Kayak on smart cap how?

[Scratch]

Just got a new hobie compass. How are you carrying it on your smart cap? How are you tying it down?
Thanks

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[Jaxmax]

I use Yakima rail pads with old school control towers with round bars, also use the Yakima cam lock straps to cinch down. I have a pair of boat loader bars on the passenger side that lets me extend out a bit to haul two wide 36” kayaks. The control towers and bars lock on and are easily removable. I also use them for surf rods. The Smart Cap rails take a different nut , a square nut, I drilled my rail mounts out to fit the larger bolt. I don’t haul long kayaks any more with the largest being a 13’ Wildy tandem sit on. I’m a Native guy, but the minimalist Compass is my favorite of the Hobie lineup, my go to kayak is a 12’ Liquid Logic Manta Ray, 64 pound hull weight. The one in the picture is a Native Propel ten, amazing kayak but heavy and wide….Jack

 

[Jaxmax]

PS: one other thing no matter what brand ya get being able to easily unlock and remove them is great, it takes about five minutes from removing the caps on rail mount to locking all the bars on. Why drive around with a rack all the time having the sun beat down in it, adding wind resistance and air drag……Jack

 

[Scratch]

PS: one other thing no matter what brand ya get being able to easily unlock and remove them is great, it takes about five minutes from removing the caps on rail mount to locking all the bars on. Why drive around with a rack all the time having the sun beat down in it, adding wind resistance and air drag……Jack

Please excuse my ignorance.....so the towers connects to the rails of the smart cap? Awesome! What towers do I need to look for? What are boat loader bars? Are they from Yakima as well? Im off to ask to Google.
Also do you only tie down to the bars and it is secure? Do you not tie down to the front and back or the JT?
The $800 I got of the compass new with the hatch modification sealed the deal. I couldn't find one used for that price. I did have to get the blue and not the orange that I wanted.

 

[Jaxmax]

Yakima is one brand, there are others. Yes you need to get Rail mounts that permanently attach to the RSI rails, then the rail towers will attach to that and can be locked on. I don’t know it they do round bars anymore, but there is one called the core bar, and you can get a boat loader to fit that plus they are a bit aero. Boat loaders are awesome, they slide into the bars and you turn a knob and they pull out about 28” , with actual plastic sand dollar end caps to hold the kayak on. I am a bit of a kayak nut and have gone in a lot of fun tourenaments, my heaviest kayak was a Native Propel 13, I would throw a blanket on top of truck between bars, had a rubber mat on ground about where mirror is pull
Loader out, set kayak upright on ground with the bow on rubber mat pickup the stern flip kayak over to bottom side up, bow on the rubber so it would not slide ,set stern on boat loader bar then go , go back and pick up bow and set it on other bar push kayak off loader and push loader in. The Propel was 95 pounds, I never needed help. Both of my pedal kayaks are wide now and double straps on the bar holds it fine, I have at time put a strap from bow to rack and stern to rack for front a rear movement. My kayaks have been up and down the east coast and never get loose or have issue. The Cam lock straps are the way to go stay away from rachet straps, you can easily deform your kayak with them and also starch the yak. I do know this though ain’t nothing cheap from the quality rack companies. I sent a picture of the first Duck my Jeep got with my daughter driving but you can see the mounts and the caps that cover them when rack is off…..Jack

 

[Scratch]

Thank you

 

[Scratch]

Yakima is one brand, there are others. Yes you need to get Rail mounts that permanently attach to the RSI rails, then the rail towers will attach to that and can be locked on. I don’t know it they do round bars anymore, but there is one called the core bar, and you can get a boat loader to fit that plus they are a bit aero. Boat loaders are awesome, they slide into the bars and you turn a knob and they pull out about 28” , with actual plastic sand dollar end caps to hold the kayak on. I am a bit of a kayak nut and have gone in a lot of fun tourenaments, my heaviest kayak was a Native Propel 13, I would throw a blanket on top of truck between bars, had a rubber mat on ground about where mirror is pull
Loader out, set kayak upright on ground with the bow on rubber mat pickup the stern flip kayak over to bottom side up, bow on the rubber so it would not slide ,set stern on boat loader bar then go , go back and pick up bow and set it on other bar push kayak off loader and push loader in. The Propel was 95 pounds, I

so I bought the Yakima racks. Clean set up for removal and install.

MY question is where did you find the right size square nuts for the rail. The original nuts are about 13mm wide. The Yakima supplies nuts are much wider. So I need stainless steel square nuts that are 13mm wide with a 6x1.0 thread hole to match the Yakima bolts.

thanks
Bob

 

[Jaxmax]

Oh boy, Amazon. I'll try and find the thread, it is the first RSI thread, we were all in the first order, had all kinds of fitment issues we worked out and the square nuts were posted by another member, I bought enough to send to a couple guys when they needed them. I did drill out the Yakima plastic mounts to the size of the metric bolt that fits the square nut......Jack

 

[Scratch]

I was on that thread and was figuring stuff out at the time like everyone else. I did purchase some of those square nuts both metric and standard. Probably not enough for this project.
So you just drilled out the landing pad holes to fit larger bolts? Not an issues with doing that?

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