Strapping a Kayak to a RTT?

[adventureduo]

Anyone do it? Say with a lightweight kayak on a AT trailer? Pics? How'd you strap it down?

I doubt i would do it on top of a vehicle... could get a little tall.

[Hltoppr]

I used two 72" load bars, which gave me about 10" of bar on the outside of the RTT, and used old style kayak stackers to mount two kayaks on my 80...





-H-

[adventureduo]

Hltoppr, that's a great idea, i didn't think about mounting a 'yak to the side of the tent area. We have hard mounted RTT load bars, they'd need to be switched out.. hmm..

[Martyn]

Try a few tubes of pipe insulation on the top of the tent. Put the kayak on that and strap it down with a ratchet strap.

[tdesanto]

Anyone do it? Say with a lightweight kayak on a AT trailer? Pics? How'd you strap it down?

I doubt i would do it on top of a vehicle... could get a little tall.

You can put a kayak on top of your roof rack. See mine. My kayak is a 15' footer and weighs in around 70lbs.

As for putting it on top of your RTT/Trailer combo, I would think 3 straps would be plenty. One in the front, one in the rear, and one in the middle (I run it through the handles for additional safety). I would think the crossbars should be plenty strong enough. The RTT should be able to handle an additional 60-70lbs. What about the lid of the trailer where the bars are mounted?

[Ursidae69]

Cool pics in this thread.

[Martyn]

If you are looking at heavy kayaks remember that they will raise the center of gravity of the trailer and make it more tippy.

[adventureduo]

The cruisers roof rack would be a last resort.. It's full usually of firewood/c02/fuel and water....


I think the RTT on the horizon would work perfect.

What do you mean about the lid where the bars are mounted Tdesanto?

[Andrew Walcker]

Dave, I've strapped my kayak to the Eezi-Awn a few times with not so great results. The first time I used pipe insulation and good straps and the pipe insulation blew out. The second time I used my surfboard rack pads and they slipped out of place. Let me say that I take great pride in my ability to strap things securely, one of my few talents in life and I couldn't get the kayak to stay in one place. My thought is that the tent has too much movement due to the clamshell design in order to really get a good solid cinch point. I now have rub spots in the tent cover and I'm planning on having hepalon (sp?, stuff that they make Zodiaks and Avons out of) strips sewn in. I like the idea of mounting them to the side from Hltoppr (Andrew) above.

[tdesanto]

The cruisers roof rack would be a last resort.. It's full usually of firewood/c02/fuel and water....

What do you mean about the lid where the bars are mounted Tdesanto?

I just meant that I didn't know what the weight rating of the lid is, given that it's got the rack and the tent already, plus adding 50-80lbs per kayak. So, really I was just pointing it out as a question to have answered. My guess is that it could handle it easily; however, I dont' have any experience with these...yet

I will say this, the kayak should be much easier to load on top of the trailer vs. the roof rack. I would heed Martyn's warning though about raising the COG of the trailer.

I wonder if it's possible to mount one of those kayak stackers on top of the side box (port side) next to the tent? Just brainstorming without any actual research yet.