Most Popular Side Loading for 2002 GMC Sierra

I installed these as soon as I got them and I’ve got to say, there are some extra holes for screws that are a tad misleading and the pieces that secure it to the cross bars don’t seem super secure. For reference, I do have Rhino Rack’s vortex crossbars so this should fit snug. The rubber tops were tough to get into place and I am worried they’ll snap when I go to remove my rack but Rhino Rack has yet to fail me with their products so I bet it’ll work out great!

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This is a great product. As a novice kayaker I was nervous. The assembly was easy with clear instructions. My sales professional Crystal K. was a pleasure to work with. She knew the answers to all my questions. From placing the order to the delivery I am very satisfied. I will be using etrailer again. I can't wait to get my kayaks to the water.

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Love the roof rack! Works great for kayaks! They fold down when not in use..perfect!

First experience with purchasing from etrailer. Absolutely felt that my order was personalized which is a nice touch. The Rhino Rack S512 folding JStyle Kayak holders arrived boxed impeccably with no damage whatsoever and the price was great! Fantastic first time experience. Looking forward to using them. Thank you.

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Bought a pair of these to go on 59" rhino rack bars on our Outback Wilderness and am really pleased. I left the bars full width - they are not a head banger on the car - and mounted the Hullavators as far outboard as possible which means the kayaks clear the side of the car and wing mirrors without folding them in. I did have to modify one Hullavator to make the Hobie Lynx fit (36" wide Lynx = 36" max Hullavator width)

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2018 Ram 2500, wanted a way to travel with 2 sit on top kayaks, With my wife and i in our late 60's it was taking a LONG tome to get the kayaks on the roof of the bed cover. With these i can do it with a short stool. Also carrying the kayaks upside down keeps the top cleaner and stops the water from getting trapped in the kayak (and raining down on me when I unload them).

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Love the product. Can't wait to take our new tandem kayak out. etrailer is fast, efficient and has great prices. I'm also a fan of their efforts to provide good customer service by seeking customer feedback.

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I bought the Rino-Rack , RR571, to replace an old set of Yakima saddles that I gave to my daughter along with my kayak, Yakima bars and towers. I have just recently purchased another kayak and didn’t want to spend the money again for the Yakima saddles so selected the ones from Rino-Rack. They look to be a pretty good product, not as good as the Yakimas but plenty good enough for me. After installing them and loading and unloading several times I find the saddles tend to turn on the round bars even though I have them tightened down as hard as I dare. I ended up boring a small hole through the base into the pipe of the round bars and inserting a half inch No. 8 sheet metal screw. Time will tell if that keeps them from turning. If not I’ll have to try something else. The included straps are first rate and I think the saddles themselves will be fine it’s just the clamping system that I question. They would be fine for any flat, square or oval bars but round bars but round bars are hard to clamp to even though the advertisement states they work on round bars.

This product is excellent. I have transported my kayak on these J Hooks several times going 70+ mph down the highway. It never moves. The bolts that come with it are short. If you have a thick roof rack, you will need longer stainless steel bolts. Make sure you you orient the blue straps with the buckle on top so you can pull down to tighten it up.

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I think the Thule Hulaport kayak racks are the best, most secure way to transport your kayaks. I had these on my Xterra and hauled two kayaks up to Cape Bretton park in Nova Scotia, Canada from Connecticut, USA no problem. We were even able to store gear in the kayaks for the trip. I’m so excited to have them for my Crosstrek. Highly recommend these!

