Mrg02D

Anyone here have experience with kayaking and Cayenne transport? I’m wanting to get two small kayaks for my wife and I and want to load them on top. I don’t have the factory roof rails, so I’d need some solution (Thule?). Any tips?

-Matt

wkearney99

The search function should help.

https://rennlist.com/forums/cayenne-...-question.html

https://rennlist.com/forums/cayenne-...base-roof.html

Mrg02D

Yeah I know there are options for cars without rails, I’m asking specially about transporting/loading/unloading kayaks. And yeah bruh, I used the search function. Kayak was mentioned once in your search results and only in passing.

wkearney99

If you used search and found little specific for kayaks... you'd think that'd be a sign.... 'bruh'.

There are plenty of kayaking-oriented forums online. If you've got specific loading/unloading questions... that might be a more resourceful channel than here.

I say this understanding the issues with loading them. While I'm tall enough to just lift them onto the roof, my brother's pretty short, as is another friend that paddles a lot. Their consensus seems to be there's little that aids the process without bringing along more hassles of their own. Various cranks, pulleys and other gizmos. In the end they both went back to the kind that carry them on their side. I've been looking for various kayaking things as gifts for them and they keep telling me the rack options aren't worth the go-around with ordering/returning. So it's been VHF radios, EPIRB beacons and the like instead.

One tip (that you may already realize), bring along a towel and make use of it to guard against anything dropping on the pano roof glass, if you've got that option. The pano panel and mechanism is a apparently expensive to repair, so best to keep that in mind any time you're putting stuff over it. That'd be my biggest concern, making sure whatever brackets I used wouldn't have a tendency to drop/turn in a way that risks smacking into the panel. My old Yakima setup for front wheel forks was notorious for denting the top of the clapped-out Jeep XJ I had at the time.

So, sorry, bruh, if I didn't spoon feed a perfect answer.

Mrg02D

Why respond with a “should have used the search tool” ? Just move on to another thread if you don’t have anything to add. Only trolls do that ish.

Also, I don’t care if you find it complicated to load a kayak. I care about what others are doing, which is why I asked. Finding little in the search doesn’t mean that no one else is using their Cayenne to do this ether. I posted HERE because I’m not interested in how someone loads a kayak on their Jeep or whatever, I’m interested in how they are loading on their CAYENNE.

Just bugger off.

Tom M

No direct help but you might also want to peruse the VW Touareg forums for what they're doing to transport them.

ghost_03

We haul kayaks from time to time, it works fine. It's far and away easier to load with two people, one on each end, just because of the height of the car. I'll also stand on a rear wheel or open the backseat door and stand on the door sill at times, particularly when dealing with straps around the boat.

If you have a tow receiver, the safety chain loops work well for stern straps, and the front tow hook mounts work well for bow straps (with the tow eyes screwed in of course). Especially without rails you'll want those, as whatever rack you go with could separate from the car with the boats still attached to it. IIRC the car comes with one tow eye, multiple may be helpful, particularly if you don't have a hitch.

Oh, and as mentioned above, be careful with moonroof/panoroof etc. if equipped. I think even a lightweight kayak could break one of those.

Mrg02D

Any particular racks out there that you might recommend? I do have the towing package, so can utilize the rear tow hitch. I would need to put two kayaks up there, small ones.

ghost_03

We're fortunate to have the rails so I'm not sure what crossbar options are like without them. I'd stick to something flattish though as some racks will rotate around the round bars as you try to load.

As far as the boat rack goes though, we like our Yakima BowDown--they fold down when not in use; IMO the car ends up looking like some sort of moose or deer with non-folding ones mounted.

wkearney99

For you? No.

But hey, if you can't have the discomfort of wet shorts from kayaking, at least someone here can be a pain in the **** instead. Glad to help.