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1993 Previa and Kayaks

I would like to carry two fiberglass kayaks on my 1993 Toyota Previa. It has a factory rack in place now. Is anyone carrying kayaks on their Previa? Did you replace the factory rack and if so what did you replace it with? Each kayak I want to carry weighs about 50 lbs. I see my existing rack can be removed as each rail has two mounting points. My existing rack seems a bit flimsy to use for transporting kayaks. Any information you have around the

1993 Previa roof rack / options would be appreciated.

Right now I carry the kayaks using a Yakima system on my F150 Supercrew but I would like to bring the van into the picture to take advantage of its better fuel economy. But I do not want to do that at the expense of the kayaks flying off the roof when the existing roof rack gets torn from the roof! :-)

Reply to
bits
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I would stick with a Yakima or Thule system. Strong, versatile, removable. I can't really think of any vehicle where the factory installed racks would be suitable for 100lbs worth of boats - Except for maybe a Nissan Xterra.

Cheers,

Reply to
Kevin Powick

We bought these things called Mighty Mounts made by Yakima from REI to install a tray type bike rack on the roof of our '93 Previa. The Mighty Mounts wrap around the cross bars of the factory rack and the bike tray mounts to the Mighty Mounts. I don't know if you can mount the Kayak rack on the Mighty Mounts or not, and Yakima probably doesn't recommend them because the kayaks may weigh more than the capacity of the rack. If they are the short river kayaks you probably wouldn't have a problem but the longer narrow kayaks may be a problem. The factory rack is mounted to the roof with nut-serts, which are basically threaded rivets. The biggest problem is lift so if you tie the kayaks down to the front and rear and don't drive very fast, you may be able to get around the lift problem.

We mounted a clamshell roof-top carrier box on the roof rack of the Previa for a camping trip, and our highway mileage dropped from 23 or 24 down to 14 mpg. 2 kayaks on the roof will probably give similar results. We have since gotten one of the long aerodynamic carriers from Yakima and it makes little difference in fuel mileage on our Sequoia.

Good luck!

Reply to
Ray O

If you're willing to make a rack, you can save a lot of money over the cost of a Thule or Yakima rack that fits onto your existing Previa rack. Given the age of the Previa, that might be a good idea. Check out the ideas on Kayak Wiki, especially the first big paragraph.

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Mike

Reply to
Michael Daly

Thanks for all your input. Here is what Yakima suggests:

Hello, William. Thank You for your inquiry about Yakima Products, Inc!

We have a number of different ways to install a rack on your vehicle. they all utilize the existing factory rack limiting it to 100 lbs. With both of your kayaks you are over the weight limit. The best solutions would be to install tracks beside your factory rack. You would need:

1 x Control Towers (set of 4 #8000214)

2 x Landing Pad 1 (pair #8000221)

1 x Crossbar (pair)

The crossbars come in 48", 58", 66", and 78" sizes you would need to do some measuring to figure out how wide a bar you need. If you have any other questions, please contact Customer Service at 888-925-0703 7am to 5pm Pacific Time, Monday through Friday. If you reply to this email, please include all previous correspondence.

Thank you,

Yakima Support

Reply to
bits

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