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've previously used the Yakima Kayak Stacker (old style), which worked fine but I always worried the straps would slip off the hook at the top while I was loading boats. They also didn't fold down, so had to be removed after use unless you wanted to look odd and cause a whistle while you drove down the road. They didn't have a universal attachment option, requiring adapters depending on the style and make of your crossbars. More recently I got the Thule "The Stacker", which is a superior solution. You thread the strap through a closed loop at the top, so you don't worry about straps slipping off while you're loading boats. They fold down after use and have a universal style attachment that fits around most styles and makes of crossbars. Good stuff. I really like the straps that come with these, as there is a rubber cover that slips over the metal cam buckle to protect your car's paint while you're tossing the strap over your boats to strap everything in. In order to shuttle our boats for river trips, we needed stackers to fit on both our cars, so it was time for another set. I had never heard of Rhino Rack before, but the lower price than Thile caught my eye, so I read about them and decided to give them a try. The Rhino Rack Nautical Stack used a closed loop at the top, which I liked better than the Yakima or Malone options, and came with the hardware necessary to install them into the C-channel of my Malone aero crossbars, which I wanted to try. I remember that with the Malone stacker, you had to buy the C-channel mount hardware separately. I really like the Rhino Rack Nautical Stack. They are a single post design, unlike the loop style of the Thule "The Stacker". I don't know if this cuts down on vortex drag, but it definitely saves you a couple horizontal inches up where the boats stack. The Rhino Rack Nautical Stack has textured rubber strips on either side of the post, which I believe is intended to cut down on vortex drag, but is also quite helpful in that boats tend to slip much less when you're just leaning them up against the post as you load up before you strap them. That's smart. The Rhino Rack Nautical Stack feels really solid. The mechanism for folding them down and locking them upright is easy to use and feels solid. Installation instructions were good. I tried to install into the C-channels without removing the rubber tubing in my Malone aero crossbars, but couldn't get the little squares to slide into the slots with the rubber tubing in place, so had to cut the tubing, slide the Nautical Stacks into place, then cut down some of the tubing I had removed and replace it in the remaining unfilled crossbar slot. That's not a knock on the Nautical Stack; just a tip in case you're trying to do the same kind of install I did. The one area in which I was less impressed was the tie-down straps that come with this kit. The metal cam buckles have no covering at all, so I'll probably still use my old Yakima and Thule straps instead and use these as backups. But overall, I think these are going to work at least as well, if not better, than the Thule option, and for quite a bit less money.

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So much better than the 'C-shape' kayak holders. These things allow you to fit inside a garage, and add up to four kayaks. Very easy to use.

This kayak carrier works great with my factory Rav4 roof rack and 10' Tamarack Angler kayak. I did break one tightener knob but probably over-tightened it. And it was replaced for free. I can load and unload the kayak easily and it doesn't budge going down the freeway. I can even drive in and out of the garage with the kayak on the rack for easy storage hanging from the rafters.

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Installed this Thule Top Deck Rooftop Kayak Carrier System with tie onto our Thule Roof rack system. Easy to install and this will carry our handmade 17' Wooden Sea Kayak. Very well made.

It's doing the job of securing my kayak to my rackless prius, at a fraction of the cost. However, the instructions included along with the straps did not work for me. I spent a considerable amount of time adjusting things: the red straps that are supposed to go over the boat and secure on the bars were not long enough. The blue straps are much longer, so I am using the red straps to secure the bars to the car, through the open doors and cinched inside the car. I am using the blue straps to reach over the boat, and I decided to feed those into the car too- feels more secure than to attach them to the bars on top. The black straps for front and back strapping don't work for my car in the way shown, I had to jerry-rig. Overall I have figured out how to make it work, and I'm glad I didn't spend $xxx.xx on a serious rack system.

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It's reliable and very easy to install. Trapped several different kayaks onto roof and driven long distance at top speed and no issue with kayak getting loose or moving around.

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The product seems great but I have not figured out how to get it safely attached to my bars. I have an Agricover Adarac on the bed of my truck and the crossbars are 1-1/2 x 1-1/2 inches square. I thought this would work well since it's for up to 3-1/2 x 1-11/16" crossbars, but it isn't secure on these. I'm going to try and figure out an alternate method for attachment though. Thule Hull-a-port Pro's are the perfect (mounting) solution but don't seem to be made any longer.

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Great product and great customer service! Very easy to install, but I highly recommend to watch the installation video first. We used typical black office clips to clip the excess straps down since they came untangled when driving. Also, I recommend to purchase locks for the racks since we are concerned someone may steal them because they are so easy to take on and off.

