New RV'er. Need kayak roof rack for class A

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C

csworldwide

New member
Joined
Mar 18, 2016
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Hi folks!

I recently bought my first RV, a '98 Georgie Boy Swinger 35' and have it in storage in Tacoma until I can pick it up in May and drive it to AK. I also bought a 14.5' Hobie Oasis kayak. Luckily, the rear window was 3/4" wider than the kayak, so with a little twisting and turning I was able to get it in without damaging either. I'm looking for a good commercial or diy mounting system to put this 100# kayak on top of the RV. As I said, this is my first one, so I don't know what all is under the rubber. Any help would be appreciated.
 
...so I don't know what all is under the rubber.
Click to expand...

The answer is: "Not much". Basically the rubber membrane is over a thin sheet of luan plywood, which in turn rests on widely space cross-members of either wood or aluminum. Tough to figure out there the cross members are, and they aren't very big anyway. Generally, though, you can just put coarse-threaded screws down into the plywood and they hold fine for things like the mounting brackets you want.

I've not seen any commercially made racks for direct mount to a roof. They are all designed to attach to a existing roof racks (load bars). When we carried a Port-A-Bote, I attached two pairs of 2x3 wood pieces to the roof with lag screws and then a cross bar on that.Once you have the cross bar, you could use commercially made racks, but I think you would do as well (or better) if you just screw down djustablea web straps to tie it down.

Height may be an issue, depending on how tall the Georgie Boy is and where you travel. Motorhomes are typically 11.5-12.5 ft high and the kayak adds more. Not sure how far above the a/c units it will be, but consider that in your plans.

Or maybe this article on etrailer.com might help you:
https://www.etrailer.com/question-81491.html
 
Curious as to how you're going to lift that thing up onto the roof. I have a hard enough time getting our kayaks on and off the Jeep, and that's only six feet tall.
 
Are you also towing a car? If so, put the kayak on top of that. Even if you figure out how to mount it on the RV, do you really want to drive that big vehicle to all the put ins and take outs?
 
I'm 11.5 at the top of my ac, so if the top of the rack was +6" then added kayak height would take me to about 13' even. I'd already intended to slide the kayak up over the ladder rails. After that, picking it up by the grab handles and placing on the rack is easy enough for me. I won't be pulling another vehicle and wanted to avoid the hassle of a trailer if I could.
 
I would look into mounting them vertically on the rear like this (found via google images)

 

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I strapped mine to the ladder, haven't road tested it yet but I cannot see how or why it would be able to come off.
4 ratchet straps and 5 minutes and it's on or off.
 
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