Yakima - HandRoll Rooftop Mounted Kayak Rack for Vehicles, One Set of Mounts

Rollers make it very convenient to load and unload my tandem kayak. The over arching problem with these are that the mounting system is offset from the load and so induces a torque that rotates the support around the cross bar. I have rectangular crossbars and thought that they would be ok, but every time we load up the kayak we end up rotating the deckhand back to the upright position. A huge design flaw that needs to be fixed. Considering switching to another system. For this kind of money and for the name of a good company, they need to put a mechanical engineer on this that kayaks themselves. The solution would be to move the load to be centered on the crossbar. This would mean a different clamping system would need to be devised. This is pretty basic stuff and was not a problem with the last generation. A great idea, poorly executed.

I have these rollers mounted on the rear round Yakima crossbars of a Congo Cage on a Jeep Wrangler. I'm using the Yakima Deckhand racks (they also suck) mounted up front. My hope was to be able to load the kayak from the rear by rolling it up on the Handroll racks. These racks are impossible for me to tighten on the crossbars enough to keep them from rotating on the bars and jamming the rollers. Also, my kayak, a 14' SOT Hurricane Skimmer (63 lbs.) has two longitudinal channels along the bottom with scupper holes and the rack rollers keep getting stuck in the holes. These racks might work for some kayak designs when mounted on other than round crossbars, but in my case they are miserable. I plan on removing them and trying to resell them.

It took some trial and error get the right set up and learn how to use the rollers but eventually I got things dialed in. The clamps don't hold very well on round pipe roof racks, they slide. However, on square or rectangle pipe they are solid. Then you need to test the width and make sure it's set for your kayak. Then I had to get use to the locking system for the wheels. But, after all of that, now I have a system that works just like I imagined.

I've used it for a few trips and very happy with it. Got 2 sets of rollers, and using for a tandem perception tribe kayak which is quite heavy. Makes the loading/unloading a LOT easier than with the J-hook I was using before.I was worried about the issue reported by a few other reviers, of mounting this on the yakima crossbars which are round. Called Yakima before ordering it, and they explained it comes with adapters. I'm not sure why these other reviewers had an issue, but can report that with the adapters, it worked perfectly for me.

My 16' kayak lifted to the roller is at such an angle that the roller 'locks' onto the frame of the roller mech. So - I don't have a roller at all. The roller cover has a rubber coating - and friction is great when the wheel is not going round so the boat is almost impossible to get onto the truck rack - because the roller is against its own frame and the surface is so sticky.Maybe it would work on a lower vehicle application.

I bought these Handroll racks thinking they were the answer to my problem. I’m trying to mount a 14’6” Hobie tandem mirage kayak on a lumber rack on my truck. The first time I put the kayak on the rack, the mounts for these “Handroll” rolled forward and the kayak came off the mount and had to be taken off completely and start over. The second time was no better trying to get under it and support the kayak and they would roll a little bit but then it did the same as first time. I tried a third time and took it kayaking and had the same result as the first two times.So I give this a thumbs down for a 14’6” kayak.

They do the job but they don't roll all that well when under load, like when I'm loading my kayak. And since the reason I bought them was to help with said loading of kayak, I'm a little disappointed. When they break or wear out, I'll probably replace them with another set of Deckhands.

I only have 4 stars for the price. They are expensive but they make getting my kayak on and off my truck bed rack by myself so much easier. They installed and stay just fine on my round Yakima rear rack. And the lock accessories is nice because it makes stealing quite a bit harder without breaking them.

As advertised. Good quality and fairly quick shipment