Trailers. Steve Starlo is on board with him and uses his trailers. They are good quality and he builds them out of Melbourne. I think down south if I'm not mistaken.

Cheers, Anth

Thanks Anth.
With all the input above, having a trailer seems to be the safest, easier to load/unload too. But concern about the money for the tow bar, since potentially changing to a diff car next year.
See if i could find a second hand tow bar first, then would consider a trailer.

Your mate might need to go with this configuration 23126612-588F-457E-9B9B-4DA49EB2FC90.jpeg

:rofl:

Can your mate tow? If not, and you're the one that's going to be towing, get him to put in for the tow bar. Doing this and splitting the cost of the trailer down the middle is going to help a lot.

[Tim399]

Keep an eye on gumtree too, there are lots of 2nd hand trailers for sale when/if you go down that path. Something to also look into if your next car doesn’t already have a tow bar is the price of having one fitted - some car models are stupidly expensive to fit “tow packs” to

[Bugatti]

Seb, Tim & 4litres are smack bang on the money.

Add in the upward force (similar to "lift" of an aeroplane's wings) and cross bracing for the two tiers , , , , it is a very precarious situation.

And also, there are laws. AND a two tiers roof top set-up would draw the Police's attention.


Maybe a mid ground option is a second hand trailer and you only need to add the second tier, yourself or with Anth's mate.



The only other "Cheaper" alternative that I can think of and it would be subject to the Kayak fraternity's opinion, as I am not a Kayaker.
A single Kayak trailer with the larger/wider Kayak at the bottom AND the second Kayak placed on top with no second tier structure BUT with a High Density Foam (or equivalent) spacers that locks the two kayaks together (but spaced apart) and to the trailer.

Each spacer would have to be custom cut for the designated spot on the Kayak. If this is an option maybe four spacers evenly spaced should stabilise the two together and on the trailer. Obviously with good ratchet tie downs.


Here is just an example of a Spacer

Foam Spacer.PNG (8.56 KiB) Viewed 1274 times

Cheers, Bugatti , , , , no roof racks on the Bugatti (too hollow upstairs )

[mazman]

Has anyone here actually put two kayaks on a roof before?

There's a lot less to it than is being made out here, depending on how the kayaks stack you can just put them on top of each other with one tie down over the bottom kayak and another over both at each rack. Otherwise something like a jrack to put one on it's side and one on the rack if you have the width in your roof racks or two jracks to put them both on their sides

[Tim399]

Has anyone here actually put two kayaks on a roof before?

There's a lot less to it than is being made out here, depending on how the kayaks stack you can just put them on top of each other with one tie down over the bottom kayak and another over both at each rack. Otherwise something like a jrack to put one on it's side and one on the rack if you have the width in your roof racks or two jracks to put them both on their sides

Yeah did it once, wasn’t too keen on it. I may be a bit over cautious but I didn’t want two 4 meter plastic missiles launching off my roof lol Looking at the natives they look like they may be on the bulky side, wide and high. Would be easy to securely mount two narrower kayaks on a roof though.