WreckEm711
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2019
- Threads
- 5
- Messages
- 481
- Reaction score
- 1,241
- Location
- Lubbock, TX
- Vehicle(s)
- 2020 JL Sport 6 speed
- Thread starter
- #1
Hey everyone, as a 2-door/soft top owner that struggled to find a way to haul toys around, I wanted to share my experiences with the hitchmount rack after using it for about a year and a half now with many miles logged on both highway and bumpy terrain. I opted for this rack because I didn't want to lose the flexibility of putting the soft top up and down, while also not wanting a permanently mounted solution. It was $735 when I bought it early last year which is what it looks to still be selling for. I use it for two 9.5 kayaks, though they advertise capacity for up to 12ft and 140lbs of weight out of the box.
My thanks to @entropy who posted about this rack years ago, which helped me discover it last year!
Companion gear:
- Malone J-style kayak hooks & included tiedown straps
- Kapmoz hood anchors
- Ayaport cam buckle tiedown straps
- Cheap! (Compared to a kayak trailer or permanent roof rack)
- Easy to take on and off - 5 minutes tops
- Minimal impact to wind noise in cabin, which surprised me.
- Easy to get kayaks off and on
- Stable at highway speeds (If tied down properly!)
- While mounted, you lose access to the trunk
- Heavy and awkward to carry solo
- Need to bring a step stool to tie down kayaks or whatever else you put up there.
I went with the J-style kayak hooks because, although the rack comes with crossbar pads, it definitely isn't wide enough for me to feel comfortable mounting two kayaks to it without overlapping or stacking them. I worried about potential damage to the kayaks since I usually have to drive a ways to get to water and didn't want that much force pressing them together in the sun and heat to cause deformation.
Installation is stupidly simple. It takes me less than five minutes with a kid running around distracting me. The rack hooks into your hitch, and then is supported by one cam strap that hooks to your spare, and two stabilizing cam straps on either side that you can either mount around your spare down to the hitch, or to the sides and hook under the bumper to your frame (or bumper points if you have them). I definitely don't recommend doing the straps around the spare unless you're going a short distance at low speeds. I tried this method at first, and wind buffeting immediately caused them to pop around the spare and lose tension. Mounting to the bumper/frame has been extremely stable every time. I've been using included cam straps, but am thinking of moving to ratchet straps to make it a little easier to put equal tension on each side. However, it is bulky and the weight is distributed in an awkward way, so solo-installation may be a challenge for some. I'm about 5'10 and need a stepstool to tie the kayaks down once they're on there, which means something extra to bring with you on trips - it's not a big deal, but something to keep in mind.
I'm not sure if this is a flaw with the rack crossbars or the J-hooks I have, but after a while at highway speed, the hooks tend to slide along the rack no matter how much I tighten them. My kayaks, although still secure, would shift around, dramatically increased wind buffeting and noise. I zip tied the hooks together at the top where they touch, and have since started adding an extra cam strap around the middle that binds each kayak together to the main crossbar just in case I lost one of the J-hook straps somehow, and this has remedied that issue completely. On my first trip, I used pretty simple safety line to anchor the front of the kayaks to hood-straps, but I found that using more heavy-duty cam straps for this significantly increased stability in heavy crosswinds (I'm in West Texas, that's all we have here). I'd say this is pretty much a must-have, otherwise the rack gets a healthy left-right wobble that makes me nervous at speed. With this setup, I've driven this through extreme wind and severe storms without any issues and have complete confidence in the stability of the platform to keep my stable and safe.
The biggest downside for me is losing convenient access to my trunk space. You may laugh and say "But sir, you have a 2-door jeep wrangler, you have no trunk space!" which is fair, but I haul a wife, kid, and dog along on these trips, so that trunk space is valuable room for paddles, anchor, soft-cooler, and lifejackets. Right now I have my kid grab that stuff for me when we get to the destination, but it would be a real PITA to climb back there and grab it on my own. Although the rack is quick to install/uninstall, it's long enough that it would be tedious to do so just to access the trunk when you get to your destination and are ready to have fun. Forget about doing it while you have a load tied to it.
All in all, the hitchmount rack has been well worth the money and has been easy and satisfying to use. It has enabled me to retain the use of my soft top without permanently mounted hardware or an expensive kayak trailer. It was also developed by a veteran and is made in the U.S. which is pretty cool! I hope this helps anyone that happens to be in a similar situation and is looking for a solution. If anyone has any questions or finds this thread down the road and wants longevity updates, just holler at me.
Here's the aforementioned jeep/kayak dog as a reward for reading all that:
Sponsored
