I needed a way to hang my kayak because frankly letting the thing sit on the garage floor takes up room!. I couldn't trust using hooks on the wall given kayaks do have some weight so I wanted a rack, but one that was not beast. I looked and thanks to looking I found this rack. It is great! This rack is about 50 inches tall (review the dimensions) so it is a good small footprint item.
1. Assembly: This comes in a pretty small box. You receive the rack pieces, and the largest one piece components are the racks. You get the rack in pieces, plus the nuts, bolts, instructions and oh yeah – two wrenches. No other tools were necessary.
As to putting this together, I recommend not pulling out all the things from the plastic because it will get confusing 9there are three types of bolts). The instructions are actually pretty clear, but unfortunately in small print. However, It is not that difficult to put this together. You basically build one leg and then the other. Then place the cross bar. The wrenches work. However, if you can find a 13mm ratchet set or wrench, you will have a far easier time putting this together. Again, not necessary, but you will be using a bit more elbow grease without a rachet.
The pieces I found fit together perfectly fine. I did not have a single issue with anything not fitting. I will admit to twice having to backtrack because I placed a piece together backwards (Again, the instructions are straight-forward, but in such tiny print it is easy to make a mistake. Honestly though, it is easy to fix a mistake and after a bit of assembly it becomes pretty obvious how this goes together – there are only four sequences of assembly on this thing anyway). I would suggest not doing a final tightness (beyond hand tight) without making sure everything is put together correctly, and then tighten just a bit beyond where it becomes tough to pull.
Use?: Once I got this together, then I used the screw in feet to level this item and this works well. There are some metal pieces that look like they don't fit on the rack. These are actually little feet you can use on the bottom to screw the rack into the ground (say if this is on soil (wouldn't recommend that) or cement or similar. I did not use these and on a level cement floor I don't believe these are necessary. (I would recommend giving a slight tip towards the back of the rack using the front leg's feet).
Does this remain stable? Yes. Very stable. Sturdy? Yes, this is a well-engineered rack. I am using a tandem kayak and this fits it very well. I lay it with the bottom towards the outside and this allows the kayak to be placed flat against the wall. Wow. What a space saving and visually appealing as well. Goodbye kayak and your helter skelter!
Overall? Excellent. Great price point, Well- engineered. Nice design for self assembly. Looks terrific. Great storage solution.
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