Anyone haul a kayak on your Prius?

Not one, but two, 11.5 footers.
And two bikes on the hitch, fun, fun, fun.

 

How about a 13 foot canoe?

 

My wife and I are getting kayaks this summer - probably in the 12-foot range. But I figured we'd use our Sienna (already has a roof rack) rather than the Prius. Thule makes a kayak rack that will fit the existing Sienna roof rack.

It will be a little more difficult in getting the kayaks up on the roof/removing them from the roof, but I just didn't want to do anything that would screw up the mileage we're getting with the Prius.

 

That question gets asked all the time... (notice my avatar)

The User-Guide has details.

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I can load four 16 foot kayaks with fishing gear on my Rack and Roll trailer. Usually it is just two 16 footers. DarrylDDs amazing Mod site led me through the hitch installation.

My friend puts an 11.5 foot long board on his Prius. But the noise is severe and it always seems like we are going to lift off the pavement with the wind that thing catches. The on top option is perfectly viable but will cause a greater hit to MpG.

The size (beam) the Kayaks, makes a big difference in wind blockage and reduce aerodynamic. I have noticed that with one friend's behemoth (36" beam) kayak on the trailer (compared to my two which are both 28") the Mpg - 6 MpG drops lower than with two 28". Two 28" - 38-40 MPG. One 28" and one 36" 32-34 MpG. I thought that was interesting.

Drawback the trailer isn't cheap, but it is easy to load. My friend went with the plus nut mounted Yakima track mounted loadbars which is a lot more solid than the door sill clamps. I am not sure how happy I would be with 12' or more feet of kayak on top of the vehicle going 55 Mph with a strong crosswind.

Any questions about yaks or loading - feel free. Good luck.

 

I use a Thule J-rack system for my 10' and 12.5' boats. Not cheap but well worth it. My mileage has dipped about 2mpg since install.
..............dbw

 

Here's my 17 footer on Saris racks for a "test fit" I wasn't going anywhere so the boat isn't tied down. This boat is very narrow (20.5") so I'll be interested to see what the mpg hit is. SO far I have not noticed any difference with the racks as far as mpg is concerned although they do make some noise. That said I have not really been on the highway with them.

 

It will be a little more difficult in getting the kayaks up on the roof/removing them from the roof, but I just didn't want to do anything that would screw up the mileage we're getting with the Prius. [/quote]


Explain the logic in that last statement, please. It'll be tougher to get the boats on and off the roof in the Sienna, but you don't want to "screw up" the mileage you're getting from the Prius? With a couple of kayaks on board you'll still probably get something in the 30's mpg in the Prius, I'm sure, yet your willing to waste the extra gas and money at 17-22mpg in the Sienna? I'm not following that.

 

Good lord - I put a smiley there to indicate I was kidding. Geez.

We've put a lot of miles on our Prius - coming up on 45K miles in a little more than 2 years. When I can identify a task better suited to the van (32K miles in 4 years), like hauling stuff to the landfill, or helping move some furniture, I use the van.

I think I'd rather use the van to haul the kayaks. The roof is larger, and it is already fitted with a roof rack. If the van gets a little nicked with getting the kayaks up on the roof or down, I don't care as much as I would with the Prius.

When we take the kayaks on vacation with us, we'll have plenty of room in the van for whatever we want to take - people, animals, luggage, etc.

Whichever vehicle I use, I would expect some kind of a hit on the gas mileage. But for the reasons listed above, I think we'll probably go with the van rather than the Prius.

BTW, our Sienna has a 25.2 lifetime mpg. Given the size of the engine and body, I don't think that's bad at all.

 

securing kayak tip....

Being that roof racks need to be mounted such a close distance from each other
(@ 28 inches ) it is EXTRA important that kayak(s) be secured with a line from the bow to front of car. I have found the perfect attachment point (there are few options). Pop the hood. Attach a permanent loop through the small hole directly below the hood latch, and pull it throughthe first grill opening. Voila! You now have a bombproof attachment point, that you can tie a line to the kayak(s), without opening the hood,or crawling under the car. Use thin high strength nylon cord....use a trucker's hitch to tie off kayak to loop that you can stash in grill opening when not in use....

 

i heard that a lot of the electronics for the car are in the roof.. is there a problem if i put thule rack system on the roof for my two kayaks?

 

A thread revived from ages past... needs updating for the 2010.

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More (and bigger) photos are available in the album on my website.

And yes, those kayaks are sitting above the solar roof without any trouble.
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Yes! I have a 2021 Perception Outlaw 11.5 fishing Kayak that weighs in at 75 pounds, I bought a Malone brand suction base cross bar set up for around 150 at bass pro and with 4 15 foot NRS straps it is GOING NOWHERE LOL. Decent setup I can get the Kayak on and off by myself but if someone was elderly you may want a lighter boat or a friend to help but yes the Prius can in fact haul a kayak.