Maximum distance between racks?

[Jnich77]

Hello, I am thinking of putting some kind of cradles on my camper to hold two kayaks. I have a "jumping jack" camper, and it has rails ad both ends.. about 8' apart. I was wondering if this is too far apart to support a 12-14 foot Kayak?

I will probably take off the hoops holding up the back of the john boat so they are not causing so much drag. Going over it in my head it looks like I can have two kayaks on top, and still have plenty of room in between for gear and coolers.

I was also curious about the racks that hold them on there side, any advantages other than freeing up more storage space around the boats? The only time I have hauled kayaks is on a home made rack on a utility trailer, I am really trying to do this in a less ghetto fashion...lol





Btw: The kayaks will be of the sit on top plastic variety if that makes a difference. This is the last time I hauled kayaks to the keys, seems to work great. The supports were 8' part. Pulled it behind a 2006 Jetta TDI, got 36 MPG doing 75-80...lol

[Expedition Key]

Originally Posted by Jnich77

Hello, I am thinking of putting some kind of cradles on my camper to hold two kayaks. I have a "jumping jack" camper, and it has rails ad both ends.. about 8' apart. I was wondering if this is too far apart to support a 12-14 foot Kayak?

I will probably take off the hoops holding up the back of the john boat so they are not causing so much drag. Going over it in my head it looks like I can have two kayaks on top, and still have plenty of room in between for gear and coolers.

I was also curious about the racks that hold them on there side, any advantages other than freeing up more storage space around the boats? The only time I have hauled kayaks is on a home made rack on a utility trailer, I am really trying to do this in a less ghetto fashion...lol





Btw: The kayaks will be of the sit on top plastic variety if that makes a difference. This is the last time I hauled kayaks to the keys, seems to work great. The supports were 8' part. Pulled it behind a 2006 Jetta TDI, got 36 MPG doing 75-80...lol

Looks like your jon boat had a rough night!

[Jnich77]

Yeah...it had a tree fall on it... so its not so dent free anymore..lmao. Looking to replace it with two kayaks... or possibly a ganoe since I have a 5.5 outboard to push it... will probably stick with the kayaks since they are zero maintenance or registration fees.

[wcdu]

Heve you tried the Jumping Jack web site? They have a bunch of new options since I bought mine.

Steve

[Nullifier]

It is really important to have your racks no closer then 3' from either end of the kayak. The reason is if it is any closer, the straps can come loose due to the taper and narrowness of the bow and stern stems. If you have a 14' kayak no more then 8' apart, a 12' kayak no more then 6' apart, a 9 ' kayak no more then 3' apart. If you stick to that and strap then down correctly you will never loose one.

[DesertBoater]

Originally Posted by Nullifier

It is really important to have your racks no closer then 3' from either end of the kayak. The reason is if it is any closer, the straps can come loose due to the taper and narrowness of the bow and stern stems. If you have a 14' kayak no more then 8' apart, a 12' kayak no more then 6' apart, a 9 ' kayak no more then 3' apart. If you stick to that and strap then down correctly you will never loose one.

While I'd also tend to recommend strapping closer to the middle than you're planning, I'd also suggest that if you can't find a way to position the racks any closer, you can always run a strap through a grab-loop or a drain-hole just to be sure that even if they do come loose, they won't fall off completely. I was on a swiftwater rescue course last spring and at the end of the day we were loading boats onto my truck and when the last boat went on (stacked on top of all of the others) I told my buddy who was tying them down to be sure to go through the grabloops. He responded that it wasn't necessary and not to worry about it...well you can probably guess what happened. the first stop sign I got to, I had a bright yellow piece of plastic rocketing toward my hood, it then bounced out and into the middle of the empty intersection. I've heard stories like this about really nice carbon ($3,500) sea kayaks too.
It's definitely worth the extra work to tie things on right, than to face the walk of shame on the road.

Cheers,
West

[Jnich77]

Originally Posted by wcdu

Heve you tried the Jumping Jack web site? They have a bunch of new options since I bought mine.

Steve

Humm, I'll have to check it out.

[Jnich77]

Originally Posted by Nullifier

It is really important to have your racks no closer then 3' from either end of the kayak. The reason is if it is any closer, the straps can come loose due to the taper and narrowness of the bow and stern stems. If you have a 14' kayak no more then 8' apart, a 12' kayak no more then 6' apart, a 9 ' kayak no more then 3' apart. If you stick to that and strap then down correctly you will never loose one.

cool, thanks for the advice.

[Jnich77]

Originally Posted by DesertBoater

While I'd also tend to recommend strapping closer to the middle than you're planning, I'd also suggest that if you can't find a way to position the racks any closer, you can always run a strap through a grab-loop or a drain-hole just to be sure that even if they do come loose, they won't fall off completely. I was on a swiftwater rescue course last spring and at the end of the day we were loading boats onto my truck and when the last boat went on (stacked on top of all of the others) I told my buddy who was tying them down to be sure to go through the grabloops. He responded that it wasn't necessary and not to worry about it...well you can probably guess what happened. the first stop sign I got to, I had a bright yellow piece of plastic rocketing toward my hood, it then bounced out and into the middle of the empty intersection. I've heard stories like this about really nice carbon ($3,500) sea kayaks too.
It's definitely worth the extra work to tie things on right, than to face the walk of shame on the road.

Cheers,
West

LMAO...I have had that happen with lumber.... learned a expensive lesson...