Kayaks or canoe on a class C

I've owned The Yakima Trailer the past 3 years and love it.
When not using the Kayaks I store them in my garage attached to the trailer.
70 miles per hour is no problem, trailer tracks beautifully.

These RV Kayak Racks are seen everywhere on RV's including Fifth Wheels with a frame mounted class three receiver. They hold bikes and kayaks normally 11' or less in length. Just Search for RV Kayak Racks and look for the company online. It is the only company making these and they have patents on it. www.rvkayakracks.com

I'm kind of a kayak snob - my attitude is that anything that could fit on the back of an RV vertically, would be too miserable to bother paddling. When I'm specifically kayak-camping, I pull a 12' garden-type trailer - here it is, with a few friends boats added, too:



But we just bought a 5th wheel; and although we *could* put a hitch on the front of the truck, I wasn't comfortable with the restricted view a 14' kayak offered, (nor did we want to double-tow) so I bought the Sea Eagle Fast Track 385 inflatable.

Look at General Forums, Beginning RVing (Good Portable Boat)for ideas and comments. We have been traveling off & on for 3 years. In 2011 & 2012 we carried two ocean going kayaks on the top of our RV. Very difficult to handle. Last year we bought a 3 section kayak. The sections snap & ratchet to-gather, works well, easy to store at home. The kayak is manufactured in Sweden and sold in the US. look up Point65 kayaks for more info. Each section is a watertight shell, wide & stable. They also make a sit-on and & ocean style.

There is a product called Boatloader, or something like that, made for loading small aluminum boats or canoes upside down on top of camper shells, vans, etc. It has an electric winch motor and folding arm that pulls the boat up over a roller rail at the rear of the camper and drags it forward to rest on the front rail of the rack. Probably expensive, but likely the best way to load something that big and heavy so far up high on the roof of a motorhome.

A hand cable winch could be used, if you're up to it.

Harvey51,

Nice little Class C there in your signature photo!

I checked out this Adventurer company website, but it appears that either I have the wrong company, or that they may not offer Class C motorhomes anymore:

http://www.amlrv.com/

I'm always curious about small Class C motorhomes - especially ones built on the standard gas powered Ford and Chevy chassis. Even used late model small ones in the 20' - 22' range are getting very rare nowadays in the U.S. and Canada. Does any manufacturer in either country offer them new now?

IMHO, it's too bad everything has to be bigger now.

I would love to carry a canoe on the motorhome but I know it is way too high for me. In fact, it is getting too hard to use the cartop carrier on our old 3/4 ton van. We have pulled a utility trailer with the canoe on it; worked very well but a little troublesome parking.

Once I found a guy driving the same MH we have. He said he carries his kayak on the cab over bed!

The inflatable sounds great! We do have two $70 inflatable kayaks but they are strictly for warm weather because we inevitably get wet. There is nothing quite like a canoe.

Check out the Sea Eagle Fast Track inflatables. We tow, but too small for our 16 foot Old Town kayak. We found the Fast Track to be almost as fast to paddle, and it fits inside.

I've been looking at these:

Kayaks: Shearwater

Row,sail, small motor: Passagemaker

roake wrote:

wbwood wrote:
RV Kayak Rack

A neat looking gadget, but I doubt this will handle a 17 ft boat.

With a 17' boat, you probably need a trailer.