C-Forum

I want to do something different with the rack on my truck. I do not have a camper shell. For my Viper & long Acrobat I've been using the front rack on the cab & one at the rear of the bed. I've been loading the boats upside down. My master cut Acrobat is too short for this set-up as is the Maven

I'm thinking of a cross-bar at the top of the bed near the tail-gate & a 2x4 on top of the wheel wells, putting stackers on each. What do you think & what have you tried or seen others doing?

i know of a guy who has a tacoma and he has two risers set up on the cab. its the access cab 2005, so he can have at least a 30 inch spread from the front bar to the rear, and he puts 17 foot flatwater boats up there, and i assume this would work for you as well, depending on the cab length.
cheers
-isaac

Depends on your budget:)

The most common thing I've seen is a 2x4 rack built up off the bed with a 6 or 8' spacing.

The Tygart River Racks are really nice, but not cheap....
http://www.tygartriver.com/

Another option, which my father went with, is the "trac rac", which gives you a moveable rack on a track (hence the name). Nice set up, and easy to take apart (at least down to the rails, which clamp on), unlike other options.
http://www.tracrac.com/

Of course, I've been known to move up to 5 boats without a rack just with a blanket on the roof and straps through the windows of a sedan. (which was fine on the way south, but toturous on the way north due to the heavy rain (which wicked down the NRS straps and dripped on my for 10 hours...).

I have a trac rack with a cantelever extension. As a rack the construction & adjustability is great. I can adjust the spread to carry slalom, wildwater, & open boats with proper support & positioning for tie-down lines, and easily pull it off to go thru the car wash.

The downside is, in my view you need some structure mounted on the rails to really allow the flexibility & proper support for a varied assortment of boats. I haven't gotten to working this one out as yet, but hope to come up with a solution that easily mounts on & off the trac rack bars. Their pricey "kayak" accessories are not that adaptable & a pain to take on & off. Nothing compares with the old 2x4's-with-a-vertical-upright for flexibility & adaptability. Sadly few vehicles today are designed to accept anything silmilar.

The basic issue with composite boats is that unpadded metal bar contact is totally incompatible with carrying anything you actually care about (ie, your nice race boat), and "systems" (ie, yak, thule, etc) generally consist of collections of over-priced gadgets each designed to do one thing - and do it badly. They are not designed to securely carry a quiver of boats.

Just my opinion....

Mike, check out http://www.pickup-rack.com/hawaiian_sawhorse_rack.html

I used a set of these on my truck for about a year and really liked it. You can cut gunwale grooves, add padding, customize the 2x4 to your heart's delight. Actually, I have a camper shell now and no longer use mine. The only recent use they've gotten is as sawhorses. Wanta buy 'em, cheap?

WOW The wealth of information here never ceases to amaze me! I currently have the rail-n-rack http://www.pickupspecialties.com/railnrack.htm

For my Viper & full length Acrobat I use a Yakama on the cab with gunwale brackets & the back section of the rail-n-rack w/ a piece of foam between the boat & metal. I haul the boats upside down.(This also works very well for my 18'6" comp cruiser) I was thinking that I should haul glass boats on their side. My plastic boats get tossed in the bed.

I'm a short guy & think it's good to have the boats low. My idea is to have the bow down in the front of the bed w/ a cross-bar just above the wheel well & the stern sticking up & out of the back of the bed w/ a cross-bar at the top of the bed near the tail-gate. I'd use stackers on each crossbar. Or, would it be ok to have just the rear crossbar & stacker with some sort of padded cradle for the bow to sit in? Would that put too much stress on the bow of a squirt boat?

I think you need to get a hearse or an old timey ambulance and carry your boats inside where they deserve to be. I hope that doesn't detract too much from your impression that there is a wealth of information here!

Actually, my preference IS to have them inside. Back in college I had an '81 minibus (extended Ford E350 1 ton van that had a high roof and swinging passenger door, due to it's former life as a school bus). GREAT vehicle. Get off the river, change in the vehicle, dry clothes on the clothes rack, open the back door, shove the boats in (slalom boat? NO PROBLEM). Plenty of room for passengers, even with the home-made couch that converted to a bed in back .

Eventually I DID add a rack system outside. I had hoped to have a big flat one on top of the bus, with ladder, but as a broke college student that wasn't going to happen. So i drilled a few holes in the side of the bus and put eye bolts in...I could carry two boats on each SIDE of the vehicle. Looked like a missle launcher according to some. Yes, it is a miracle I never got pulled over, but that's the north country for you .

An old Caddilac ambulance with tailfins would be cool It would have to have BUNCHES of metalflake in the gellcoat....uh, I mean paintjob

If your truck has lots of ground clearance, you could hang your Viper and Acrobat underneath.