[longbedbob]

Any wagon owners have issues loading their kayaks from the rear?

My petite wife has a SUP that she will be stowing and unloading by herself. It's a quality unit, being lightweight but expensive. However, because of the width and length she will not be able manhandle it onto the car from the side. Instead, she'll have to rest it against the rear door and slide it up and over. To protect the paint, we've picked up a Thule Waterslide, which is essentially a mat that straps to the roof rack to facilitate just this approach.

However, I'm not sure how robust the rear spoiler is. Can it support a modest amount of weight leaning and sliding against it?

 

[John86]

It should be able to support the weight. Maybe try resting it on there when you're with her and see if there's much flex if any and go from there?

 

[skycomag]

ck these out:

if these don't help then try this I saw on a kayak site.
on the side you have your kayak on mount on the roof, open that door and cover the "v" the door makes then place the bow of the kayak in it. now go to the back of your kayak on left into your roof mounts. now raise the front up now and place into the roof mounts.. secure your boat with tie down straps .off you go an paddle away..
I hope this helps sake paddling.


I don't have your problem cause mine is inflatable.

 

[1stsubie]

Any wagon owners have issues loading their kayaks from the rear?

My petite wife has a SUP that she will be stowing and unloading by herself. It's a quality unit, being lightweight but expensive. However, because of the width and length she will not be able manhandle it onto the car from the side. Instead, she'll have to rest it against the rear door and slide it up and over. To protect the paint, we've picked up a Thule Waterslide, which is essentially a mat that straps to the roof rack to facilitate just this approach.

However, I'm not sure how robust the rear spoiler is. Can it support a modest amount of weight leaning and sliding against it?

Not loading a kayak but loading my bike onto the Yakima FrontLoader can be a pain seeing as I'm like 5'7" lol. Gotta stand on my toes to load/unload my bike. Last car was way lower so it'll take some getting used to.

 

[elorimer]

i got one of these: Sherpak? Boat Roller I got it on sale at Westmarine, which meant it was $5 more than at REI.

I used it with my Forester, which had a radio pigtail that unscrewed. It was a handful to slide a double kayak up that high, for me, but it worked.

I was very concerned about the sharkfin in the 2017 Impreza, and I wasn't going to rely on the spoiler at all. But I found that mounting this close to the spoiler, the kayak will slide up to the rack crossbar and clear the spoiler and the sharkfin handily. One reason I moved from the Forester to the Impreza was that it would be easier to load stuff, and it is.

My rack is a Yakima RailGrabber, round crossbars, with cheap presson spongy kayak pads. If this hadn't worked, I was going to get one of the Yakima bars that slide out of the round crossbars.