The best kayak/canoe/bike hauler I ever had was a Honda Civic. The only draw only drawback was that the racks were only 19" apart so I had to be real careful to keep everything tied down, expecially the end lines as side winds could be dangerous. But I hauled various combinations of 2- solo canoes 2 solo canoes with a tandem canoe on top of them 1 tandem, 1 kayak, 1 bike 1 tandem, 2 bikes, 2 passengers for a 20 day trip to Boundary waters - 15 days of food and supplies. 4 kayaks - using stackers. I got 55mpg listed and only 35 with one or 2 canoes. Of course I always drive at least the speed limit. I did this with the car for about 230,000 miles in 10 years. I bought one of the last Honda Civics but had it totaled from under me a few months later when I was rear-ended. Now I'm driving a Ford Focus which is a little too tall for me to easily load boats on. It is fun to drive but the gas milege stinks - only about 22mpg and it has had numberous problems and let me down several times - ignition lock failed twice, fuel pump once and had a couple of recalls. It is also not as comfortable to ride in as was the Honda. But has a bigger engine and more pickup. I expect to buy a hybrid car for my next one - probably by Toyota. Another possibility that hasn't been mentioned is the Volkswagon Golf. My daughter hauls bicycles on it and likes it and it is fully capable of hauling a couple of kayaks. But you definitely need to define your uses of the vehicle and fit it to your height and strength. Another solution is to go with a trailer for the kayak. This way you can use any vehicle and not have to worry about lifting over your head. Your chances of getting hurt are probably greatest when you are loading your kayak on top of you vehicle you you need to be sure you can do it without being at the limits of your reach and strength. Marilyn Kircus Houston, Tx *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Hi Marilyn, On Wednesday, May 25, 2005, at 9:05:34 AM PST, you wrote: > Your chances of getting hurt are probably greatest when you are > loading your kayak on top of you vehicle you you need to be sure you > can do it without being at the limits of your reach and strength. My Subaru GL wagon is certainly not as tall as an SUV or truck, but I've found a light plastic "step stool" platform (Rubbermaid, I think) that works nicely for getting me up to a comfortable height next to the car when putting my boat on the rack. My Yakima cross bars extend just enough beyond the TLC cradles so that I can easily place the boat on its side before then pushing it over and into the cradles. I've also put a length of pipe insulation (covered with duck tape) over these extended bits of cross bars (and in between the cradles as well). When I remove the boat from the rack, I just reverse the process; first flipping the boat over the outside cradles and onto its side on the extended cross bars. From there, I can put a few things inside the cockpit and put the spare paddle on deck before lowering the boat onto my shoulder. -- Melissa *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
On 5/25/05, Marilyn Kircus <mkircus_at_academicplanet.com> wrote: > But you definitely need to define your uses of the vehicle and fit it to your height and strength. Another solution is to go with a trailer for the kayak. This way you can use any vehicle and not have to worry about lifting over your head. > > Your chances of getting hurt are probably greatest when you are loading your kayak on top of you vehicle you you need to be sure you can do it without being at the limits of your reach and strength. Another perfect reason for those of us light weight weenies who cough up the money for the lighter boats. I have no problems loading my 32 pound, 21'6" boat, all by myself without any concerns for injury. I do miss my 24 pound boat the preceded this one. Alas that weight resulted in durability issues. The 32 pounder feels overbuilt, not quite in the Doug Lloyd sense though ;-) As for specific cars. My vw passat wagon is a pretty good kayak car. It's easy to load, and holds a good amount of gear. But I'm not sold on it's reliability - mileage is usually 27 miles per gallon with boats on the roof. I loved my saab 9-5 as a gear hauler, it held a massive amount of stuff and I think my thule roof rack would have failed before the car's roof flexed.. But it wasn't an inexpensive car, I did like that the owners manual recommended using 86 octane gas ;-) My current favorite is probably the CRV, but I don't know that I could get the CRV, with boats on the roof into the parking garage at work for those afterwork paddles. I can fit the passat with boats on it into the parking garage. Kirk *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
