After two decades of hauling kayaks on the roof of my car (sometimes comically when I had a CRX), I finally decided to give my back a break and buy a kayak trailer. To my surprise, I found one down in Greenville, SC on CraigsList for only $500 and it included the kayak cradles, a swing dolly stand, and the guy even threw in the cargo box for free! I was skeptical…but he had the title and everything. He actually drove it up and I met him a mile from my house and the deal was all fine (working tail-lights, spare tire included). I’m always happy when I don’t get murdered on a CraigsList transaction. Turns out the guy is a kayak salesman and has quite an inventory of kayaks and trailers.
Anyway - the main reason I got it was that the Wilderness Systems Thresher offshore fishing kayak I bought last year weighs about 80 pounds. Trying to manhandle that thing onto my roof rack was just an insane affair…so this will be much better. Plus it will haul my wife and son’s kayak, and my windsurfing gear if I remove the cargo box.
I never put a Kayak on the roof of my Mini. Fortunately my wife’s Honda CRV is plenty big enough for our Kayaking needs. We have a Wilderness Tarpon 120 and 100. They are pretty nice, although the 100 doesn’t stay on heading as well as the 120.
Thankfully although I had the rack, I only ever had to do this once to get the kayak home from the store. I lived on a canal at the time so I could just drop it in the water right there.
Since then I’ve switched to a GP and the kayak was stolen a couple years ago. I want to get another one eventually but being further from the water currently, I definitely understand the struggle of trying to deal with roof racking your kayak by yourself. I’d love a trailer but there’s no way in hell I’m putting a hitch on the GP.
Very nice Cooper S you had there Boomerang! I love mine, although it isn’t the most practical of vehicles. Great to get me to the airport though . Sorry you had your Kayak stolen. There are some real low life’s out there unfortunately.
Sometimes you can get trailer hitches that are “hidden” installed. That is what I did on my Subaru. There is a company called EcoHitch that made a kit that allowed me to install my trailer hitch through the bumper instead of under the bumper. Oddly enough, there is a cutout in the bumper that allows specifically for this, but the hitch that Subaru sells is an aftermarket hitch that goes under the bumper and pops up the other side.
Here is Kai helping me install it…
So now, when I’m not using it, I can either just put the orange “plug” back in the hole of the bumper, or I usually just put my little Rhino bumper bar back there which works as a step to help me strap crap to my roof…
A pilot doing physical work?! Now I’ve seen it all!
Looks fancy, never seen that system before though, what you usually see around here is one of those ball connections, whereby a steel bend rod terminates in a ball that you can lift a connection point of a trailer over, which then locks around the ball. You then only need to connect the disconnect safety brake if your trailer is over a certain weight, and obviously the brake/turn/night lights.
Well, that is just the “box” that you insert the hitch or whatever other accessory into. So coming out of that box in the bumper I can either mount a bike rack or cargo box or a trailer hitch with a ball on it.
. Sorry you had your Kayak stolen. There are some real low life’s out there unfortunately.
