This J-style kayak carrier allows you to transport 1 kayak safely and securely on your roof rack. The space-saving cradle system mounts to most crossbar styles and folds down for storage. Includes padded anchors and tie-down straps.
Features:
Specs:
The arms on this J-style kayak carrier are adjustable to fit a variety of boats. There are 2 levers, 1 on the outside of each arm, that are used to adjust the carrier. Depending on the size of your kayak's hull, simply rotate both of the side levers forward and pivot the arm to the appropriate angle to ensure that your boat sits properly in the cradle. Then rotate the levers back to lock the arm into place.
When the carrier is not in use, the upright arms fold down flat and out of the way. Again, simply rotate both side levers forward, pull the arm down so it's parallel with your roof racks crossbars, and then rotate the levers back to lock the arm into place. When in the folded position, the carrier extends just 4-5/8" from the top of your roof rack's crossbars.
The 2 included load straps secure your kayak to your vehicle's roof rack. Run each strap underneath the carrier arm, around the hull of your boat, down through the cradle and underneath the roof rack crossbar. Then pull the strap back up and through the integrated cam buckle. Use the buckle to tighten the strap and secure your boat. Each strap includes a padded sleeve that slides over the cam buckle to ensure that it won't scratch or damage your kayak or your vehicle.
Unlike many other kayak carriers on the market, which typically use metal S-hooks as anchors, this unit includes padded hood and trunk anchor points to secure the bow and stern of your kayak. Not only does this make for a quick and easy setup because you don't need to search for a safe place to secure a hook, but it also ensures that your vehicle's paint job remains intact. Tying down your boat's bow and stern helps to prevent the boat from shifting forward or backward during transport.
Simply open the hood of your vehicle, insert the padded anchor point, and close the hood. Then attach the strap to the bow of your kayak. Use the ratchet pulley to easily adjust the tension of the strap. Repeat this process at the rear of your vehicle by anchoring the strap in your trunk and attaching the other end to the stern of your boat.
Installation is quick and easy and doesn't require any tools. The included mounting clamps fit round, square, aero/elliptical, and most factory crossbars. First, position the cradles so that they are lined up correctly and are sitting at least 24" apart. Then slide the mounting clamps underneath your roof rack's crossbars and attach them to the cradles with the included screws. Use the included hand knobs to easily tighten and secure the clamps around your crossbars.
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hey guys. Today we're going to be taking a look at the etrailer J-Style kayak Carrier. Now this is a universal mount system, so it's going to work with your round, square, aero, elliptical, and most factory roof rack systems. Now, right off the bat, I can tell you that I've worked with a lot of kayak carriers. This one is the best deal. It comes with everything you need to transport your kayak, which is a big deal because most of the time they don't come with all the straps you need.
For example, your balanced stern straps, with this kit, they are included. You also get hood and rear hatch anchors. Most carriers don't even include these. Again, you have to pick them up separately. On some vehicles, you don't always have easy access to an anchor point, like a tow hook.
You may even have to get on the ground, get underneath the vehicle to find one. These save you the hassle. They simply set in place underneath your hood or rear hatch. You close it and then they're anchored.The carrier itself is comparable to most other J-style carriers. With that being said, let's take a look at our roof.
If we choose to go with that J-style carrier, we've got room for a second set for an additional kayak, or we've got room for other accessories like our bike rack here, versus if we we're to go with that saddle style carrier, we would only have room for one kayak. Now, I'm going to go ahead and take the kayak off. That way we can get a closer look at the carrier. Plus, this may help you on how to take it off, or how long it may take to take it off.I would like to point out that all of the straps do feature a padded sleeve that goes over that buckle. We'll take a quick look here.
