Kayak/Canoe Racks for Jon Boats

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Yak Fisherman

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I'm shopping around for a jon Boat:
Looking at the Alumacraft MV 1546DD, MV 1650 (all welds).
or the Grizzly 1648.

I'm fortunate that my Dad's 25HP Johnson ('98) will be donated to the boat,
and hopefully his trailer will work too. So that's getting me in the ball game without
too much $$$$. I understand the 25HP may not push the longer boats too fast but I may
upgrade the motor down the road.

Just curious if anyone has ever rigged up a jon with small towers to transport kayaks and canoes?
That's my intent and would love to see if anyone has done that before on this site. 2-3 kayaks maybe,
plus some gear and up to 4 people.

This site is awesome and I look forward to hearing from ya'll.
 
Yak Fisherman said:
I'm shopping around for a jon Boat:
Looking at the Alumacraft MV 1546DD, MV 1650 (all welds).
or the Grizzly 1648.

I'm fortunate that my Dad's 25HP Johnson ('98) will be donated to the boat,
and hopefully his trailer will work too. So that's getting me in the ball game without
too much $$$$. I understand the 25HP may not push the longer boats too fast but I may
upgrade the motor down the road.

Just curious if anyone has ever rigged up a jon with small towers to transport kayaks and canoes?
That's my intent and would love to see if anyone has done that before on this site. 2-3 kayaks maybe,
plus some gear and up to 4 people.

This site is awesome and I look forward to hearing from ya'll.

Never seen that before, but I'm sure it can be done with a little ingenuity.
 
I know I've seen it on a duckhunting forum.
They use canoes/kayaks as lay out blinds or even to get further in the woods.
I'll try to find you a link,I know the guy said he still went high 30's(mph)and carried it.
 
If you do this, be sure and post it. I have a fishing kayak that I want to carry on the Jon for street transport on my boat so I can take them both camping.

thanks,

Joe
 
Just did a google image search for "kayak mothership" quite a few cool images came up.

I'm picturing something that rests on the gunnels and holds 2 kayaks on their sides leaving space for passengers in the jon boat. just don't do anything to impair your vision while operating the jon boat.

Look twice, save a life Kayaks are everywhere.
 
I'm leaning towards the Alumacraft 1546.

To start, I'm going to attach two pieces of pipe across the gunnels, sticking out at least 12" past the boat.
This will allow me to strap the yaks cheaply and not get top heavy by creating a more elaborate elevated tower.
This will leave the middle of the boat open so I can walk to the stern and access motor.
I will experiment with sleeving the aluminum pipe with PVC or something-this will act as a roller so the kayaks load and dismount easily.


I have a Transom mounted trolling motor so I'll probably stick with that for now. A bow mount may get in the way of the kayaks.

Does anyone out there care to share some pictures of this boat, rigged. I'm worried I'm going to
weigh it down with that 25HP and gear. Ultimately, this will be a small camera boat (to shoot from).
Can floatation be added inside the boat? What about sponsons, worth it? A tunnel, I guess might help
float the motor better. I'm limited in what boat models I can choose from because of the 15" motor shaft.
I'd go with a bigger boat but the motor and trailer are free.

I'll snap some picts once I have a boat.
 
Here are some pictures of the Algonquin Water Taxi which is a boat that takes canoeists across the big lakes into the back country portage routes of Algonquin Park.
 

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It would be nice if you could make the rack removable but that will add to some complication.

If its just for transporting the boat and the kayaks at the same time I would think that some kind of setup would be easy to attached to the trailer, but from the sounds of you want to use the boat to transport the kayaks to your final destination?
 
I am thinking maybe buying a harbor freight ladder rack and modifying it with a set of legs and cross bracing. The legs wuld work like a bicycle mechanic stand, I would just have to use some metal straps to secure the legs tothe flooring, maybe a backplate? I don't know, it would be cool though!

I like the picture above here, but I wonder how my 40inch wide 14ft jon would like having 60lbs suspended like that?
 
For the 36"-ers I wonder if you could run them on the side like toon-outriggers? You could launch and dock the yaks with little or no hastle, and add a great deal of stability. hmmm...
 
For a temp/removable rack like the one in the pic. You could just mount 4 rod holder style tubes to four corners of the boat. Then just insert the 4 legs of the rack into the tubes mounted in the boat when you want to use the kayak rack.. It could be built out of 1'" aluminum square tubing. Put some rubber covers over the feet similar to the ones that go on cruches or on table legs .

It would be very light and easyto put on and remove by yourself.
 
Thanks for all the great ideas. I have a simple plan. Nothing fancy, just utility.
I will share soon.
 
Here's a few pictures of what I came up with. Didn't drill one hole in the boat.
P4091447.JPG

P4111450.JPG
Basically, on the road, kayaks are strapped squarely over boat. Once I get to lake I push kayaks
out for a little more room. I would like to experiment with hinges or telescoping
pipe so the cross bars can be folded up, during highway travel.
P4111453.JPG
Conditions were good so I didn't really test against angry seas-hopefully I won't ever.
Launched and reloaded yaks, on the water, without a hitch. The boat didn't feel too tippy if
only one person launched the kayak and the other person stayed seated.
P4111454.JPG
P4111464.JPG

I'll test again with the outboard on and decide if I want to upgrade the whole system to aluminum.
Now I need to concentrate on catching some fish.
 

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