Tie-Downs

To transport your kayak, you'll need some way of securing it, whether on a roof rack, truck bed, or trailer. I recommend the type of tie-down strap shown above, with hooks on the ends, and cam buckles, not ratchets. Ratchets are a pain in the ass, and you don't need all that much force anyway. In fact, you don't want too much force, your boat is only made of plastic!

When it comes to tie-downs, more is better. On the truck rack, I use four per boat - two to secure it fore-and-aft, and two to secure it side-to-side. If you're good at puzzles, you could figure out how to do it all with just two, but I don't like to think that hard, and tie-downs like this are cheap. In the bed, two would do, but I have four, so I use them all. Especially on the highway with high wind loads, you will never regret using extra tie-downs.

Your tie-downs should be at least as long as your boat, so you can reach from anywhere to anywhere else, or have plenty of length to wrap around things. Light-duty tie-downs are perfectly adequate - you're not trying to crush your boat or pull the handles off !!! An inexpensive set of four should run you under $20.

Don't forget to secure the paddle as well, and the seatback. And don't trust the bungie cords to hold your PFD in place at 70 miles an hour!


I recently installed these aluminum seat strap buckles. They are a direct replacement for the factory plastic buckles.

The swiveling part of the plastic buckles broke years ago, and I just tied the straps onto the remaining part, which is much beefier and held up fine, although it is now visibly bent. On new boats I automatically remove the swivel and never give it a chance to break.

But this loses the easy adjustability of the original buckle, and I think it is just a matter of time before the remaining plastic part breaks as well. The aluminum buckles restore that adjustability, and are much stronger and I don't worry about them at all. And they look great.

I found these on eBay while looking for replacement buckles to carry as spares. They are not that much more expensive than the plastic ones. I tied the old buckles inside the 'trunk' just in case.

Printed from njkayak.net