John,
We sometimes carry kayaks (one is 40 lbs, one 60 lbs.- each 12' long). ...and it took a lot to go ahead and drill those holes in the fiberglass to mount the artificial rain gutters. We did It is probably what you had....
a Yakima set up.
wide body artifical gutters
58" bar
Mako saddles
Prior to the decision, we did a lot of research on the Samba website and contacted several people who had posted their setups on the Samba. Placement of the brackets took time for us to decide up on as well. I don't recall how far apart they are. We don't carry the kayaks often, in the whole scheme of things...so hopefully stress cracks won't be an issue down the road.
The ladder was a tad too long to fit in the luggage well on the roof, so we cut it down by 1/2" and remounted the feet back on. When we raise the roof, Brad stands in the luggage well, and I inside the van to lift up. Same with lowering. Being careful is obviously quite important. To load them, we load from the back, by both of us lifting the kayak, Brad in the front being 6' tall, he can position the front of the kayak on the saddle, then we slide them forward. He uses the ladder to strap them up afterwards.
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Good luck.
Andrea
