'wrong' used Thule parts useful for roof rack?

[Markintosh]

We have the same truck and find if we roof mount that way too much kayak is forward of the cab which is terrible for gas mileage and very stressful on kayaks due to torque, even if you tie the nose too.

The bed rack is a much better idea for the Tacoma, or a standard lumber rack. If your'e only carrying 2 kayaks, you should be able to carry 2 flat and skip the saddles or j hooks. Just go for pads on the bars and learn how to use cam belts. This is especially a good way to go in case somebody in your family chooses to get a SUP.

If you really want to go upright, use the "Stacker" which lets you do up to 4 kayaks in a vertical position. The nice part about the Stacker is that it can be folded back when there's no 'yaks for much less wind noise and better MPG.

Ultimately, the Tacoma was a pain to load due to height, so this year we took a small windfall and invested in a rack system for our Matrix. We have the Thule Aeroblade bars, the Stacker on one side and Dakine pads on the other side. Come winter, I found a $4 solution online for mounting our Thule ski rack to the Aeroblade with T bolts.

[RecipeForDisaster]

Thanks for that input. Our kayak is only 9.5' and we are shopping for nothing longer than 10.5', so I was hoping those would be short enough not to be a problem. I doubt we will do any SUP as surfing runs in the family... dad has a lot of longboards near the ocean if we do anything like that, no need to transport.

Tell me about bed racks... this is really an area in which I totally lack knowledge.

We have no cars, just this or my very old Tundra. I don't love taking that on long distance trips, and who knows how much longer it will go, so I don't want to do anything permanent with it. It holds 1 kayak in the bed okay, but that doesn't help the two of us very much...

[Bimwad]

RecipeForDisaster wrote:
Thanks so much. I am definitely not set on Thule-anything used that's in good shape is under consideration.

Thank you for explaining *why* it won't work and what parts I'd need to add. I may see about doing that, since it might still be a good deal.

Those gutter feet in the REI link... those still don't require the front to back bars, right? So there'd just be the crossbars, I'm hoping. I haven't seen a lot of racks without the side bars, so want to make sure that that's an option and I don't have to buy another part.

Not sure what you mean by front-to back bars.

Gutter-style feet rest in the channels formed by the drip rails that run along the top of the doors/side windows on older vehicles, and support cross bars only.

The only time I've seen fore/aft bars are in applications where some cars with very short rooflines and/or no place for the clips on the rear towers to grip. Yakima had a setup where bars extending from the front feet helped locate the rear feet as well as compensate for reduced leverage.

For a truck, I'd try to make one of the bed solutions work before resorting to a cab-mounted roof rack.

[RecipeForDisaster]

Okay, I'll try to learn more about bed mounted options. There is that toolbox and a pretty short bed length remaining because of it. What is the simplest, yet secure and not exorbitant, option?

Thanks!