Hobie on roof top? Yay or nay?

[Fish Taco]

Originally Posted by Rambo

Yakima round Q'Bar is one of the best roof rack for cars. Make sure your get some cushion or add 2 PVC pipes to prevent the PA14 from bulging the bottom. If you plan on loading it yourself, get the kayak/canoe load assist by Yakima. . Also make sure to get front and rear straps to tie the beast down.

Yakima makes quality stuff for sure, I've used it in the past, and have some now... but may I offer a suggestion to anyone using their "round bars"?

Let's say for example you have a heavy kayak like a PA14 or something (or in my case it was a loaded down Stealth 14) and you want to heave it up onto your rack (say you're using Mako saddles or something similar)... with those Yakima round bars... you can bet they won't stay in one place. Eventually you'll discover that they will roll forward (or backward) when loading and unloading your kayak. I even had it happen once one a Yakima rooftop bike rack.

So... if you want to keep your saddles, glides, or whatever you attach to these round bars from tilting forward or back on the bar (and trust me when I tell you, no matter how hard you clamp down on these things, they will and can still move around on that round bar) ...buy the Thule square load bars instead and it will save you a lot of grief in the long run.

Most Yakima hardware (clamps and such) allow you to still use a Thule square load bar on their products (there's usually a plastic notch you have to remove first that allows their clamps to fit on the square bar) and once that is done, it fits right on the square bar perfectly... and most importantly IT WILL NEVER SHIFT OR MOVE. It's rock solid.

I use the Yakima Rack N Roll trailer, and have three Thule 72" square bars using Yakima hardware to load my Stealth 14 and it works great. Good luck!