Touring Kayakers and Canoeists?

[smlobx]

3 Hobie 11' Revolutions - wife, daughter and myself all enjoy. We've done quite a few day trips on the flat waters around Reno. Working up to our first overnight. Also do some fishing off of mine.

My winter project is to come up with either a kayak trailer or easier way to put them on the roof of the camper.

Vic this was one of my dilemmas with purchasing a truck camper. I did not want to haul our yaks up on our roofs. After a lot of looking around I found a Dinoot trailer with a pair of Thule racks on it that will allow us to not only carry the yaks but also more supplies for some extended trips we are planning.

Here's a pic of our partially dissassembled prior to sending the frame off to be sandblasted and finished...

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Vic this was one of my dilemmas with purchasing a truck camper. I did not want to haul our yaks up on our roofs. After a lot of looking around I found a Dinoot trailer with a pair of Thule racks on it that will allow us to not only carry the yaks but also more supplies for some extended trips we are planning.

Here's a pic of our partially dissassembled prior to sending the frame off to be sandblasted and finished...

Nice! We just bought a small aluminum utility trailer for our small business, and I am thinking about throwing a set of Yakima Quik-Rails on it to take our gutter mount towers.

 

[Squatch]

I like water and boats. Paddle, sail, and power. it all works for me. I've owned canoes, yaks, and bassboats. I like to fish too. At the moment I'm down to my Old Town Disco 119 solo and my Jet outboard bassboat at the moment. I sold my tandem canoe last fall. I hope to find a suitable square stern replacement before the end of the year. This will be to tow behind the Camper.

A pic a friend took a couple of years ago on a float trip. 4 days worth of camping gear in the boat.

 

[OutbacKamper]

Both boats load up well with Yakima roller/saddles on factory Yak tracks.

KAYAKER HAULING ADVICE REQUEST:
I am looking at the possibility of buying a 1-3 year old, used Hawk or Granby and am wondering about the practicality of hauling 2 kayaks on the roof. I owned a Hawk from '03-'07 but that was before the gas struts were commonly available on Four Wheel campers. Is it practical to raise and lower the roof (with gas struts) with 150lb of racks and kayaks on the roof or do you still need to remove the kayaks first?

Since selling my Four Wheel Camper I have had a Northern Lite Camper (too high to safely load kayaks) and a pop-up trailer that was great for loading kayaks (but I hate trailers!).


Here are my Kayaks on the trailer:

...and in action:

This is my current setup (Tent camping with kayaks on ARE canopy mounted racks):

I also have a Folbot, but much prefer using the 2 rigid hull boats:

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

My 2¢... It's going to be easier to remove the kayaks, or make one of the speaker lift systems to raise the roof with the boats on top. I'm getting closer to 70 than I care to think about, so not blowing out my back is always a consideration.

 

[Alley-Kat]

I can carry four of my blue kayaks shown on page #1, message #5 of this thread on the roof.
I have the outside gas shocks, 2x 50 lb lifts in front where the solar panel is located and 2x 30 lb lifts at the rear.
I leave the kayaks on top and use the speaker stand lift device to raise and lower the roof.

It's easy with the right equipment.

Your two kayaks are probably about 2/3 of the weight of my 4 kayaks.

 

[TGK]

Used to be into white water canoeing and kayaking, but not in recent years. Wife and I stick to flat water now. Have had a variety of wood canvas canoes over the years, but they were getting difficult to hoist up on the FWC. So, we popped for a Souris River Kevlar 17.5', which we love. Also have a 1966 Old Town 18' freight canoe. Weighs 115#'s, so it rides on a trailer. It paddles like a slug with it's 42" beam, but rows very nicely. However, we primarily use it with a 2hp Honda, which pushes it along with ease. We have camped out of both but, since gas motors have banned at a few lakes, we use the standard canoe in those locations. We love to take them to some of the great mountain lakes and reservoirs in Oregon. Have also enjoyed boating at Ross Lake in the North Cascades and at Ozette Lake in the coastal section of Olympic National Park. There are also some great lakes in the NW corner of Glacier NP and Teton NP. lakes. There's lots of great opportunity to get out on the water.


