Rookie question

Ive only ever used just "side" straps. One around the front of the yak / cross bar and one around the back of the yak / crossbar. Good quality ratchet straps. Ratchet down tight, push yak around, tighten, repeat. keep doing it till the yak doesnt move. Once is awhile, I have to slightly re tighten after a few miles down the road ( like one or two clicks at most)  But really, Ive never have had them move on top of my car or my truck once. And ive haulded them double stacked on the truck (4 yaks), and have traveled hundreds of miles to eastern oregon and Idaho, over 80mph quite a bit, and have never had them not be locked down tight at the end of the trip. Unless you're putting a 17ft long yak on a small car, with cross bars really close together, I dont see the need of bow and stern lines. If you want a little safety, run another strap around the yak and the factory bars on the vehicle. I have no experience or informed opinion on cross bars that "wedge" mount into the door frames.

Okay, you've done that, you got away with it, and it worked for you.  That doesn't make it the right way to haul a kayak on top of a vehicle.

Sheesh! 

lol.... got away with it. That's funny. Ive literally had yaks on top of my vehicles for thousands of hours, over different speeds, stop and go driving, over bad roads, etc, and nothing has EVER slipped, not even a millimeter. While im sure it has happened  a few times in the country somewhere, you make it sound like yaks are flying off of vehicles all the time. How many hundreds of thousands of trips have been made hauling yaks the way i describe it, just the last year in Oregon alone,  and ive never once heard about one flying off of a vehicle anywhere around here even once....throw a couple good straps on, make sure they're tight ( i mean really make sure), use a good quality roof rack system, make sure it stays maintained (not rusting out), and you're not gonna have a problem. A problem will only arise if you use inadequate tools.

So you've gotten away with it for thousands of hours.  You haven't said anything about being in an accident - that's great and I sincerely, honestly, hope nothing ever happens - but that's when straps and racks will fail.

Don't be like the doofus who jumps into a conversation where folks are answering a question by a rookie by saying they always go kayaking in shorts and a t-shirt - and don't anyone to suggest that isn't safe -  because they've never fallen in the water.

You certainly don't have to listen to anyone else, and I'm not faulting you - really I'm not - but maybe we shouldn't get a newcomer started off on the wrong foot for his particular situation.  Since I've been in this forum, everyone has said "bow straps and stern straps" as often as they've said "buy a Hobie" - and they say that a lot.

There is a catastrophic rack failure in the archives here somewhere, someone better at search than I am can probably find it quickly.

Nike simple..bow and stern straps.. just do it!

I have never run a bow and stern line on my kayaks in my 11 years of hauling kayaks on my trucks.  I have used bow and stern lines on YakSurfs car when kayak commuting with him.

Granted I DO run a quality cable lock through the scuppers and around my rack tightly as the 3rd point of connection. 

If I have a rack failure at the cable connection on my truck(s) then I have bigger problems, as these are fully welded racks. 

There is a catastrophic rack failure in the archives here somewhere, someone better at search than I am can probably find it quickly.

Found it.

https://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=7552.0

There is a catastrophic rack failure in the archives here somewhere, someone better at search than I am can probably find it quickly.

Found it.

https://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=7552.0

Man!  That thread was occupied by A LOT of regulars that are no longer surfing this channel any longer.  Haven't heard from most of them in years.
This forum has been a changing, that's for sure.