Woolmeister wrote:

I like Ron's idea of using a decorator's platform but that's fine if you're only paddling a playboat.

Are you saying I'm just a big kid



was a 10' tourer but now an 8' ww kayak btw.

ronp wrote:

was a 10' tourer but now an 8' ww kayak btw.

It must be nice to own and paddle such a manageable craft (on land), Ron! The 17' sea kayak is far more manageable than the lump of plastic that is the Malibu Two XL.

Might have to get myself one of those platforms, though, to load her onto some J bars. Good suggestion.



Steve

Woolmeister wrote:

Chopcat,

We have an Ocean Kayak Malibu Two XL Angler (which the kids like to mess about on) and a P&H Scorpio 170 Sea Kayak (mine!). I've not been able to transport both at the same time yet because that Malibu Two XL is a bit of a beast (I don't enjoy moving that anywhere) and the standard LR roof bars don't make the best use of the width of the car. Am considering upgrading to a Thule system to utilise wider roof bars.

The Malibu Two XL is 4.1m long, 0.9m wide , and weighs over 30Kg. It's not the easiest of things to lug about on your own (especially as there are fewer convenient places to grab hold of it).

Last year, I made a relatively cheap kayak loader out of some CLS timber, some plastic waste pipe, and some foam paint rollers. It works reasonably well. Will try to take photographs of it next time I have it out.

The wooden frame mounts on the rear roof of the D3 and slots neatly under the rearmost roof bar to prevent the roller from moving once weight is applied to the roller part. The roller, then overhangs the rear of the car by a few inches to prevent the high-level stop light becoming damaged when loading (and to keep the kayak well away from the paintwork). My wooden frame may also clear the plastic aerial on the roof of your D4 (I don't have one on my lowly "S" so cannot comment).

With the hull facing upwards, I'm able to lift the bow of the boat onto the roller on my own and then I can grab the stern and push the rest of the boat onto the standard LR bars singlehandedly. The plastic waste pipe (with foam paint rollers slipped over) does bend a bit under the weight so I will be looking to strengthen this aspect of it this year. The internal diameter of the paint rollers is a perfect fit over the external diameter of the waste pipe.

Thule make a roller system which attaches to a cross bar but the problem I see with this is that the rearmost roof bar position on the D3/D4 is way too far forwards to be of any use. The roller on the rear of your Defender is probably level with the rear door, which makes this easier.

I like Ron's idea of using a decorator's platform but that's fine if you're only paddling a playboat. Anything larger may start becoming too heavy/cumbersome to lift singlehandedly form the side of the car. For tying down the boat, I typically stand on top of the rear tyres to do this on the rearmost bars and stand in the rear passenger footwell to do the frontmost bars.

Will try to take some photos of my DIY kayak loader this weekend when I have it out. I also have some plans which I sketched out before I built it. I'll scan those and stick them in my gallery.

I have a hobie revo and came up with a roller on the defender. I will have a look at making a similar set up to the thule roller setup which is not available for th ethylene aero bars that I have.

It will need to be easy to put in as you won't be able to open the boot with it in place so some sort of removable slot in system is in my mind.

Any pics would be good and I will post whatever I come up with
Cc


Steve