The Rhino-Rack 2 Kayak Carrier I ordered from etrailer was easily reviewed and ordered from their website and ALL communication relative to order confirmation and extreme detail included in their tracking was nothing short of phenomenal! The items were packaged with care and arrived intact. These fit our basic Lexus crossbars and is the perfect product for carrying our two (2) kayaks. My hat goes off to the great folks at etrailer -- It doesn't get any better than this!!!

These work great and I was able to install them on the OEM rack for my truck. The only downside is that the threads for the clamp hang down a little too close to the roof for comfort.

The keys are an issue (wish they were metal), but everything else is great! I go sunrise kayaking only and hate putting straps on with cold hands at 3:30 in the morning. I have a Nissan Pathfinder and was able to put this on with another set of Malone J-hooks so that I can have a second kayak when I go with someone. Once the fear subsides of it possibly falling off, you realize how quick and easy this thing is to use. It takes me 1 minute instead of 9-18 minutes to get my kayak up and secure. I have tested it at 75mph without any jiggling or issues. I sat on this in my shopping cart forever and finally pulled the trigger. If you kayak at least 10 times a year or are going at high speeds for extended periods of time in warm weather, totally worth it. If not, well, there are cheaper options out there.

Rec'd earlier this week, so today i will install. The item was obviously a return. The logos are nearly scratched off in places, all the items were loosely thrown in the box, and the 10mm wrench and hex key were missing. i think everything else is there. The keys should be a bright color instead of black, some spray paint will fix that. Anyhoo, i am a little disappointed.

Brought home a new kayak yesterday using this J cradle for the first time. Easy to set up and load. Two complaints: not impressed with the strap buckles - had to tie knots to secure. And the 3-inch bolts weren’t long enough to easily attach the cradle to my Rhino Rack crossbars, so I had to replace them. Also got my finger pinched pretty good adjusting the cradle knobs - my fault for not being more careful, but just saying …

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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!

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I really like these j-style folding kayak roof rack mounts. They are very low profile and I am able to leave them on while I drive a standard 5th generation 4Runner through a standard 7 foot garage door.

I rarely leave reviews but I have ordered a few items from etrailer lately and will say that I am impressed with how quickly they get my order shipped and how quickly it gets here.

We needed a better way to haul around 3 kayaks and after looking at a number of options, we settled on the Thule Stacker setup. Installation is simple and the stackers provide a sturdy option for hauling multiple kayaks. One of the best features is that they fold down when you don't need to use them. My shopping experience with etrailer was smooth and shipping was prompt.

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My wife uses these to carry two small kayaks in the roof of her Subaru. They work great and we very happy with the purchase. She also likes finding her car easier in the parking lots, even with the carriers folded down.

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I had the moulded downloader and needed the folding in order to fit in the garage. The top feed for the tie straps isn't as good as the moulded J-style rack, the strap came out of one, but the kayak stayed where it needed to be. It is easy to raise and lower the rack, but I am not always sure at what angle I am supposed to set them. With the moulded J-style, they are at the perfect angle for holding a kayak. I wish the clamp that goes under the bars were a better fit for the oval bars, but they do send two different size bolts and the longer ones work.

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The Malone DownLoader is very good value for the money. The J-style cradle is nice when you have to muscle a kayak on top of a tall crossover or SUV. You can hook the edge of the cockpit onto the base of the cradle and flip the kayak up onto the metal hoop support. Carrier installation and removal is easy and doesn't require any tools. Materials are good, but not great and that's what prevents this product from getting 5 stars IMO. The foam padding is nice enough and has been durable, but the metal plate that attaches the carrier to the roof rails is plastic coated steel and the plastic cracks over time, and leads to rust on the steel plate beneath. Not a big deal, but it might compromise the plate over time. I also wish that the provided nylon straps were longer, and that the ratchet buckles were covered in rubber to protect the roof of the vehicle and the windshield when you're trying to get them around the hull of the boat. We quickly replaced these with longer aftermarket straps that have rubber covers over the buckles. Those minor points aside, the Malone DownLoader kayak carrier gets the job done easily and safely, and does so at a very affordable price point.

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