Rolling Kayak Rack

Took me a day to do it.  I think I might need to go with heavy duty casters!  The top rack is perfect for putting the Wife's(formerly Mine) Pygmy on her Mitsubishi.  Middle rack is the height of the Ram's tailgate for easy slide in.  Canoe goes on bottom since we haven't used it since I bought the Prowler 13!With two kayaks and a canoe on it, plus fishing equipment draped off of it might overwhelm the small wheels!  Need to find some "Hooks" to hold all the paddles.  The 1 1/4" diameter of them doesn't seem to work to well with "broom hooks".  Need something more secure!!!  We have four kayak paddles and two oars for the Canoe.  Probably just use 3/8" wooden dowels for PFD's fishing vests.  Not sure what to use to hold rods, if I will even do that.  They have a rack in my Man Cave already.

Any input is appreciated!

Thanks, Rick

That's a good idea for a moving space saver.. Take it from me, just put better casters on there before you load it down. It will save you unloading it all to turn it over and replace a busted one in a month or two...

For the paddles try the garden tool hangers that have a U hook on a hinge and rotate down to hold the handle in place.

stain and / or varnish/ polyurethane for looks and rot resistance?  nice idea i might have to borrow some day.

stain and / or varnish/ polyurethane for looks and rot resistance?  nice idea i might have to borrow some day.


It will stay in the garage next to the Wife's 2009 Mistu Outlander.  The 2010 1500 Ram(Quad Cab 6'5" bed) we bought this summer is just a little bit too long!    Thinking I might put some carriage bolts through  the joints just to stiffen 'er up a bit.  Fully loaded the rack wobbles a little.  Probably due to the undersized casters.

Thanks for the input guys!  I will get those garden tool hangers tomorrow!

Well, I had a little more time to think about how to hang things on the rack.

Meant to hold a paddle on a kayak, but I think I can get these to work.  I'll use them in pairs and put one farther down on the rack.

Coat hooks aren't the best.  Need a way to hang jackets and other gear???

Someone PM'd me what my dimensions were so I thought I would answer here too:

2" x 4" for the basic frame. 1" x 4" for the triangular supports.  2" x  2" for hanging stuff off of.  I also put in 3/8" bolts through the 2" x  4"'s to stiffen the frame.  The rest is all held together with wood  screws.
 
  It is 8' long, 6' high, 3' wide.

Roller brackets to assist with loading and unloading.  Made them myself.  Keel Rollers were $10 each

For both kayaks.

Nice idea!
 After looking at the first pic, my thought was to add some ply-wood corner gussets at the bottom to prevent twisting once weight is on the unit and rolling it around. Has that been a problem yet?

Oh yes....I would get rid of the coat hangers and just add dowels at a slight angle for hanging items.
 Now I want one of those!

Nice idea!
 After looking at the first pic, my thought was to add some ply-wood corner gussets at the bottom to prevent twisting once weight is on the unit and rolling it around. Has that been a problem yet?

Plywood gussets would have the same effect as my 1x4 45 degree brackets.
It was wobbly before I added the 45 degree brackets!

I was thinking more like a bottom cover, plenty of space to lay things under the boats as well.
 Nice job!

Finally tested it today!  Works GREAT!  No ore lifting the Yak off the floor to get it into the truck!

Updates to the rack