Re: [Paddlewise] Roof Racks

Alex had the round/square thing the wrong way round.  Yakima is round, Thule is
square.  

I love my Yakima stuff.  Parts of it are on their third car, over 12 years old
and still going strong.   Great stuff.  

I think Rollers are overrated, my favorite saddles are the least expensive, the
landsharks.   I would recommend glueing some foam to them if you're carrying
glass boats.  But even with foam on them, I can slide a heavy double on from
the back of my Explorer.   I have used one of the (non yakima) rollers that
goes on your back window, and was impressed how much easier it was to load
heavy boats. 

I mostly load singles on my car with no help, though it does sometimes get
interesting  if it's windy.  That said, I'm pretty big/strong. 

If you're carrying multiple boats, make sure you get wide enough bars.  Yakimas
website will give you the minimum width bars you must buy, but you can easily
go longer.   4 boats, even on edge, need decently wide bars.  I think mine are
72", and I can fit 5-6 plastic WW boats up there, and have carried 4 sea
kayaks. 

Yakima stuff is strong, but watch the connection to the roof.  On my explorer I
first had the kind of rack that mounts to the factory roof rails, replacing the
factory cross bars.   A trip to Bahia de Gonzaga in Baja ripped the factory
rails out fo the roof, though still firmly attached to the Yakima gear.   Made
my $150 doller trip into an $800+ trip, as body work was required to fix it.
Major bummer.  

Both companys also sell bike mounts and ski mount and gear boxes.  

First step would be to check availibility, maybe even before buying your car. 
There are some vehicles out there that neither company supports.  

Geoff 

--- Benno Jones <bennoj_at_isomedia.com> wrote:
> > BAsically, there are 2 main brands (+ a dozen of less known names and
> > no-names): Thule and Yakima.  Both have websites with roofracks
> > descriptions.
> > First has round bars, second one - rectangular. Both brands have 3
> 
> 
> ??? My Yakima rack (bought in October) has round bars.

=====
Argh....

Yahoo mail sucks....
***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed
here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire
responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author.
Submissions:     PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net
Subscriptions:   PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************