How do you roll????

You can buy the mounts for the shell anywhere Yakima or Thule is sold. I got mine from ebay. Yakima is called side loaders I believe. Yakima has a couple other options also.

.....I noticed several of you have bolted your rack/bars to the shell on your truck - any suggestions on the most secure way to do this ? I'd love to see a pic or two of the drilling and bolt/on installation if you have one.

Thanks in advance!
Bob V

I put a Yakima system on my Mazda p/u using the little "add-a-gutter" plates and then the standard q-towers. There's not much to the install, other than the sweating you'll do while drilling holes in your perfectly good shell. My only tips would be to space the bars as far apart as possible on your pickup shell, and when drilling be sure you have enough clearance inside the shell for the backup plates and bolts. I came very close to botching the job when I drilled one of the hole almost too close to the window frame. Measure twice, drill once!

Al, hows does your boat magically stay on your rack w/o tie downs??   

Al, hows does your boat magically stay on your rack w/o tie downs??   

I used 40# Mono to tie it down 

Like the Subaru, rollin light.

Finally got the rack adapters for the 97 SAAB and used once or twice before it was side swiped (& totaled ) parked in front of the house. SAAB was very plush and had black leather heated seats and turbo, kinda inappropriate to climb into/load boats on after a bloody rockfishing trip but, nice quite ride. Also nice and low to load.

"New" used car 05 WRX  :smt004still slightly inappropriate, no leather or heated seats, not so quite a ride but....turbo and low!

This car loves this road , also carries boats to/over the mountains very well, 20+ish MPG. Kinda hard to get gear into after loading the boat (wing thing hits the yak). Still have to figure out the saddle issue, it would be better to have the p13 upright in order to fit the other wider boat next to it like I had on the SAAB. Keeping it upright would also make it so that I would not have to dump sand, blood or worse on the car evertime I load up.

Lucky for me I am often chauffeured  around :smt015by Otter in his work truck (a T100) that is much more practical and allot easier to load, despite the height of the lumber rack.


No Porsche or less appropriate rides  :iroc:out there?


-Tsuri

Just saw this post so you may have already figured this all out, sorry for the late reply...

Love seeing how ya'll solve the tranportation issue.  I have a couple questions for some of you.

CRV Owners: Just bought a CRV (wife's car) and have the factory installed rack - those of you out there with CRV's do you like the Thule or Yakima racks (and suggestion of which one) or do you have another suggestion.

Toyota Truck Owners: I have a old old old yakima system for transporting nearly everything from bikes to cargo to snowboards.....I noticed several of you have bolted your rack/bars to the shell on your truck - any suggestions on the most secure way to do this ? I'd love to see a pic or two of the drilling and bolt/on installation if you have one.

I pulled the stock racks off our 2006 CR-V (wife's car too) and use a Yakima Control Tower system when I want to haul yaks on her car.  They pop in/out in minutes so I can leave them off when not needed, cutting down on the wind drag/noise.  Works great.



On my '91 Toyota pickup (small world, huh?)   I use Yakima Q-Towers on the front and 1A Raingutters on the back shell, mounted on the Yakima Sideloader faux raingutters.  Bought a Yakima BoatLoader too, since the truck has a 2" lift and my Hobie is a fat pig.  The installation tips Piscean gave you are spot on.

my trucks so beat up and rusty my kayaks probably gonna fall thru it one day. LOL

I haven't see a lot of bugs represented here ... i figure the less i spend on gas ... the more i get to spend on fishing ...

Here's how I roll-

OK prowler trident sitting on my 2006 Nissan Frontier Crew Cab 4x4 with a 6 speed - got to love 24MPG on the highway!

Picture was taken at the family cabin at Eagle Lake this past summer

Been using foam blocks for a month now.  Finally got my car rack last week in time for the New Melones Trout Bout.  This is now how I roll.

  2001 Chevy Suburban with 135K miles.  I bought it new and it has been great for hauling out two kayaks.  3000 miles on our baja trip with zero defects!

2006 Dodge 1 ton.



Homemade rack on the camper shell.

See the yak storage thread for info on the yak planks.

Sam

'04 Tacoma w/Yakima q-towers and hull raisers. I normally have two sets of hull raisers so my wife's T140 can come too.

  Official NCKA "chase" vehicle...................