What do you carry on top of your topper?

I have Yakima bars mounted on my Leer cap, and a MegaWarrior cargo system sitting in my house waiting to go on. But I'm curious what exactly are you carrying on top of your topper, and why? Pictures are always a bonus.

Seems I have a lot of room inside my bed with the sleeping platform and Leer cap, plus the rear seats of the cab. Keeping weight low, and out of sight is nice. Carrying my white water kayak on the roof is nice in that it doesn't quite fit in the bed of the truck without strapping the rear cap window down.

 

Canoe on my Yakima Bars. Everything else fits in bed and back seat (if needed).

 

Canoe and 2 bikes on Yakima bars.

 

Boats (kayaks* and canoes), bicycles, sometimes lumber or plumbing stuff, I've had furniture up there, an awning, a Yakima cargo box when needed, surf rods, etc.

Old picture before most mods:




* A couple of years ago I was up on the Blue Ridge Parkway outside of Asheville and I had my touring kayak up there. At one of the lookouts I had pulled over and was eating lunch when three little old ladies aproached me and asked about the boat. They were very concerned that I had the wrong boat for the rivers up there because everyone else had short round boats. I told them that while I also had a whitewater boat, I had been on Lake Jocassee the day before paddling. They were relieved and went on their way while I just kind of laughed that they'd been worried enough to actually come over and talk to me.

 

Does your LEER have roof tracks on top of it, where you mount the bar legs to?

My top doesn't have any tracks on it. Could it take a roof rack?

 

Mine didn't. So I bought Yakima Control Tracks (60" and cut them down to size since I have a short bed). I picked up the Sky Towers from Mountain State Overland when I was at the Overland Flea Market in southern Virginia a few months ago for a great deal. Then I ordered the landing pads online and bought some round bars off a friend of mine for $20.

I spent about 2 hours measuring and taping the track pads in place on top of the cap. Measure twice, cut once. Then I marked the holes where I needed to drill. I needed a friend to help with bolting the tracks down (someone inside the cap). And I had one bolt that just didn't quite reach the threads of the inner nut, so I had to do a Lowes run to buy a slightly longer bolt.

I have the Yakima MegaWarrior sitting in my basement right now which I want to mount to either the Yakima bars on the cap, or the OEM rack I plan to install on the cab this weekend. But I'm stalling on mounting the MegaWarrior until after Winter because it will make clearing snow off the truck a complete pain in the ass. Not that we've had any snow, but I'm hopeful we get some before Winter is over.

 

Yeah you can install a rack system fairly easily on a cap that doesn't have one as OP said. As for me, this s a pretty regular occurrence in the non winter months:

 

Bajatacoma -
I'm looking for a kayak mount just like yours and just doing research on what kind of topper and components I'd need. Can you give me the specs on what I would need to mount something like this? Will your system fit any size kayak? I think mine is a bit wider than what you have. Thanks!

 

I've got the Yakima tracks with the older round bars. I use the Hullyrollers* on the rear and the Mako saddles on the front and straps from NRS. Brake and bow lines are just nylon rope. I’ve been out of the country for a couple of years now but I was mostly paddling my touring boat so the setup worked well for the sea kayak since it's about 17' long; it works ok for my recreational boat and more meh, for the whitewater boat (although it's a higher volume creek boat so it's bigger and fatter than say a freestyle/playboat). I've got some J hooks (can't remember the brand) for the whitewater boat or when I want to carry two boats at once although before I got them I usually just put some foam pipe insulation on the bars and strapped the second boat down. The canoe I just slide onto the bars. I have Strap Caps on the bar ends which I’d recommend if you get round bars.

When I bought my rack, I knew I wanted more real estate than the width of the shell so I got the 66" bars. They allow me to get a Space Booster cargo box on the passenger side, a boat in the middle and a Viper bike tray on the driver’s side if I want. I can also hang stuff off of them like a solar shower. It’s pretty easy to mix and match stuff depending on what you want to carry. Note that the rubber on the Hulley Rollers wears out after being in the sun for a couple of years and it gets sticky and starts coming off; the plastic coating on the bars eventually cracks as well. When I replace my bars I may get the next longer size bars then cut them to whatever size I decide I like; I'd like to get the new Core aero bars but that'd require four new bases so that ain't happening. If you get any of the steel bars they are supposedly galvanized but I’d still recommend painting the inside of them when they’re new as my first set of Yakimas and my Thules both rusted inside (I had Thules on my VW camper); I taped off one end, poured some extra Rustoleum oil based paint I had in then taped off the other end and rolled them around before dumping the excess paint out and allowing them to dry. Maybe I’m just being OCD here. On the downside, I got hit by a car last summer and have to have more ortho surgery on one of my shoulders so my paddling days may well be over.


*Hullyrollers kinda suck on round bars as they will rotate if you don't get them really snug. Looks like they have new systems now instead of the Hullys and the Makos.