Purchased a Yakama rack system for use with my bike/ski's/kayak well everything was fine until I loaded the kayak (have the roller/saddle combo) kayak weighs in at 45lbs. After returning from my adventure I discovered two dents in my roof at the rear towers! I can't keep my eyes off them, I would never have used this if I thought this would be the result.

 

That sucks dude... It shouldn't have happened...How did you secure the Kayak? to the bars or to the car? Well... never mind. I've carried 4 bikes on mine and they weigh a total of about 80-90 lbs total. No problems... Did you install the towers correctly?
might want to check a paintless dent repair place to fix the dents.

 

I was thinking of getting Q towers. Maybe I should rethink that now.

 

Thanks, I'm going to look into it when I feel like removing the head liner, also it's on the contour (rise) hope it can be removed.

 

Did you inadvertently drop the kayak on the rack to apply a bunch of sudden, downward force?

I've had two racks (Yakima and Thule) on a previous car and I never saw dents. I saw scratches and stuff, and one deep scratch where I dropped the short roof adapter on the car.

 

No the towers were installed by the book, I would imagine the combination of a fiften foot boat and the seventy to eighty mile an hour speeds resulted in the final result. I'm not realy happy about it though, even with the stated mounting points the doors still hit the clips.

 

I recall having to pull mine in quite a bit to prevent the door from striking the clips.. I would take the rack off quite a bit and re-installing was always a challenge to get it just right. Well, good luck.

 

Mine, I put cloth tape over the outside surface of the clips too. And they don't hit my door. It's all in the adjustments. good luck dude.

 

Got them on my 2K1 with 3 bike attachments. Doors close fine. Have done 80mph with 3 bikes on top. Again, no problems, no dents. As stated earlier, you simply need to adjust them.

Good luck!

 

perchance do any of you folks have pictures of the racks installed on your cars?