Yakima Big Stack, Roof Rack Review

When I traded in my tried-and-true Silverado pick-up truck for a Tahoe this year I thought for sure gone were the days of quick and easy kayak loading.

Or so I thought.

To lug my large Jackson Karma around I had to install a roof rack. First, I tried just going with Yakima's crossbar set, which mounted directly to the factory roof rails. Just having the cross bars proved cumbersome when it came to securing my boat to the roof because I had few attachment points for securing tie straps.

Plus, what's more fun than paddling with some buddies! After all, who's going to laugh at you when you get beatered in that Class III hole? That means to get the most out of my 66-inch cross bars I had to upgrade to the Big Stack to give me more attachment points and more room for securely carrying more than two kayaks.

Yakima's Big Stack takes full advantage of the wide crossbars that fit on my SUV because the towers make it possible to secure as many boats as will fit standing on their sides on the bars. That means at least 4 boats. And stacking kayaks on the sides and sandwiching them next to each other, using the towers as the attachment point for tie straps, is far more secure than stacking two boats on their hulls side-by-side and then strapping two more boats down on top of the bottom two.

There are a few minor issues that bug me about this rack system.

The towers are advertised as folding down with the push of a button both for better aerodynamics when not in use and so you can fit your car in your garage without removing the towers. However, to get the the towers to fold I have to use a rubber mallet and whack the button several times to break them free so they'll fold down.

The mounts for cross bars also feature a fold-up end guard that is designed to "hide" the mechanism that clamps the mounts to the factory roof rails. These guards are floppy and tend to flip down easily.

The positive is that the method for using the super-long tie straps that come with the Big Stack is super easy to get your boat secure in a matter of minutes with just two straps. And the straps are so long that they can be used to secure multiple boats. Plus, Yakima also sends extra stern and bow tie straps that can be used to tie these end points to a rear vehicle hitch or front bumper/recovery hooks.

And the towers provide a great place to bungee a few paddles securely to the roof, thereby freeing up all the internal cab space for gear bags, gadgets and the like.

Lastly, installation was fairly painless. Overall, Yakima's Big Stack is a great option for getting the most out of your roof space for shuttling boats.