NorthWest Kayak Anglers
Kayak Fishing => Drillin' & Cuttin' => Topic started by: Ravensfan on May 07, 2017, 10:20:14 PM
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Hi all,
Today I picked up a new hibiscus color Outback for my wife so she could join me on future fishing trips. I'm still relatively new to kayaking, and have never carried multiple kayaks. The guys at the shop recommended two Malone Downloader Jracks as the safest option. We loaded my Revolution and the new Outback onto the racks with some assistance, and made our 4 hour drive back home. Once we got home, we noticed two large dents in the sides of the kayak where it comes on contact with the j rack. My stomach went to my throat, and hasn't returned since. I think it wasn't all the way in the rack when we strapped it down, causing too much pressure on the side at those points. I'm planning on calling tomorrow to see if there is anything the dealer can do since the guy at the shop put the kayak in a bad position on the rack. Has anyone had this problem with your Outback on jracks?
Kevin
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Hey Kevin I know how you feel. Had a dent in my new Outback too upon taking delivery. The shop owner checked with Hobie and there was a procedure for removing dents but I wasn't too keen on having to perform the operation on a new boat that hadn't even seen water yet. So I did a swap for a virgin boat, problem solved for me.
Here is a video I was directed to for getting dents out of Hobie and probably any other poly kayaks. With so many air leaks on a new unrigged Outback, e.g. the thru hull transducer hole, the fish finder cables holes, the rudder control lines thru hull points, and the seals on all the hatches, it would seem a hand pump would be fruitless for the method the video shows. Perhaps an air compressor might work if you duct tape all those mentioned points to stop air leaks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpuIJzMotDg
You may be in luck though providing you or a friend has long arms. Your dent locations looks like it might be reachable through the center hatch and the rear hatch. (You might have to temporarily relocate the foam support blocks.) Using the hot water method in the video it may be a simple effort to push from the inside to restore the shape, then hit it with the ice water while holding pressure from the inside to set the molecules back to a hardened state.
I can tell you have read the extensive, repeated "warnings" in the Hobie owner's manual about deforming the hull from various extended time external forces and temperatures since you have your new 'baby' sitting on couch cushions on a lawn. :) As an aside, I would look for a wider rack mount that allows both kayaks to lay flat or consider a towable trailer now that you have an expanded family. Those harbor freight/Fred meyer 4'x8' utility trailer kits are inexpensive and can be equipped with a wooden rack mount if you don't have someone to weld you up a frame to go on it. See Mojo Jojo recent post for an example. I have the same trailer I may rig the same way. http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=19268.0
Another thing to keep in mind as the summer temperatures rise is your boats strap tension is going to contribute to deforming if its a scorcher day with the boats sitting in the sun on edge. Not much problem here in AK when 70°F is almost record-breaking. lol Thus the suggestion to transport in an inverted flat position just for peace of mind.
Good luck on your Dynamic Duo trips!
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Wrap it in a big black plastic bag and leave it in the sun to warm up, as it should pop itself back out on it's own.
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I had that exact same problem trying to use a Yakima Big Stack with multiple kayaks. I would have assumed the j cradles like you used had less deflection in the side of the kayak than my factory bars because of the distributed load. I haven't found a good way to do it yet but I am inclined to believe that focusing more on securing the load against the vertical (or in this case, near vertical) surface and less against the horizontal surface is the intent of the design. In other words, just use the bottom as a rest and not as a strapping point. It also seems like inverting them so the gunwales take the contact would be less prone to dents. I don't like stuff wiggling, but even with a very small bit of tension I was getting deformation on the side of the yak at the contact point with the bar. It freaked me out enough that I've never used it other than a few test loads to see if I could get it to work without denting and then just scrapped the whole idea. Heat makes it even worse.
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Wrap it in a big black plastic bag and leave it in the sun to warm up, as it should pop itself back out on it's own.
This ^^^ (while you're calling the dealer)
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The kayak will be fine; if you set it in the sun it should regain its original shape in a day or two (obviously don't store it in the sun long-term).
I know that other people on here haul Outbacks with the J-racks but I personally have found them insufficient for the width of the Outback. I have a Thule J-rack on my trailer which holds my paddle boat nicely, but with the Outback up there it seems way too wide for the intent of the J-rack and no matter how I strap it down it doesn't seem good to me.
If you find a good long-term solution for the Outback on the J-rack please post back so I can learn. Good luck with your situation and I really do think the kayak will be fine. I put a dent way bigger than that in my OK Malibu 2XL (improper storage) and after about 3 days in the sun it was fine.
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I've hauled my outback and Malibu II XL in j cradles before and have never had a problem with dents. Ive never hauled them 4 hours like that though so take this with a grain of salt. I use the Jaylow cradles from Yakima. I will loop the strap through the loop of the "j" part then up and over the boat and down to the crossbar towards the side om my car. If I can't get the strap to stay in the "j" then I'll loop it around the cross bar right below the "j" portion of the cradle then up and over the boat and back down to the cross bar towards the side of my car. The idea is to get it to pull into the cradle on the bottom of the boat, not pull down onto the side where yours was hitting. In your picture, where it's strapped down to your car, it looks like the strap that goes up and over your boat and down to the backside of your roof rack kind of goes back towards the side of your car and not straight down to your crossbar. Maybe that's why it put such stress on your boats side instead of towards the boats bottom.
Maybe it's the design of the jaylow cradles or maybe I just got lucky so far...
