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Storing Your Kayak - Wall Racks
by Damon Z. Sweet
My sweetheart and I love our outdoor activities, whether it be backpacking, kayaking, rafting, canoeing, or skiing. But, boy, do we have a garage full of equipment! Most of it fits neatly in storage containers on heavy-duty shelving (thanks to my wife—I assemble the shelving, she organizes the stuff). But how to handle the kayaks is another question.
It’s hard to find good information on any kind of kayak wall rack. Below I’ve assembled some tips on three of the better ideas I’ve found.
First we look at SeaPort Machine’s kayakwall rack and ceiling mount rack. The wall rack is a simple, but effective tubular steel bracket that supports 100 pounds vertically or horizontally. With a pair you can neatly tuck your kayak or canoe high on the wall out of the way. I’ve seen these used for both interior and exterior applications.
These black, powder-coated brackets are built from 1" square tubing with 3/4" square tube gusseting. They come in two sizes available 46" or 30".
SeaPort Machine also makes a terrific overhead rack that allows you to store your kayak overhead. Even with an 8’ ceiling you have 6’ of clearance beneath the kayak (not recommended for your living room). This sturdy black, powder-coated rack comes pre-drilled to mount on 16" center studs or 24" center studs.
Riverside Kayak Hanger:
The Riverside Kayak Hanger is a cool space saving solution for storing kayaks on the wall in a garage, outdoors or anywhere. This low cost kayak rack (more like a sling) works equally well as a surfboard, sailboard or ladder hanger. As you can see from the photo above, it also provided handy storage for kayak-canoe paddles and oars.
I like the way this hanger snugs your gear against the wall—a great space-saver! Side release buckles make it easier to of load and unload, but it’s still a little like wrestling an alligator. Four hands makes the loading and unloading considerably easier.
Mike’s Garage Kayak Rack:
For the do-it-yourselfers among us, Mike Boone < Mike's Site> built a pretty nice kayak wall rack using off-the-shelf materials from his home-improvement store.
“I finally got around to getting my two kayaks off the garage floor and more efficiently stored. I built a simple wall-mounted rack on the side of the garage. So far it's working great. Originally I was going to build it out of 2x4s and pattern it after a design I saw on the web, but while browsing the home-improvement store, I saw some heavy-duty shelf brackets, and decided I could just build it with those. I carefully attached them to the wall studs with 3 inch screws. Then I bought some water-pipe insulation and slid it over the tops of the brackets for padding and to create a less-slippery surface. I fixed these to the bars with plastic zip-ties. I'm using bungee cords to help keep the boats from accidentally slipping off the shelf brackets. I attached the bottom bungees between the shelf brackets, and the top ones between the upper shelf bracket and some eye-bolts I screwed into the studs.
It remains to be seen if there will be much horizontal force that causes the brackets to try to spread apart. The brackets are certainly not as strong in that direction. If it becomes necessary, I think that I could run a small wire horizontally between the brackets to keep them from spreading. I probably won't have to, but we'll see.
This wall-mounted method replaces a homemade rope-and-pulley system that I used to have. It was a pain to get the kayaks off the floor...it took two people to do it, and it was always tricky to properly clear the garage door when it was up. The result was that the boats spent the majority of their time on the garage floor. Hopefully that'll be a thing of the past!”
We feel your pain, Mike. I tried that pulley thing as well—sheez!!!
Damon Z. Sweet writes for ActiveKayak.com where you can find great deals, tips and news, information and reviews plus Free Online Lessons, Tips, and Great Kayaking Resources at ActiveKayak.com. This article can be reproduced in full as long as the resource box and live links remain intact. Copyright http://www.activekayak.com.
