Kayak on a Baja

[Mickey bitsko]

Anyone carry a kayak on their baja?

[joe cool]

No but I carry a kayak on other cars. If you have a rack the J shaped holders are the way to go. If you have no rack and carry it on the roof there are some specially cut foam blocks available with a profile cut to a Hull shape. I don’t know wha5they are called or how to search for them, but I have some so they certainly exist.

[joe cool]

I was in Bahía Los Angeles in Baja for New Years. I wished I had a kayak. There was a guy with a kayak there paddling behind a pod of dolphins. I was jealous.

[Mickey bitsko]

I looked on line and found unique ways to use the transport wheels to roll it up and on the top of a vehicle.
I have a basket rack on top of my bug but feel like I need some sort of a cradle front and rear for better weight distribution.i have a Hobie compass weighs about 70 lbs.

[syncrosimon]

Brentonodon has a picture of his Baja with a open canoe on the rack in show us your Baja. Look him up, he has more on his photos. 😎
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1991 16" 2.1 DJ Syncro factory hightop ex Finnish Army Ambulance, now sold.
Thinking about Thing or 181 (182) ownership.

[dirtkeeper]

About 35 yrs ago I used to put my fiberglass ocean kayak on my bug. I think it weighs about 80 Lbs. and is 18’ long. I used simple surf rack like straps, basically a strap with a couple foam swimming tubes, rope in front and back.

I did this pretty often then , but I haven’t tried it for many years and when I think about it now it seems like it would be a crazy idea.

[Wulfthang]

Let the rack on your roof carry most of the weight. Build a T-bar sort of thing to mount to your front and rear cage. One in front and another in the back mounted with some type of clamps so you can remove them easily. The kayak is supported by the rack and steadied by the T-bars. It won't spin sideways and it won't lift up in front.

[terryly]

Heres is mine

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2180cc MS3PRO sequential fuel and spark 42mm IDF style Throttle boddies
Calgary Alberta Canada
Terry Lytle

[Mickey bitsko]

That'll work, do you load/unload by yourself?

[terryly]

Yes but it is a very lightweight Sportspal aluminum canoe
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2180cc MS3PRO sequential fuel and spark 42mm IDF style Throttle boddies
Calgary Alberta Canada
Terry Lytle

[Mal evolent]

If you remember the ads with the floating beetles, you know a kayak is redundant
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73 Beetle Baja, Ghia front brakes, Type 3 rear brakes, 2220 ( 94 X 80 ), Weber Progressive, Bosch SVDA, '97 Mustang seats

Baja Bugs for Volkswagen Virgins: Index

[earthquake]

Get a folding kayak...

https://paddling.com/gear/category/kayaks/folding/

eQ
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74 CLASS 11 LOOK-A-LIKE
69 DUNE BUGGY
79 INTERNATIONAL SCOUT II
05 SCION XB SERIES RELEASE 2[#437]
95 Chevy C3500 dually
98 Ford E150
Link to Kelly J. Nolte 3/20/53 - 11/6/08
https://time-zonelabs.blogspot.com/p/about-kelly.html
DEATH TO CHINGERS!
[From a military recruitment poster in the novel "The Stainless Steel Rat" By Harry Harrison]

[Buspilot67]

roof rack and a couple straps

[terryly]

NICE would like to see more Baja kayak/canoes on combos
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2180cc MS3PRO sequential fuel and spark 42mm IDF style Throttle boddies
Calgary Alberta Canada
Terry Lytle

[Mickey bitsko]

I purchased 4 kayak/canoe cradles mounted on my rack slid my kayak up on top of my rack and the cradles are made of soft type plyable rubber/plastic and the kayak wouldn't budge. I spread the cradles out but if the yak touched them I couldn't move it forward they're like glue making them pretty well useless. I won't be using them at this point.
Then, went to Wally's and purchased a swim noodle, taped them on.. nope, too much friction, ended up tearing the noodles.
My cross bars on the roof rack are 2" , anyone have a suggestion?

[rayjay]

I'm not seeing the issue. Is the kayak too heavy and unwieldy for you to load and unload by yourself ?

We used to have 2 single seaters and one tandem. Some trips we took the tandem and some the singles. We used an S10 Blazer for one end of the trip and a full sized Dodge van for the other end. We just used lots of straps for the Blazer and it's factory roof rack. We may have had some of the foam rack pads like you describe.

We always had at least 2 people for loading and unloading. It would be difficult for one person. We just piled everything into the back of the van and strapped the doors shut to keep it from falling out.

[Mickey bitsko]

Single person load unload, 75-80lbs
Put rollers on cage/bumper, saw it on YouTube and made my own it works well. The issue is not the weight, I carry the kayak bottom down so I don't have to unload the seat ice chest anything else that won't blow out. Because of the small fortune I've got invested I don't want to just THROW it up on rack and scratch it up and possibly causing damage to hull in the summer months. Hence the foam pads on the x bars which grab the yak and make very difficult to push or pull which ever the case may be same thing with the cradles, what ever rubber or plastic is used makes it virtually impossible to push or pull the kayak on or off the rack. Wheel rig I made works perfect.
I know this isn't complicated, I can easily zip tie towels or something.
I'll come up with something it seems I always do,
Thank you for your input.

[rayjay]

Our's were just Old Towne's and got beat up on rocks in the river so there was definitely no worry about transport damage . Getting them up on the roof is definitely a challenge by yourself. Make a form fitting cradle out of wood and pad the mating surface with ground pad material from REI, etc.

[Mickey bitsko]

For now I'll tape the foam just for the padding bunji some old bath towels so it slides, that will get me on the water , that's the main objective.

[rayjay]