That way if it we're to come in contact with the vehicle or the kayak, it's not going to damage it. Now when you get to this part, if you need an extra set of hands, you can find somebody to help you. Otherwise, if you think you can muscle it up, go ahead and go for it. As you can see, it is a little bit of a process to take the kayak off, but it's a lot more economical than picking up a trailer that hauls a kayak. It can be a little bit more expensive, plus you'd have to store that somewhere, maybe in your garage or on the side of your house. This way is going to be a lot easier when it comes down to it.So as I said, this kayak carrier is comparable to most J-style carriers, it has that J-style design, that way it's going to hold our kayak. We don't have to worry about it slipping out from underneath. Now, they're all either made out of an aluminum or steel construction. This one's made out of aluminum, so we don't have to worry about the elements causing any harm to it, like rust or corrosion. They're all padded in some way to grip and keep our kayak safe. Along the whole support, we've got some adjustable padding so it'll better accommodate that kayak. Now as far as the padding itself, I want to say it's a little bit more resilient than most padding on other carriers. We don't have to worry about it tearing right away. It seems like it'll hold up for a while, though I wouldn't trust it to hold out as long as maybe a rubber coated kayak carrier, so just keep that in mind.Now, about that whole support here, I want to say that this one's a little bit wider than some that I've seen. It's actually about eight inches on center. I'm not sure if this is going to add to the support of the kayak. Sone are a little bit more narrow, but in my opinion I would think wider is better, so we've got that. Now, what I really like about this carrier is that it is adjustable to fit a wide variety of kayaks. We can pull the levers here, and it opens up those hubs and we can adjust it further out. I know that there is different size kayaks out there that may have a different hole size, so rather than having to worry about picking up a different kayak carrier, this one will accommodate those. Now when not in use, it folds flat. That way we don't have to worry about the elements smacking it along the road, and we most definitely don't have to worry about pulling in our garage or maybe a parking garage. When in this position, it only sticks up about 4-5/8" from the top of our crossbar.When it comes to installing the carrier, it's pretty simple. I'm going to raise this up, just so we can get a better view. The clamp goes underneath our crossbar, the flat washers go on, and then the wing nuts go in place. Here, you can see the bottom portion of the clamp. Turn this on its side so you can see it. Now, both portions of the clamp are rubber coated for grip and so that they don't harm or scratch our crossbar, should we want to take it off someday.Now, I did mention that it will work with a wide variety of roof rack systems. However, if you're using a round or a square bar, it may have a tendency to want to either roll forward or backward. When the kayak's in place, there's less of a chance of this happening. If this concerns you, then you can pick up a carrier that specifically attaches to a round or square bar. What I'm going to do now is go ahead and just reattach this. Of course, when you're installing these, you want to be sure that they're in line with one another, and that you installed them on your crossbars straight up and down. You want to be sure that your crossbars are at least 24 inches apart, that way you can safely carry that kayak. With them in place, you can see they're not going anywhere and we're all set.We'll first start by putting our hood and rear hatch anchors in place. So again, just want to find a good spot underneath your hood and we'll just shut it. We'll make sure it's secure, and then we can put our rear hatch one in place. Now for my 4Runner here, I don't need to use the anchor if I don't want because I have a trailer hitch. What we can do, is we can take our strap without the buckle, can run it through our tow loop, and get that set up like so. I'm just going to leave it here for the time being. Now again, if you think you can muscle it yourself, go ahead and try it. Otherwise get an extra set of hands. We'll want to be sure that its centered. I'd say it looks pretty good.Then we can run our straps on the back side. I'll take the padded end, I'll toss that over first. Then I'll take the other end and I'm going to run it inside the whole support, just like that. Then, toss that over. I'll do the same for the other one. We'll come around to the front, climb back up. Now I'm going to make sure the shorter end is the one with the pad, and we can rest that on our kayak, because as we said, it's not going to cause any harm to it. We'll take the longer portion, going to go down through my carrier, underneath my crossbar, and then back up, so it'll look like this. Then I'll go through my buckle, and I'll pull it nice and tight.Take my strap without any buckles here, go through, pull it up like so, same as up top, and then we'll go through our buckle and pull that nice and tight. Now this doesn't need to be extremely tight. This is just going to prevent the kayak from lifting in high winds, or when we're traveling at high speeds. Now, if you'd like, on the ground before you put your kayak up top you can have these done already, whatever's easiest. We'll connect it here.Now that we have everything secured, we can head out and see how it performs on our test course. This is our test course. Let's start with a slalom. This shows side-to-side action such as turning corners or evasive maneuvering. Then, on to some solid speed bumps. This shows an up and down action such as pulling in and out of a driveway or out of a parking lot. Then finally, onto those alternating speed bumps. This is going to show a twisting action, such as going over potholes or uneven pavement.
Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars (20 Customer Reviews)
This J-style kayak carrier allows you to transport 1 kayak safely and securely on your roof rack. The space-saving cradle system mounts to most crossbar styles and folds down for storage. Includes padded anchors and tie-down straps.These J-racks and the straps that are included are of some of the best I've seen. Very high quality and value for the money. Etrailer has been very helpful and and a GREAT company to deal with. I had an issue with another order that the part wasn't compatible with the other parts and they took care of it quickly. Appreciate the great staff at Etrailer. 652235
Fits great on my 2019 Subaru Crosstrek. Great quality product and the straps are a bonus! This is the third car we’ve outfitted from this company and I can’t say enough good things. The car looks awesome with my 2 vapor 10 kayaks on top! 672626
Bought two of these kayak saddles for my Toyota Highlander and installed them onto the factory racks. I don't have the name-brand equivalent products from Yakima or Thule to compare against but I have a hard time imagining that they are better quality or better thought-out than these etrailer saddles. They are very high quality gear. They are adjustable from vertical to horizontal so you could carry anything from canoes to surf boards horizontally to kayaks vertically. The accompanying webbing straps are nicer than any others I have ever seen and come with hood and window anchor points and eveything you need to tie just about any boat shaped object on top of your car. Great job etrailer. You won't find a better product at a better price than this. 651797
Great product for the price - The cradles were very easy to mount (and lay flat once folded). The videos were helpful in showing how to set the straps in the most efficient way. I test-drove my car today with my fishing kayak on top on a 80-mile round trip (a mix of freeway, country road and dirt tracks). The kayak was perfectly still, no particular wind noise and I was able to muscle to kayak up the roof and take it down on my own (it's a 52 lbs boat). I really recommend that product and I'm glad I went for J-Style cradles! 662039
Got the product installed. Haven't got the Kayaks in them yet. So far they seem like they will work well. They look nice. The only thing that I am concerned with is the tightness of the plastic handle you turn to lock and unlock the fold down feature. Very tight and nervous it could break as it is plastic. So far so good. 654751
Good product,very easy to install. 604490
Myles D - 02/13/2020I needed a low profile retractable J bar kayak rack that could install on an Aerobar to hold my Wilderness Systems Tempest 170. It just arrived, shipped super quick in excllent protective packaging. I went through the box and this is well made, quality construction and design. Everything professionally and expertly packed in the box. I look forward to installing it and will update my review after a few uses! So far impressed with the ordering, shipping and equipment! 611771
Ordered etrailer folding kayak j-rack to transport kayak on 2010 Toyota Rav4 with factory racks. After a lot of research, I opted for these to give them a shot, and glad I did. Aluminum frame, stainless steel bolts and nuts, rubber coated bracket, all straps for 1 kayak, easy to install. Took longer to unbox than place on rack. Folds down nicely. This rack makes it very easy to transport a kayak ( or 2 if you order extra straps). Very satisfied with this purchase and etrailer’s service. 643253
Ok... It's the middle of winter in Colorado, but I'm getting ready to put the kayaks in the water. Shipping time... Great! Three days. Packaged perfectly. Mounted easily. Mounted the kayaks. The only hard thing was putting the strap around the back of the bracket. A stepladder will need to go with me to the water! I drove around to make sure all was secure. Perfect! 60 plus mph.... All is fine. Nice to have the front and rear tiedowns included. All hardware is heavy duty, and well supported by my stock Outback racks. Need to take them for a trip to the mountains! (After the snow clears out...) . 751510
Excellent. Exactly as described and shown in video. Was able to use the day it arrive. If you have doubts about what to buy the videos on this site are really good. Have recommended to others. 656786
I've used this kayak carrier for almost a year and I really like it! The etrailer J-Style Kayak Carrier is easy to install, holds my kayak really well, and offers so many features at a low price tag. The folding feature is great for those moments I need extra overhead clearance without much warning - sometimes a parking garage is the only option. I really appreciate that this carrier comes with all of the straps I need to secure my kayak, plus the anchor straps to make securing the bow and stern so much easier! The padded covers for the buckles are a really great bonus to protect my roof and my kayak from the metal cam buckles while securing my boat. I've had this carrier on my car for almost a year and the aluminum construction means they look just as great as when I put them on the first time. 613115
I purchased two etrailer J-Style Kayak Carriers. I have used them on and off through out the year. Easy to setup on to the stock Kia elliptical crossbars. What is extremely nice about this carrier is all the straps are included. They are easy to use and if your not sure how to attach youtube has many videos about strapping your kayak. The only problem with the straps is the excess length. I tried to wrap, roll, and tie but the wind manages to uncoil. So I wrap up then use a little duct tape to secure. My first trip using the carrier was a 3 hour trip with some heavy crosswinds. Nerve-racking but the kayaks remained secured. Solid rack and convenient with everyhting included. 749824
Arrived as advertised, and the quality looks great. Can wait to get these kayak carriers mounted. Had a little administrative problem on our end, and Christy handled it at etrailer's end. Great customer service! 700072
Product arrived promptly and properly packed. Assembly straight forward and appreciate the etrailer videos. I really like the under hood and tailgate attachment points which avoid metal hooks. Folding kayak bunks is also a plus. 695268
etrailer customer service is fantastic. They helped me decide on the product that best fit my needs and promptly got the order filled and delivered. This type of personal service is not found very often anymore. It is greatly appreciated though. I would not hesitate to use them again for my trailering needs. 693352
Love the kayak rack. We were replacing one that we had that was not sturdy. This one is great. Easy to install - very sturdy and my husband couldn't be happier. Also, we received it very quickly within a few days. Thanks! 680548
Very good product, however somewhat to use by a single person, should be a better way to clamp the kayaks to the J Supports. Otherwise very secure. 671342
Easy to assemble on the Yakima trailer. Have not yet had the kayaks on the trailer or on the road, but pleased with the easy installation. Product appeared a bit pricey but now appears worth the price. 668264
The customer service was second to none... product is outstanding and extremely easy to install. 660615
Fast delivery very good product im sati sfied 646474
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