Transporting Hobie Oasis

[hurring]

Hi All
I have the oasis and I am looking at changing to a new lease car in a few months. At the minute I tow my yak on a trailer because I have a ute witha canopy and no roof bars. I want to get away from having to take the trailer on every trip. I am looking at getting the X-Trail with roof racks. Has anyone transported an oasis or similar size yak on one of these (Oasis is 4.42m long) The roof bars are not far apart, look to be under 1 metre. I am thinking I will need to add a nudge bar option to be able to secure the front of yak to that and I could alway to a rear tie point to the tow bar. Would the optional yak holders for the roof bars be a good idea as well to help keep it all stable or just use the bars and secure front and rear, or worst do I need a bigger car???
thanks

Adrian

[kads]

Hey Adrian,
In my travels I have seen similar setups where as the roof racks are very close together. You will find that if you use ratchet tiedowns that the yak will be surprisingly secure with 2 straps 1metre apart, however, the setups I have seen have a rope from either end of the yak that tie down to the towbar & front bumper.
Maybe just tie it down and see how stable it it, experiment with some rope at either end. Shouldnt be too hard to secure it safely.

[hurring]

Yeah Kads
that was my thoughts, use tie down straps and see how it goes, worst case rope on front and rear as well. Just hoping someone may have tried it and tell from experience.

Adrian

[kads]

If the tie downs aren't secure enough..you could make a simple pole with a roller on it that will fit to your tow bar, using the tow ball to lock it down, put a roller on the pole, this will help load/unload, and you can tie to that as well as your roof racks...here is a simple picture.

[dinium]

I have the kayak holders and my roof racks are around the same distance apart (maybe a little closer). They help bed the yak to the car in the upright position, avoid too much pressure from the bar and eliminate any sideways movement.

I also thread the back tie down through the rear scuppers and under the rack to ensure the yak can't slip forward or back when breaking or accelerating. Hopefully some scuppers will line up for you.

With the Oasis being 20cm shy of the length of the XTrail, tying the nose down to avoid any vibrations at higher speeds may be a good option. I'd secure it the other two ways then test to see if it was needed.

[dinium]

Closer to scale.



I'm leaning towards needing that front tie down now that I've seen this. I also think you're going to be lucky with the scupper holes lining up too.

[ajt223]

I met a bloke from NSW in Tassie last year who had a similar setup to the previous picture. The car wasn't a XTrail but something similar i.e. bars close together & a long yak. What had happened to him was the updraft under the long front yak overhang was sufficient to rip the front couple of screws/rivets out of each of the longitudinal bars that are screwed/riveted to the roof. His temporary fix until getting home was a rope from the shnozz of the yak to the top of the bullbar. No further damage was done (until then anyway). I'd be doing exactly the same, on a permanent basis, having seen what had happened to him. Maybe he was just unlucky & no major harm was done but...

aj

[hurring]

Thanks All

Love the photo shopping, certainly gives me a good idea of how it will look. I think I will get the nudge bar and the kayak mounts for the bar. I will investigate the rear towbar mount because a bloke at work has one that he uses to put the yak up onto the roof. As Kads shows it is another anchor point and I would rather untie tie downs than pick the yak up off the freeway!!!!
thanks for your answer and efforts with the pics greatly appreciated.

Adrian

[lampukameister]

Don't have a picture but I just tie front and back as well as onto the roof bars. We have a Prado and I tie the front under the bumper where the transport loop is and onto the towbar at the rear.

[kads]