Souris River loaded on FWC.



Old Town on Trailer.

 

[Lighthawk]

My 2¢... It's going to be easier to remove the kayaks, or make one of the speaker lift systems to raise the roof with the boats on top. I'm getting closer to 70 than I care to think about, so not blowing out my back is always a consideration.

x2, minus a decade
We have lifted the top with both boats (2x50#), prefer to offload the boats. Key tool is a solid wide-step ladder for us.

 

[TGK]

Getting a canoe on the roof of a FWC is a serious issue and the reason we switched to a Kevlar canoe. Admittedly, a pricey option, but we weren't willing to give up canoeing due to their load capacity and ability to carry a dog/dogs and camping gear. Had to sell some other toys to make it happen. It is 17.5' in length and weighs 46 lbs. To mount it on the FWC, I'd lay the bow on a Yakima crossbar at the rear of the camper and then walk it up and forward, with my wife's help. I'd then step up on the stool we use with the camper and drop the bow onto the front Yakima bar. We were able to still lift the roof with some extra grunt but, since then, we have added the FWC hydraulic lifts, which should make it easier. We also have a ratcheting truck bed load stabilizer that we've used to lift the roof in the past.


Lot of gear in this photo, including a cooler. Water jugs are empty though as we use a gravity fed purifier to treat the lake water.

 

[OutbacKamper]

Great info everyone, thanks. If I manage to find a used camper I will look into the speaker lift device in combination with the exterior gas struts.

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Great info everyone, thanks. If I manage to find a used camper I will look into the speaker lift device in combination with the exterior gas struts.

Guitar Center, usually well under $100 USD. There are a couple of threads on the topic.

 

[Alley-Kat]

Guitar Center, On Stage Stand, SS8800 B+ Power crank-up speaker stand.
Can be used with the hand crank or a cordless drill driver.
I believe that most of us just use the center pole part, making something soft (rubber feet or whatever) on the ends to not mar the floor or the roof and/or perhaps to spread the contact point and load to a larger area.
It was on sale at $59 with free shipping when I got mine and I think it goes on sale regularily.
Find and read the threads on the forum to get more details.

 

[Bigfoot]

I'll add our love of paddling to the list. We have an older Navarro Egret (16 foot, fiberglass-wood) and had kayaks but much prefer the canoe. Most outings are local Cascade Lakes (Hosmer, Sparks and Waldo are favorites) and the Deschutes River, although we have also been to coastal bays, the Klamath water trail, and other locations in the western states. When the camper is off the truck the canoe can go in the bed, but with the camper on it requires a trailer.

 

[hoyden]

After I got my camper, I realized that getting my hard kayak on/off the roof would be a trick, so I sold my hard kayak and got an Aquaglide Panther inflatable. It's great!
It folds up and fits into my truck rear-seat area, I've got my paddles on a gun rack in my truck back window

Pugsly has her own life-jacket, and Argos can swim.
I haven't taken both the dogs out at the same time - I think it might be a bit much to deal with... but they've both been out on the lakes with me.

 

[Stromtrooper]

We just did a week trip to Hood River with a 12'6" SUP and a small whitewater playboat kayak weighing 50lb total. We bought a speaker stand to use to help lift the roof when the racks were loaded. We used the speaker stand and broke the front wooden lift plate in two because the top of the speaker stand pole made it so all the lifting force was spread out over only 2." If you use a speaker stand be sure to make a plate that will spread out the force over the whole wooden lift plate. We found that tag-teaming the front lifting process is the way to go. We replaced the lift plate, and will be getting rid of the stand we think.

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

On my now sold Grandby, I made a complete lift bar for the front. It was not screwed into the ceiling, so I just positioned it when being used, spreading the force across multiple stringers. I used a Forstner bit to create the pocket for the lift.

On the back, just a 4" square plate screwed into the lift bar. No issues.

