Kayak Transportation

So I finally made the decision to buy a fishing kayak after much back and forth. Fishing and/or just being out on the water is a necessity in my life.

If you own a kayak and drive a tin can like I do without a roof rack, then you know the struggle of transporting your kayak. This instructable will eliminate those horrendous straps on the front and back of your car as shown in the second image up there.

Just as a warning, this does involve drilling holes in your kayak as does many kayak additions.

1) 100% Silicone Waterproof Sealant to cover up and seal the excess openning in your kayak after you drill the holes and a caulk gun ($7)

2)Eye Bolts- you must get eye BOLTS, not eye screws. I got 1/4 inch because the openning was just big enough for my straps to go through but no to obnoxiously big that'd get in the way.( You will need 4 packs if they come in 1 per pack like how they do at Lowe's ) ($5)

3)Toggle Bolts- makes sure this bolt size matches the size of your eye bolts (in my case 1/4 inch) (You will need 2 packs of two to make four total) ($4)

4) Drill with 3/4 inch drill bit- yes I understand that is a huge drill bit but you'll understand later on it the instructions.

Yes I understand this step may be very painful to drill out holes in your awesome kayak.

You're going to need to drill 4 holes, two on each side of the kayak wide enough apart so that you can run your car straps through them and into your window to keep it sturdy.

At first start off with a small drill bit to get the hole going. Then increase the size until the 3/4 Toggle bolt can fold up and go into the hole as shown in the little diagram on the side of the box. Just wait until the next step before going ahead and putting your toggle bolt in the hole.

All you need to do it screw in your eye bolt into your toggle bolt.

I put on a nut, a washer bigger than the drilled hole, and then the toggle bolt in that order.

The toggle bolt will then fold up and you can push it down into your hole. Then just let go of the wings and it will open up like a butterfly.

To tighten it down just pull up on the eye bolt and turn it clockwise to tighter the toggle bolt. It catches on the inside of the kayak and tightens.

Yes I agree it's a bit ugly but it'll pay off in the end when you don't have to buy a $300 car rack and will save time on strapping the thing down for a trip.

Let the silicone dry for a while and then test it out! Now all you have to do is run your straps the width of your car and through the four eye bolts (2 per strap) to keep the kayak from moving forward or back when traveling!

That's all there is to it. Thanks for stopping by!