Has anyone attached kayaks to the rear ladder?

Ron, if that's your concern, and background, and you've access to friends with fabrication skills, I'd be building a hitch-mounted vertical rack out of 6063 or 7075 aluminum tube along the idea of that shown above.

By the time you go to the time and effort of modding the ladder you could have the whole rack done.

The other advantage, IMHO, of using a hitch-mounted rack is that the kayaks end up on the centerline of the M/H instead of off to one side as the ladder usually is.

Jax

It's the dynamic and wind loading that concerns me. I have a structural engineering background, and have a bit of cable cross bracing devised for the ladder steps to the mounting brackets to help stabilize and enhance the ladder frame.

I'm working with a friend's (think Cheap and Deadliest Catch shop) for aluminum and SS fabrication for components.

Pangaea Ron wrote:
I'm considering attaching two small 10'-4" kayaks (47 pounds each) vertically to the ladder on the back on the MH.

The ladder is rated for 225 pounds.

Any thoughts.

Rated for as in someone climbing it, not a constant load multiplied by every bump in the road and wind load moving the kayaks while driving down the highway.

Metal fatigue is nothing is not something to be ignored.

We originally traveled with two ocean going kayaks on the roof, but they made our solar panels useless. We travel with a 3 section kayak (Point-65). One section horizontal on rear stowage box & two attached to the ladder. (See Photos).







this is another option I found but we needed the rear stowage locker.

shep

That's probably my only concern. I'll post some drawings of my proposed set-up soon. I'll know more then.

I Would be worried that the constant weight movement on the ladder cause the roof mounts to leak

I put on a front hitch, Thule cross bars on truck and a Rhino-Rack T-Loader front carrier and carry mine like this.

Moderator edit to re-size picture to forum recommended limit of 640px maximum width.

Thanks for the responses.

I'll probably mostly carry them on the roof rack of the Honda CR-V, but only on the MH ladder when without the towed vehicle.

I'll start engineering something.

I carried one on the ladder of my old fifth wheel. Used a ladder lawn chair rack on the bottom rung and stuck the nose of the kayak in that. Ran three bungee straps around the kayak to hold it tight to the ladder. Worked great just a PIA to get it on and off the ladder. Ended up putting them on the bed in the fiver after nearly breaking my leg getting it off the ladder. If you go this route make sure you're not blocking your tail light. I now use a roof rack on my truck.

I wouldn't see any problems if the weight is that light.