Hello agai master baiters. The internet is giving me mixed answers so I figured i better ask people who've done this longer than me.
If I mount two kayaks to my roof like such. Do you LEGALLY have to use the front and back strap or can I get away with just two on the sides. Don't want to be handed a ticket on my way to the lake.
Is. Not my car. Got this picture off of Google
Posted by Initial-Boss7904
7 Comments
You should regardless of the law.
You slam on the brakes for some reason and that thing is going right down onto the windshield. Or the wind hits it in the right way and it slips out the back and you cause an accident.
I would say no. As long as you strap the kayaks down well with ratchet straps you wouldn’t need to have front and rear straps.
Yes.don’t create a lethal torpedo in a wreck
Do you need to? No.
Is the extra 60 seconds it takes to prevent bodily harm worth it? I’ll let a jury answer that.
Legal does not always = safe.
Not illegal, but from my experience, you 100% should. By “my experience” I mean when my kayak ripped the roof rack off the top of my Jeep (literally leaving holes in the roof) on a windy day and flew off on a highway. I’m supremely lucky that nobody else was on the road or who knows what would have happened.
For the extra few bucks and minutes to strap it down, I’ll never go without.
If you had good hard mounted racks, you might get away without the extra lines, but with no real support, yes…you need bow and stern lines.
Of course you SHOULD have bow and stern lines, but I’ll be honest, 75% of my trips are within 10 miles so I just strap it down with two NRS straps.
Also agree on the non-use of ratchet straps. Not good for kayaks. Get the blue NRS straps.