 

[Taku]

I made plywood panels the same size as the lift plates to help strenghten them. Use the speaker stand all the time with up to 75# on the roof and have not had an issue. But back to boats - currently have 13' Otter raft with fishing frame; Mad River Explorer (28 years old and still going); Bell Yellowstone solo canoe; PakBoat Quest 13; old kickboat for fishing; Native Ultimate 14 for fishing/hunting; several whitewater kayaks over the years; am starting to build a Gentry kayak this winter. If anyone has a used Kevlar canoe for sale cheap, let me know, the back would love it!

 

[allanb]

Sea kayaking has been "
Our thing" for the last ten years. Started with a Pygmy than tried a easy rider.
Now settled on sterling ice cap and illusion. Wife likes her ndk Romany. We enjoyed north and west coast Vancouver island, like the broughtons also. Nice to wheel on the Alaska ferry and paddle in between stops ( wrangel and ketcican). Kayak surfing at the coast. X2 on Ross and Chelan lake. Bit of river boating on the skqgit
and stillaguamish.
Shoulder problems and latent longing for sage and pinyon, have me wanting to move inland. Interested in any of the lakes and rivers in the west. Want to plan for Shoshone lake in Yellowstone and Teton river in 17
Figure on rigging a set of rollers to haul up onto the northstar, until can find or build a performance oriented folder.


Sent from my iPhone using Wander The West

 

[camper rich]

I've been paddling canoes since the middle '70's. Whitewater kayaking in the early 80's and then whitewater canoeing. Bought a couple of Eddyline kayaks in 1992 and started going to Baja in the winters and Pacific northwest in the summers. Solo self support trips in small groups were my favorites back when we could still get permits for rivers. Solo canoed the Middle Fork Salmon river in Idaho 6 times self-support, as well as the Main Salmon, Green and Colorado Rivers. Westwater Canyon and the Grand Canyon were my solo canoeing highlights.

My favorite and most used boat is a 18-1/2' Wenonah Whitewater II that I bought in 1980. It has the "Cruiser" USCA racing hull but was built as a downriver racer. At 32" wide at the 4" waterling it is long and sleek and the perfect boat for flatwater stretches like Labrynth Canyon on the Green. It carries a lot of gear and tracks straight, a real joy to paddle. My only regret is that it is fiberglass instead of Kevlar. I'm looking at a new 16-1/2' Kevlar Wenonah Solo Plus canoe to replace it, but I'll sell my old Mad River Explorer before I ever sell my Whitewater II. I will still use the old one if I have someone to help me handle its' 65#.

The new Kevler canoe should ride up on our new Grandby with no problem.

 

[pikabike]

allanb,

I am new to the forum. My husband and I moved out of our longtime home in CO to NW WA. The sea kayaking there is fantastic, but for a lot of reasons we ended up moving BACK to CO after only four years. We are very happy to be home again, this time in a different part of CO--which still feels like home.

We have paddled several times in the Yellowstone area, and Shoshone Lake is one of our favorite multiday paddle camping trips. If you are not familiar with that area, try to find a copy of Don Nelson's guidebook to paddling Yellowstone and Grand Teton waters. It is the bible.

Lake Powell is another favorite. Unfortunately, aquatic invasives (zebra mussels, quagga mussels) have been found there. This means you need to really bone up on AIS prevention regulations, which vary by venue.

We use a lightweight kayak trailer to transport our sea kayaks, a SKUK Pilgrim Expedition for me and a WS Tempest 170 for him. A few times we have resorted to rooftop racks, but we really hate using those. If the focus of a trip is not primarily kayaking, I transport a WW kayak inside my truck bed and topper, fully enclosed, which is delightfully easy. Although slow compared to a sea kayak, it is still fun to paddle, even on lakes.

Now that we are back where we can travel a long ways on land in all directions, I look forward to doing a lot more mountain and desert hiking, exploring, and camping, maybe even another backpack or few. And the mountain biking is absolutely tops!