How long is the kayak? Maybe a longer truck bed or a rack like a lumber rack on your truck. The kayak is too long. It might not be legal with the kayak extending behind the truck bed that far.

can you use that rack for the back end and secure the front end in the bed?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1593869575.jpg

Kayaks go upside down on a roof rack leaving the bed open for carrying stuff that fits in the bed, no?

The leading contender is the Hobie Mirage Compass. Close second is the Hobie Outback. 12 foot and 12’9’ respectively.

Both heavy. Horking it up in my truck Seems like a real pain in the shoulders. I do However, have the Yakima round bars on my truck topper.

California allows me up to 4 feet past the bumper, no issues. Longer than that I need a red marker. My bed is a 6 footer in my Tacoma. I’ll have 5.5’ cantilevered at a minimum depending on the boat I go with. I’m right there if I even need the bed extender.

I'd put a red marker/flag on anything that sticks out past the end of the lowered tailgate.
YMMV.

Had the same issue w/a pair of Prijon touring kayaks. Get yourself a set of Hully Rollers to mount atop that white bar at the end of your bed & Mako Saddles for your rooftop bars.

To load the kayak, lift one end onto the rollers from the back and once on, lift the other end of the kayak and roll it onto the saddles up front. Taking advantage of the leverage, it's easy-peasy.

Hully rollers:


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1593877444.jpg

‘White bar” at end of bed?


I am however liking what you are saying. Hmmm.

By 'white bar' I mean on top of what looks like a lumber/pipe rack mounted to the bed rails just ahead of the taillights . . .

I have been doing the kayak on top of the car, in the bed of the truck for over 45 years.

My river kayaks are not as long as the ones you are thinking about, but I think my method will work for you.

A few caveats and old guy claimers/disclaimers.

First, racks have come a long way in 45 years. There is a lot of choices now I never had.

Two. I never liked carrying the boats high, mainly because the trucks I used to drive all over the country were 4 cylinder (a Ford Ranger then Toyota SR-5 and Tacoma's) and the drag would have been too large a penalty. That and I like my kayaks, bikes (more on that in a second) and surf boards out of the wind and bug zone. I also carry a lot of gear in my kayaks while driving which you cannot do up high.

Three. Other items. I was once an excellent bike rider and the rack I put together could be used for both the kayak and bike. I also often took both at the same time a lot. There are rapids in the DC area that I would drop my bike off a mile or two down river, lock and then ride back to get my car when I was done. It was great. I wasn't kayaking alone, btw, the Falls are generally busy with other knuckleheads.

Same of Columbia, SC. There is a great set of rapids right by the Zoo and a take out a mile of so down river. Perfect. You can see the fork locks in the pictures below.

Four. I can see the stuff I am carrying.

There is more but you get the drift.

So. Pictures. I had to go find the thing since the 2015 Tundra I have carries the kayak well and I haven't bike in ten years. The bike is back so I am going to modify to fit the Tundra.

My Daughter has my truck for a few weeks so the pictures are a bit lame, taken this morning on my Series 80...it will not be used on her.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1593884596.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1593884596.jpg

So, think tail gate down, the rack either attached to the sides of the tailgate or, in the case of the SR-5 Toyota, I integrated it into the gate itself. I do not have pics. I drove across country with the kayak and bike in the SR-5 four times.

In the front of the bed I made a wooden (I didn't, a friend of mine did:cool:) hold down that the nose of the kayak fit into. The wood was painted black and bolted to the bed of the truck (really easy mod) and rarely came out.

The elevation of the rack give the boat excellent support and I always ran guide wires from the bed to the end of the boat, though the rope pull, back to the truck.

Again, many thousand of miles with zero issue and no damage to the bikes or kayaks.

Lastly, I used to surf kayak a lot and having the bike, or with a buddy another kayak, along was always a bonus.

Useless mod. The thing wobbles and rolls from side to side even with a hitch pinch. I've used the stupid thing dozens of times and it never gets any better.


https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/fc9...2&odnBg=ffffff


fify

Here is my truck.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1593892409.jpg

Shouldn't be to difficult, if the kayak isn't too heavy. Get foam pipe insulation for the rails on the topper and a big piece of foam on top of the cab. Rope to front bumper and a rope to the back bumper. Run a rope through the bow tie down and tie to right and left side of front bumper. Do the same on th rear. you could also, run a rope over the back of the kayak and topper to below the fenders and one over front of kayak and cab to the frame under the doors for extra safety. Tighten the ropes, drive a few miles and check rope tension. If OK you're good-to-go.

I didn't know you had a cover on your truck.

I would still look at tail gate solutions. I really do not like kayaks high on vehicles if I don't have to.

I am going to look into on on these for my Tundra...attached the kayak racks directly to it.

https://www.amazon.com/AMP-Research-74802-01A-BedXTender-Sport/dp/B0072U6Q7W/?tag=truckknowing03-20

Something like this is also interesting. I'd put the kayak holder right at the end. Easy day.:

https://www.contractortalk.com/f41/tundra-bed-extender-72723/

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1593895755.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1593895755.jpg

As you can tell, I like loads low on my vehicles out of the wind. That and I don't want a full sized bed. I have trailers.

You could leave your cab on and make it work.

You need to test ride one of those hobies. They are more of a boat than a kayak. Need to see, handle, sit on. Pretty big to deal with too. If all you do is lakes, that's okay, but ocean???

When I was boat shopping the widerness systems kept coming up as the best all around solution. Of course, now that abalone season looks to be closed until 2032, kayaks have dropped on my wish list until I have more time to go fishing.

G

All kayaks have gotten huge as people demand stability. This I think is because people like me, non-kayakers trying to get into it. I saw one they don’t aven call a kayak. It’s clearly a boat. The one I am looking at is lighter than most Wilderness yaks

After spending a couple days this weekend hauling around things in a vehicle way too small to carry them properly, my vote is to build a dedicated roof rack and use it. I didn’t like looking stupid all weekend, you won’t like it much either.

The Hobie pedal propulsion looks good. A bicycle crank system seems like it would be more efficient but I'm sure it is the way it is for good reasons.

One word. Weeds.

The fins don’t tangle up with weeds.

My Unimog has slots in the bed with locks, so when I was building my deck I ordered some metric tubing to fit in them, and built a load extension. I was able to (very carefully) bring 20' 2x6 home with it

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1593977032.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1593977279.jpg

That's reasonable for propelling the kayak but I was thinking about putting powering to the fins.