Kayak Roof Racks – A Step By Step Guide!
Whether you love to explore local lakes or nearby coastlines, kayak roof racks are a necessity for fun paddling journeys!
Luckily for us, most modern cars are perfectly capable of carrying kayaks. All you need is a bit of help from the best kayak roof racks and accessories on the market today.
How to Use Kayak Roof Racks and Accessories
Choose to buy a kayak carrier that’s specifically designed to protect your yak while you’re transporting it, like the Direct Aftermarket Universal Double Kayak Roof Rack. Alternatively, simply strap your kayak safely onto the roof racks you already have on the car. First, it’s important to invest in good-quality, durable straps, like the Dorsal Roof Rack Tie Down Straps.
Here’s how to do it.
Step 1 – Lay Out The Straps
The first thing you need to do is hook the kayak straps onto the front and back crossbars attached to your roof rack. To do this, pass one end of each kayak strap around the base of each crossbar.
Kayak or boat straps have an end that contains a buckle and an end without a buckle. When performing this step, we recommend you pass the end without the buckle around the crossbar base.
While you do this, hold the end with the buckle in your other hand so that it doesn’t rub against the paint of your car or break a window. When the kayak strap is looped around, let both ends of the strap rest gently against the car and move on to the second strap.
Once you have securely wrapped the kayak straps around the crossbars, you can move on to the next step.
Step 2 – Place The Kayak On The Roof Rack Crossbars
For this next step, exercise a bit of caution and careful handling so as not to damage your car or kayak.
It’s important to note that before you place your kayak on the crossbars of your roof rack, you may want to pad them with foam or another type of cushioning.
Doing this will help assure you don’t damage your kayak if it bounces or slides while transporting it.
Get a friend to help you lift the kayak onto the roof of your car or SUV, unless you have a very lightweight kayak. If yours is bigger, you may need to position your kayak at an angle behind your vehicle, and then lift up on the back of the kayak to slide it up onto the roof rack.
Place your kayak upside down onto the cushioned areas of the crossbars. This helps to avoid damage to the kayak. By placing it right side up on the racks, the crossbars create small imperfections across the bottom of your craft. When this happens, you run a risk of the kayak not being able to track straight, and a myriad of other problems.
It should be centered or as close to centered as you can get it positioned. If you have a longer kayak, it will probably hang out a bit above your windshield. This is perfectly normal, as long as it’s not impeding your vision or driving capabilities.
Step 3 – Lay The Straps Across The Kayak
Next, lay the straps across the hull of the kayak.
Take the end of the strap without the buckle and throw it over the top of the kayak to the opposite side of your vehicle. Do this for both straps.
For the buckle end of the straps, just walk them around to the opposite side of your vehicle.
Obviously, you wouldn’t want to throw this end of the kayak strap and ding up your paint job. Make sure don’t have any twists or other kinks in the straps before you proceed to the next step.
Step 4 – Tighten The Straps
This final step is the hardest because you want to be really careful.
At this point, you should have both ends of each strap hanging from the hull of the kayak. Buckle end of each strap somewhere close to the center of the side of the kayak. This gives you more leverage to work with, while tightening it down.
Once you have adjusted your kayak strap buckles to sit roughly where you need them, take the other end of the strap and pass it underneath the crossbar and up through the buckle.
Before you tighten it down too much, do the same process for the other strap. Then, tighten them both the rest of the way. Make sure to either tie off the rest of the strap or tuck it into your door so it’s not flapping in the wind as you drive. Also, don’t forget to attach additional straps or rope from the ends of your kayak to each bumper on your vehicle.
Your kayak is now properly and safely strapped to your roof rack, ready to go on a paddling adventure!
Kayak Roof Racks: Items to Make Transport Easy
Kayak Trolley
If you have a relatively heavy kayak, you know how hard it is to just get it from the garage to your car! A kayak trolley helps you with the heavy lifting, to your car or the water’s edge. Check out the ABN Universal Kakay Carrier
Foam
It’s a good idea to have plenty of foam or another soft cushion material to place around certain sections of the crossbars on kayak roof racks, so as not to damage your yak.
One quick and inexpensive way to do this is with pool noodles. You can get pool noodles at just about any large retail store or online.
These are typically hollow, so all you have to do is cut them down the center and slide the crossbar through the slot of the pool noodle. Then, tape the ends with some duct tape to secure.
Extra Straps
You may be surprised to know that boat straps get lost quite frequently, so we recommend you keep a few backup pairs around.
You can order extra straps online or purchase them from just about any sporting goods store.
Kayak Cradle
If you are truly dedicated to keeping your kayak in the best possible condition during transportation, then you should really consider investing in a kayak cradle or saddle. These are aftermarket accessories that you can add to your roof rack or replace your roof rack with altogether. Kayak cradles and saddles are designed to give your kayak the most stability and padding.
Our Final Say
Knowing how to properly transport your kayak from one place to the next is indeed a necessity.
Luckily, with some basic knowledge and a little bit of effort, anyone can securely strap a kayak to a roof rack. If you have a second person helping you, of course, it’ll be easier. Otherwise, this guide should be all you need.
As always, if you have any questions, comments, or felt we left anything out, please feel free to let us know in the comments section below.
When your kayak roof racks are set up and ready to go, check out amazing kayaking and camping spots in the USA.
