Kayak Carrier Advice?

[BennyM]

Hi. I am a relatively new Vibe owner (5 months) and an even newer genvibe.com member (15 minutes). I am thinking of outfitting my Vibe to carry sea kayaks, but am wondering if the positioning of the roof rails at the end of the car will allow this with any degree of safety and security. Has anyone out there equipped their Vibe for sea kayaks with any degree of success? What did you buy for crossbars? Kayak carriers?Thanks!

[joatmon]

a search for kayak will turn up some threads about kayak carriers. I used the factory rack for a 17' canoe, but I don't haul it on the vibe that often so I made do. If I carried it a lot on the Vibe, I'd probably look for an aftermarlet rack that would deal with it better. I had to put a pad under the front, the stock rack rails are pretty low, and it seems like they line up to put the front up some, which in an open canoe, makes for a bit of a parachute that has a drastic negative effect on mpgs.in http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=5738 ^th gear listed the racks he ordered, but never followed up with how they worked out,

[prathman]

I have the GM Utility Bars which clamp into the factory roof rails, but the maximum spacing isn't as large as would be optimum for a 17' boat. You could use one of the Utility Bars toward the rear of the roof rails and add a Thule aftermarket crossbar using their towers toward the front of the roof (about where Joatmon's pad was situated).

[BennyM]

After I posted I did see some other threads, which were helpful. Sounds like my best bet is to have one crossbar on the back rails and one on the front, as prathman suggested. Hopefully one of the local dealers can hook me up. Thanks!

[BennyM]

For the sake of others that might be looking for some information on this in the future, I learned that Thule did not have a custom roof rack system capable of carrying kayaks in the way that I wanted (i.e. one cross bar in the front on the roof, and one in the back on the side rails). Yakima did, and that is what I went with. I also went with the Yakima Hullraisers for the actual carriers. Attached is a photo of the end product. It's a great system - the boats are very secure, easy to load, and completely unnoticeable when you are driving (unless there are strong cross winds). FYI, the boat you see is a Wilderness Systems Tsunami 145.

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