Kuat Class 2 Kayak Carrier with Tie-Downs - J-Style - Fixed Arms - 1 Kayak

Video Transcript for Kuat J-Style Class 2 Kayak Carrier with Tie-Downs Review

Colin: Hey everyone, I'm Colin here at eTrailer, and today we're gonna take a look at Kuat's class two kayak carrier. This is a fix-mounted kayak carrier that mounts to the roof rack of your vehicle, allows you to carry your kayak to and from your destination. It's just a very simple system if you're looking for something that's more entry-level and something that's not gonna have too many gadgets and gizmos, just gonna get your kayak from point A to point B, this will be a great option for you.The carrier is gonna come included with two straps to tie down your kayak to the carrier and the roof rack, and it's also gonna come with two more straps, one for the bow and one for the stern.Both the bow and stern straps are gonna come with this thick rubber pad right here, it's a long strip. It's basically just there so that when you tie it off to your vehicle, wherever the strap makes contact with the paint job of your vehicle, you can put this between the strap and the vehicles to help protect that finish. You're also gonna be able to cut it up and move it around, should the strap be making contact with multiple parts of the vehicle.Now, even though it's a more entry-level kayak carrier, it's still gonna be very stylish and it's gonna be a great option to get the kayak on your roof to create more space on the inside of your vehicle for other cargo or passengers, or even some of those vehicles out there may not be able to fit a kayak on the inside, which leaves this to be a great solution.The cam buckles on both of your boat straps are gonna have these nice rubber coatings around the buckle, that's just gonna help protect your boat's finish and your vehicle's finish from any type of scratches or abrasions while you're getting it strapped down. One nice little touch Kuat added was they included these little straps to tie off your excess strap for all four of your straps.Now, this J-hook style kayak carrier is gonna be very user-friendly.

It's gonna be nice and easy to load, it's not gonna be too strenuous on your back. Everything's within reach, even if you have a height restriction, you don't have to reach to the middle of your roof to secure your kayak. Another great thing about J-hook style kayak carriers is that you're gonna leave room on the other side of your roof rack for more accessories such as a second kayak or even a bike rack.This carrier has a weight capacity of 80 pounds, so even if you do get one of those kayaks that is a bit heavier, the wide open cradle is going to make for easy loading and unloading. The carrier has a nice aluminum construction to it, it's gonna have a black powder-coat finish as well, so that's gonna help resist rust and corrosion.To help protect your kayak, the carrier's gonna have this nice, soft rubber padding on the sides and the bottom, it's just gonna help protect the finish of your kayak.It's very easy to get installed. You just take your included bolts, put them through the slots.

Now we're gonna take it and put it up on our roof rack, make sure that each bolt gets on both sides of the crossbar, and we're gonna have this rubber coated plate right here, that rubber coating's gonna help protect the finish of your crossbar when you're installing it. We're gonna make sure that the side with the curve is going under the crossbar.Once you have it in place, go ahead and hold it down with one hand, the other hand is gonna come up and begin to put on these wingnuts to help secure it. Once you have both of the wingnuts installed and you have it snug on your crossbar, the best thing to do is to tighten them both evenly up so you don't get too much pull on one side.This clamp-on system's gonna work great for our aero bars like we have on our vehicle right now, but it'll also work well with round bars, square bars, and most factory roof racks. Kuat's also going to include four additional bolts that are gonna be 20 millimeters longer than the ones we have installed right now. This is for if you have a thicker crossbar you're trying to install your kayak carrier on, and the other ones just aren't long enough.Now, keep in mind this is a fix-mounted carrier, so we can't fold it down to conserve on space added onto the top.

With it in this position, we've added on 13 1/2 inches to the top of our crossbars. Just something to keep in mind for any low clearance situations.Now, like I said, this is gonna be a very simple carrier, it's gonna get the job one. But if you're looking for something that kinda has more bells and whistles, Kuat does make a class four kayak carrier, which is also going to do a great job and be a nice high quality rack. You can check that out here at eTrailer.Thank you all for watching, that's gonna do it for our look at the Kuat class two kayak carrier.