Hi, Some notes with racks on pickup cab: I've had lot of experience hauling single and double kayaks all over, including the back country of Baja and Mexico using a Toyota Tacoma with a shell on the back-using Thule rain gutter mounts. The worst luck you can have in Mexico is to hit a stretch of back road just after an off-road race has trashed it by tearing through there in race cars at 60+ miles per hour. It is even worse for some pangero who must haul fish and ice over this road in a 25 year old truck with little left of suspension components. Previously I'd hauled kayaks with an old Montero, which has very meaty welded in integral rain gutters. No problems there-all one unit. The concern is that a pickup cab is suspended independently from the box, which carries the shell. The setup described below has worked fine on all kinds of roads from 4WD, to dirt with 3" permanante (washboards. I keep the front kayak rack slightly looser to allow for twisting- and of course use bow and stern lines. Shock cord loops in these lines, with backup of rope, seem to help hold the boats securely on rough roads, without having to over-tension the ropes. This is done so that if the shock cord fails, the longer rope loop will take the load. Also, It is good to cut these bow and stern lines _just_ long enough to reach the tie point-but no longer. For rough road travel, it helps to rack the boats with racks that fit the hull contours evenly. Racks are best placed in line with bulkheads or other structural elements. An extra strip of foam can be taped to the racks, for a bit more cushioning than the hard rubber rack faces. Sometimes the racks want to spread, allowing the boat to drop onto the cross bars. To control this, a length of stainless cable with a loop on each end can be tied to each half of the rack. I didn't like the cheesy clip-on Thule feet for the 2000 Tacoma cab roof (which has no rain gutters). I decided to bolt on those "fake rain gutter" clips meant for shells. This was not easy, involving dropping the headliner and picking the location with the most back up metal in the roof supports. Stainless carriage bolts are best, using locking nuts, with marine waterproofing behind the clip. I also used backing to fill a void between two pieces of metal in the roof structure. The gutter clips with closed ends, might make a tighter job. This way the feet can't move past the end of the clip. I prechecked the angle, of the clips with regard to the feet to ensure good support. In fact, A heavy piece of aluminum extrusion with ends welded closed might make a better unit than the gutter clips often sold by Thule and Yakima for pickup shells. Also note that Thule and Yakima feet and clips are different lengths. If in doubt about this work, a body shop should be able to do it. Naturally, I'm not advocating that anyone do any of this modification-just passing on my experience. Cheers, Jay *************************************************************************** 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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