I have scoured the forum and really havent found exactly what I am looking for so please be nice... Also although I am not a frequent poster definitely a frequent viewer, this forum ROCKS!

So my family and a few friends have decided we are going to give kayaking a try this summer.. already have the yaks and actually bought an old Yakima Stacker rack off CL for a great price.

My dilemma is that the manual states the factory rack should not be loaded over 120 lbs, and these Yaks weigh about 50 lbs each and I would be taking up to 3 of them. Therein lies my question, have any of you had this many kayaks on the factory racks (overloaded by about 40 lbs) with any issues, and if so, does a system such as the Yakima Railgrabbers rated at 165 lbs seem like a worthwhile upgrade?

Taking the Yaks individually, I did notice quite a bit of bouncing of the factory crossbars so I can imagine 3 total would probably be even worse.

Thanks for sharing and I appreciate anyones time!

Cheers!

You're going to have to modify the rack with that much weight, and bulky weight at that. I think the Rail Grabber is going to be the best and most economical solution for your application.

Base on experience, I tied down bows and sterns(3 boats) I did fine with factory roof rack.

One time I carried 3 recreational boats - one Ocean kayak 2xl plus two 40-50lbs smaller yaks in the factory roof rack @ up to 20 mph headwind gone up t0 6000ft el(Lake Tahoe), its a 300 mi trip from my home... and not 55mph!, up to 90mph!. No issues with the roof rails and crossbars.(I know I'm overloading sometimes)

An upgrade to the crossbars would be nice though, but don't exceed the roof rails load rating. The total weight of the yaks plus allowance for headwind/and crosswind should be considered. Play safe
I also noticed that aftermarket crossbars are noisy. I have a malone universal crossbar and I can't stand the wind noise, I need to buy a wind fairing. But anyway, I don't use it in the 4runner.