How do you carry your kayaks?

So my wife and I are huge outdoors people. We love camping, hiking, hunting, kayaking, ect ect...

We prefer to camp tent style which means we need to bring literally everything that we are going to need in the truck.

The problem we come across is when I load the bed with all of our supplies, there's no room for the 2 kayaks! And what is camping at a lake without our kayaks?!

I have done some research on different methods but what do you guys use? And why do you prefer that way?

 

This isnt much help in your case but here's mine

 

@Getmeacoors haha nice truck tho

 

Inno Roof rack with Malone Sea Wings.

 

I've looked into these roof rails but I had a hard time finding ones with good reviews. A lot of people don't like the way they fit

 

I cant speak for a lot of people, but mine go on or off in five minutes fit well and are solid.

 

I just looked at that. I didn't know there was a combo like that ready to go. What else am I missing out on?!

 

I use a Yakima long arm with extension. I either rest the kayaks on the top of the tailgate or roof. Just depends on what else I am carrying.

 

I have a set of Thule Xsporter racks in the bed of my truck for carrying ladders for work. When we camp an take the kayaks I have a set of Thule Hulevators that attach to my Xsporters and work great.

 

I feel like I need to specify a few things. We camp...A LOT...and we do the tent thing. We have storage totes that we keep constantly packed and ready to go so when we want to go camping we just throw them in the back of the truck. For example one tote will have the tent, tarps, hatchet, rope, flashlight, bug spray, ect ect. Another tote will have paper plates, cups, plastic forks and spoons, pots, pans, kettle, napkins, salt, pepper and such. And we still need room for the firewood, sleeping bag, camping chairs, little grill, extra blankets and pillows (for the wife of course). All of this needs to sit under the tonneau cover in case of inclement weather. Then I need to be able to have my kayaks with me, while at the same time keeping all of these supplies under the tonneau cover.

I know, I'm making my options limited and expensive. But hit me with what you got!

 

Pull a ten foot trailer ...

 

Ha that's about right. I like what @MrMax has going on. That's perfect

 

If you have room for a small trailer, these luggage trailers are awesome. You can keep all your camping gear in it and when you want to go you just hook it and load the coolers. Everything else is ready to go.

https://www.spacetrailers.com/product/6500-lowrider/

 

I use a Yakima rack and roll trailer nice and light easy to use and move around.

 

Adarac

 

Camper shell with a roof rack.

 

OP, you didn't mention what kind of tonneau you have, but I'd go with above if it'll work.

Too bad I have a Diamondback. I'd do bed racks, no cover, and a tailgate pad for bikes. Right now I put the bikes on Yakima racks over the DB and kayaks in our travel trailer.

A small 10ft trailer is a good solution but there's so much more freedom not towing anything especially that you're tent camping.

 

diamond back maybe compatible with the adarac.

 

Thx, I thought of that but then I don’t have a way to carry our bikes on the drive to the campground, or they’d need to be on an RV rack. Flipping the back side of the DB, there’s still not enough room to tailgate pad the bikes. Unfortunately, the DB needs to be removed completely for the adarac-pad combo.

Within the campground, I carry the kayaks like this:



If we’re only kayaking at home, we take our small SUV that has cross bars for kayak holders.

 

Yea I prefer no trailer. This setup is pretty sick. I had an over the rail tri fold tonneau but I actually just got a new truck (haven't added pics yet) and switched to a crewmax because of the new addition to our family. So I am in need of a new tonneau and a between the rails is where I'm headed so I can get a setup like this one

 

This is my new ride and how I currently tow my kayaks for only a day trip. Had the truck about 2 weeks now and doing some severe research on different tonneaus and racks to make sure I do it right this time

 

I'm back an forth between bed racks and roof racks

 

Yakima makes a new truck rack called the OverHaul HD. They make an adapter that makes it work with the ReTrax tonneau cover. It is super stout and easily adjustable.

 

We carry ours on the top of our Thule Xsport racks with Thule Hulevators.

 

My wife and I do the same with our gear. This won't work with a tonneau cover but, a Thule exporter pro works great for us.

 

Nice getup

 

This looks like the cleanest setup. It also allows you to transport longer than 8' vessels without having them stick way out the back.

A 16' canoe wouldn't be properly centered on a 6' bed rack.

 

I agree. I have been definitely leaning toward the roof rack system. This way my bed is still untouched and I don't have to worry about using a special rack/tonneau combo that would cost me a small fortune

 

I'm in the same boat, no pun intended.

I'll be going with a Thule square bar systems possibly longer cross bars than Thule currently sellers. That way I can haul a 16' canoe, teather and front and back, leave bed untouched for tenting or when I haul out small trailer.

I do like the look and concept of a bed rack but don't think it works well for long canoes or kayaks. A couple of our kayaks are 12'

Probably get 2 kayaks up there easy too, as the pic above shows . We have sit on tops.

They run about $600cad for everything needed up here

 

Bed Extender