Drilling an intermeadiate hole in a Karitek roof rack.

[keith_w]

I have a car sized Karitek roof rack. I would like to drill the rails so I can load one boat, put 1 pin in each rail and load the second boat. Does any body have any idea where I should drill the extra holes?

[Jim Potter]

I have seen several sea kayakers with this set up here in North Wales- I would imagine that if you don’t get a response on here, asking the same question on one of the Facebook sea kayaking pages would get you an image. I guess that you need to be able to prevent the rollers travelling the full length of the extending bars, so the lower channel would be my guess here.

[Dyllon]

Check out the images in this comprehensive review. As far as I am aware, the racks used to come with these additional holes as standard.

https://seakayakphoto.blogspot.com/2013 ... t-and.html

[MikeB]

Why not just ask K/tek?

[keith_w]

I did ask Karitek, but got no reply, I don't know if they are busy but I didn't want to pester them again if I didn't have to.

[Paul-C]

I suspect the precise position isn't too critical.
The racks come in different lengths, but the hole in mine is 55cm from the top end of the bars (that is, the top when the rack is lowered) if that helps.
The best position might depend on where the cradles are positioned. I think the 55cm would allow for one boat/cradle to be positioned beyond the pivot point to act as a counter balance, without being sufficiently far beyond it for the weight to stop the rack being lowered. My cradle is nearer the balance point, so doesn't provide much of a counter balance, but the weight of the first boat is neutral when the pins are in so lifting the second boat is still easy.
It's drilled through the lower channel, as Jim says, at the same height as the existing pin holes at the end.

[keith_w]

Thanks Paul and Jim that's great. My bars are 130mm so 55mm sounds logical.

[seawolf856]

My bars are also 130cm (not mm) long and the holes are at 55cm (not mm) from the ends. Mine came with these holes pre-drilled as shown on the photo of my Karitek assembly. I think Paul-C is right when he says the best position for any additional holes might depend on where your cradles are positioned. You will see I have three sets of cradles on my 130cm bars and the holes at 55cm from the ends do not give me perfect positioning for loading and unloading when I am carrying three boats. It would be easy to drill more holes at different positions along the bars and buy some extra sword pins but tbh I can manage using the existing two positions.