Fitting roof rack

kayakloz · Post by **kayakloz** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 12:27 am

Hi i want to fit a roof rack to my Bongo to take a kayak i am a welder/fabricator so making roof rails or bars is no problem. i would like to fit a kari-teck roof rack to the bars/rails any ideas on the best way to go about this .the kayak weighs about 60lbs many thanks Lawrie

mikeonb4c · Post by **mikeonb4c** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 12:44 am

Have you seen the excellent GRP roofracks AlanT4 is making up? Light, v strong, will look great sprayed silent silver and lacquered, and very affordable. Ian is selling them through the Bongo shop

Post by **Bob** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 12:44 am

Hi Kyakaloz, welcome aboard, a good few people on here transport canoes/kyaks, I'm sure someone will give you an answer soon, meantime you could try the search facility. Just use 'roofracks' or 'kyaks AND Roofracks', or whatever you can think of.

brookie · Post by **brookie** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 5:41 pm

Hi, I've got a AFT and use a Thule 420 foot and 2 metre wide bars. Fits a treat, just enough clearance for the roof, although if you're only transporting one boat 1.6 or similar bars will be fine. I get 6 creekboats on mine with no hassle! Check out the members area for roofracks, or the Bongofury shop for more ideas. BTW, the only drawback with my setup is you cannot raise the roof! Good luck!

skyhigh123 · Post by **skyhigh123** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 5:51 pm

As Brookie says, the Thule 420 racks are ideal. They are as fitted to the old Landrover Discovery and they often come up on Ebay. In fact there is a set on at the moment bidding at £10.00 with 4 days to go. (Do an Ebay search on Discovery Thule and you will find them.). I carry my hang glider on mine and the bars are fine so they will be ok for a kayak

Rhod · Post by **Rhod** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:46 pm

Kayakloz
Do you have the karitek rack already, or are you buying it? The reason I ask is that Geoff at Karitek is making me a rack to carry a pair of open boats & a pair of bars to carry it, which are custom made to fit the AFT roof. I will hopefully

get the rack when I meet him this weekend...... He obviously has the appropriate measurements & said that he'd be happy to make up more Bongo specific bars.

I'm not knocking the other bars available, which probably do the job just as well, but mine will be designed specifically for the Karitek rack & to minimise the effects of the sideways forces exerted by the way the rack works & wind forces on the boats (bigger factor with open boats & sea boats). Let me know if you want more info.

Rhod

kayakloz · Post by **kayakloz** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 8:51 pm

Rhod wrote:Kayakloz
Do you have the karitek rack already, or are you buying it? The reason I ask is that Geoff at Karitek is making me a rack to carry a pair of open boats & a pair of bars to carry it, which are custom made to fit the AFT roof. I will hopefully get the rack when I meet him this weekend...... He obviously has the appropriate measurements & said that he'd be happy to make up more Bongo specific bars.

I'm not knocking the other bars available, which probably do the job just as well, but mine will be designed specifically for the Karitek rack & to minimise the effects of the sideways forces exerted by the way the rack works & wind forces on the boats (bigger factor with open boats & sea boats). Let me know if you want more info.

Rhod

i havent purchased the roof rack yet will yours fit to the free top as i still need to us the roof sleeping area oviously i would take the kayaks off first ps was it very expencive

samuel · Post by **samuel** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 12:06 am

Kayakloz

We use the kari-tek which has been modified with bespoke brackets by the previous owner. I think Rhod is probably using similar modifed brackets. They work a treat and as Rhod stated keep the profile down by keeping the rack close to the roof. The kari-tek takes some beating as if you've had a hard days paddle you don't really want to be lifting kayaks above your head onto a standard rack. Its not cheap but then a Rolls Royce never was! Hope this helps.

Tim

samuel · Post by **samuel** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 12:14 am

This is the profile you get with modified brackets. Thule's would put you quite high. These are so easy to use.

Post by **Simon Jones** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 12:47 am

Wow Tim, that looks neat!. I've just bought a Perception Scooter sit-on-top kayak, so am keen to so how other folks transport theirs. I'd be a bit worried about having all that weight/drag on 4 tiny nuts glued into a plastic roof, but so far I've never heard of anyone's roofbars flying off at speed. Once her ladyship gets her kayak, then we'll have two to lug around.

Rhod · Post by **Rhod** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 9:10 am

- I'm collecting the rack & bars this weekend & will report back after that.

- While the maximum load for the AFT is quoted at 65kg, this is for the roof down. I can't remember the maximum load that you can have on the roof & still raise it (someone will be along shortly with the info no doubt!) but effectively you won't be talking about much more than the bare rack. Apart from anything else, I suspect that overloading will just burn the motors out. However the Karitek is so easy to use that it's no great chore to remove the boats for the night.

- Having seen the way my open boat can shift slightly under sideways wind forces on previous cars I was also a bit worried about trusting to the fittings on the AFT. However I took the Bongo down to Geoff at Karitek & he gave it a fairly thorough investigation before pronouncing it to be quite capable of carrying a pair of sea kayaks or open boats. With longer boats like these I nearly always tie them down at the bow & stern - one of the reasons I want to add a set of "bull" bars is to give tiedown point which avoids damaging the bonnet paint - and this should help reduce any lifting effect on the roof mountings. I have a friend with a VW Bilbo conversion who has carried a pair of sea kayaks on his lifting roof for years with no problems, and the Mazda AFT is probably a stronger construction.

Rhod

brookie · Post by **brookie** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 11:11 am

Hi again kayakloz,

just to confirm, the Thule ones are guttermounted, so no worries with the weight on them. I put a pair of uprights on the end (not enough clearance for the brackets in the middle) to secure straps through. If you're having to get the boats off the roof to lift it anyway, it's only a 2 minute job to take the rack off too. I can get the roofrack on and off on my own by lifting it from the back onto the gutter and sliding it down to the desired spot (but I am 6ft). The benefit of this is you can infinitely adjust the distance between the two, so the hull of your boats won't catch the roof. You may find they will with the standard holes/distance in the Bongo top. Worth considering. I'll try and get a picture up one day of the Bongo and 6 creekboats on top, it looks great and I've not had any probs at all. Good luck!

MountainGoat · Post by **MountainGoat** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 5:01 pm

Rod
If you could get someone to fabricate a modified version of the Original Bongo roofrack which uses both the aft roof lugs and unclipable legs resting on the gutters to take the weight. You would go a long way towards solving you load carrying and tie down problems.

Rhod · Post by **Rhod** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 6:38 pm

Mountaingoat
That was my original idea, & was what Geoff was going to fabricate but when he looked at the roof, Geoff reckoned that it would easily take the loads proposed - he's the qualified engineer & specialises in building the systems, so I'm happy going with his assessment.
Time will tell..........
Rhod

MountainGoat · Post by **MountainGoat** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 7:34 pm

My point was about the tie down problems and your need for bullbars. It is one thing about the aft roof being able to take the load and another the strain being put on the roof should a strong gust of wind catch the boat.