> On 5/25/05, Marilyn Kircus <mkircus_at_academicplanet.com> wrote: > <snip> > My current favorite is probably the CRV, but I don't know that I could > get the CRV, with boats on the roof into the parking garage at work > for those afterwork paddles. I can fit the passat with boats on it > into the parking garage. > > Kirk When the CR-V was first introduced, it shot to the top of the all- time "most frequently stolen" list. (At least here in Canada.) My sister-in-law had her's stolen within a couple of weeks of getting it. I don't know if it still holds that dubious honour or not.... -- Darryl *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
At 08:34 AM 27/05/2005 -0400, Darryl wrote: [Moderator's Note: Content unaltered. Excessive quoting (including headers/footers/sig lines/extraneous text from previous posts, etc.) have been removed. Please edit quoted material in addition to removing header/trailers when replying to posts.] >When the CR-V was first introduced, it shot to the top of the all- >time "most frequently stolen" list. (At least here in Canada.) > >My sister-in-law had her's stolen within a couple of weeks of getting >it. > >I don't know if it still holds that dubious honour or not.... Well she should have bought a Subaru. No one ever steals them. Gordin Warner Victoria BC *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
on 28/5/05 09:19, Gordin Warner at gwarner2_at_shaw.ca wrote: > > > Well she should have bought a Subaru. No one ever steals them. > > Gordin Warner > Victoria BC Here everyone nicks them. WRX's are stolen just to flog to death in street races. They must pinch the petrol as well, they are thirsty brutes. -- John Kirk-Anderson Banks Peninsula NEW ZEALAND *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Kirk replied (snip): >I do miss my 24 pound boat the preceded this one. Alas that weight resulted >in durability issues. The 32 pounder feels overbuilt, not quite in the Doug Lloyd sense though ;-)< Geesh Kirk, my Thule wind-deflector weighs 24 pounds! As for best kayak vehicle, it's probably a dog sled, but as I don't live that far north, my Dodge Minivan with left and right sliding doors is about as perfect a vehicle for me these days, though my previous small Hyundai sedan was a more perfect gas-saver/wet-booties-doesn't-matter/easy kayak-lift-height/reliable vehicle. It suffered badly from rust though, as I did a lot of paddling from it, which necessarily left a lot of dripping salt water pooling into the crevices. I shall not praise the Hyundai too much however, lest Gordin be afforded the opportunity to jostle with yet another fine off-shore vehicle name. :-) I do spend a lot on vehicle maintenance with the Dodge however. A full shock/strut mounting plate/tire job just cost me as much as a new kayak recently. Perhaps I should slow down on those logging roads. A new CRV does sound nice. The payments don't. MY all-time favourite kayak vehicle was my early air-cooled VW station wagon, eventually retired due to parts inventory issues. It had no radiator to freeze or overheat (however, no air-conditioning/ proper heater to keep me from freezing or overheating either, but then I was tougher in those days). Frontward, under-hood bonnet storage AND rear-area station wagon storage, positive gutter roof-rack mounting, independent suspension, unibody construction, go-anywhere traction, and no one wanted to steal it! Left it for days on end in remote spots on the side of logging roads. And I could fly over those logging roads with equanimity. I stripped it down, doors removed, and repainted everything from factory mustard-yellow to bright Guards Red to match my freshly painted Nordkapp in matching aircraft epoxy paint; we had a lot of fun times through the eighties, heading off on a whim, winter or otherwise, to chase down hurricane-force paddling conditions out on Vancouver Island's west coast. No family back then; some days were a little lonely, yes, and especially desperate when equipment failed or there were hull-failure issues -- times where caution had been thrown to the wind and then things went "south"; they were, however, days where the full import of adventure and life-to-be-lived-large coursed through my veins with the simply turn of the ignition key... Some dumb observations: 1. Kayak look better on a sedan. 2. Remain unfriendly toward kayakers who don't tie down properly for road trips; and/or, befriend them, then try converting them. 3. 'Tis better to rinse your kayak hull off of sand before placing it on the roof racks. 4. Always throw excessively saltwatered-wet gear into garbage bags (or equivalent) as dried salt-residue mucks up your interior making it look like slugs (or some other slime-producing equivalent) had an orgy in your vehicle. 5. Um, don't forget to remove that wet gear when you get home. 6. This vehicle thread re-appears on Paddlewise from time to time; an "I remember that post" mental inventory check reveals the Subaru GL wagon still elicits the most passionate responses. :-) Doug Lloyd Victoria BC *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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