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Looking more closely at the photo, you can see the end of the hook of the "J" is pressing into the hull right where the dents are. I don't own racks like that, but it looks like it doesn't much matter how you strap it, the outboard end of the rack is going to press into the hull, not cradle it.
(http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/gallery/5808-080517203336.jpeg)
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Mojo could weld up a custom j cradle so it's deep enough not to dent your kayak.
That's a bummer discovery, but as Capt. Redbeard said, the dents will come out once the plastic is warm, and it'll snap back to original molded shape.
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I recently took delivery of my new 2017 outback and I just noticed a dent on my kayak. I laid it flat when transporting in 45 degree cloudy weather with non-ratchet straps...so this came as is from shipping.
Here is my observation: compared to my 2011 outback (I sold it recently) 2017 outback has thinner hull design. If you press down rear cargo area, the reflection is lot greater than 2011 model. Maybe hobie decided to re-engineer hull geometry and utilize foam supports to mitigate this change.
My friend and I also noticed 2017 being lighter...not very scientific but the new outback was easier to move around. I even compared it my new outback to 2014 revo 13 and the light penetration is definitely brighter on 2017 model.
I'll post some pictures of how I usually store my kayaks but it looks like any side storage (save space in garage) will be problematic. As indicated by numerous reports from the store I bought it from, warping is #1 complaint. That being said I'm not returning it because I already drilled into it. Unless there is stress crack or hole forming due to usage, I'm hoping hobie will cover any manufacture defect.
In the mean time I will keep my hairdryer handy.
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Here is my observation: compared to my 2011 outback (I sold it recently) 2017 outback has thinner hull design. If you press down rear cargo area, the reflection is lot greater than 2011 model. Maybe hobie decided to re-engineer hull geometry and utilize foam supports to mitigate this change.
That's really interesting. I wonder if the plastic is softer now in addition to (or instead of) being thinner. With the Mirage drive well crack stories from the earlier eras I figured they'd soften the plastic a bit (and reinforce that area better of course). The plastic on my wife's recent Outback seems quite soft compared to the plastic on my WS Tarpon and compared to the OK Malibu 2XL that we had before. But I'm not comparing it to an older Hobie, just to other brands.
Since you're seeing greater light penetration I'd guess that at least parts of the newer Hobies are thinner and maybe other parts (drive well, etc.) are thicker. But man, if you're telling me Outbacks used to be even heavier, sheesh! That thing feels like it's as heavy as the Oasis! ;D
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If you had more areas of support I am sure you could hang it from its side. If you were to add more ropes and hang similar in the picture it could work. Pulleys and parts are cheap. Just a thought.
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Thanks for all the advice! I remove most of the dents with hot water and an inflatable pump, but still have one stubborn dent on the side. I'll leave it in the sun with a garbage bag, and see if it fixes itself.
After launching at Lake Howard last night with my wife, I think I'm going to be building a trailer. I searched the forum, and noticed a post by Smokieangler a few years back with this design. I'll post pics as my version comes together. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170510/6df18116109e9ac20541827f414439b4.jpg)
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I’ll throw my 2 cents in here even though this post is a bit old. I just bought a new outback and was transporting it on some foam blockto bring home. I had one foam block about 2’ in front of the rudder and one towards the front, when I strapped it down I was using ratchet straps and gave it the Barrie’s not realizing it didn’t need near the pressure I gave it. I got home and the keel had a huge dent that I couldn’t reach from inside the kayak. I was devastated to say the least. My wife came up with a genius idea, she poured hot water (not quite boiling) over the dent to loosen the plastic. then she took a little suction cup that holds soap bars in the shower and proceeded to pull the dent out with that. Worked great and fixed the dent. All this happened while I was mopping in the house. Now I transport upside down and use those pull straps and seems to be working fine. Figured I’d throw this out there for anyone searching for a dent fix.
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I’ll throw my 2 cents in here even though this post is a bit old. I just bought a new outback and was transporting it on some foam blockto bring home. I had one foam block about 2’ in front of the rudder and one towards the front, when I strapped it down I was using ratchet straps and gave it the Barrie’s not realizing it didn’t need near the pressure I gave it. I got home and the keel had a huge dent that I couldn’t reach from inside the kayak. I was devastated to say the least. My wife came up with a genius idea, she poured hot water (not quite boiling) over the dent to loosen the plastic. then she took a little suction cup that holds soap bars in the shower and proceeded to pull the dent out with that. Worked great and fixed the dent. All this happened while I was mopping in the house. Now I transport upside down and use those pull straps and seems to be working fine. Figured I’d throw this out there for anyone searching for a dent fix.
Smart wife! And we'll trained husband...mopping. ;)
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I plan un writing up a more detailed post on this, but here is a smaller kayak trailer I just finished up and tested out last weekend. The base is a Harbor Freight 40"x48" trailer (their smallest) with a payload limit of 1,000 lbs. I replaced the original U-shaped tow bar with a much stouter and longer 2.5"x2.5"x1/8" HSS and bolted it together using SAE Grade 8 bolts. The J racks are for my wife's 14 ft touring boat and I load my Hobie Outback flat on the gunnels on the other side. Got 32 MPG with car and trailer full of gear. Total cost was about $300 (bought trailer for $125 which is a steal). Trailers are a great option as Hobies are ridiculously heavy and roofing them is a total drag.
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Nice job on the trailer.