Roof cross bar length with Hullavator
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This is a very unique question that is impacted by the hulls your hauling and the loading efforts.
I have found over the yrs of car topping boats that this ideal length changes based on various conditions. I use Yakima rail grabs so I can use the basic round bar which is cheap to purchase and easily cut down to custom lengths. I have 5 different bar lengths in the garage each one has its purpose.
The Hullavator itself requires a minimum overhang that already takes into account the shape of the hull (since it’s the hullavator arm itself that is closest to the vehicle when it extends down the door) and it is dependent on the side vehicle clearance. There is a little bit of wiggle room with the length depending if the kayak is on the lighter or heavier side of the limits of the hullavator - and how many inches you find acceptable between metal and your paint.
Just installed Thule aero bars and rapid crossroads. For use with hullavators (and probably a 10ft boat and longer) the ideal length of bar is 60”. I called Thule this morning and they said 53” could work - which I don’t think takes into account the wide “hips” of the Ascent and I would not recommend. I have two 15 ft kayaks so it required setting the front crossbars as far forward as possible to clear the Ascent’s hips - this means the front rapid crossroads are in between the first gap on the side rails. If you have lightweight kayaks you may be able to get away with setting it back a bit and being careful - but this seemed the safest for a typical rotomolded average weight kayak. There was a door clearance of approximately 4.5 inches when weight was on it.
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Just to confirm, you did get the 60" bars, right? Can you post a picture of your setup showing the hullavator in the down position?
Thanks!
Installed two Thule Hullavators on our 2019 Ascent, using the Yakima 60” jet stream cross bars. Thule does not currently make a cross bar that is the recommended 60” length to fit the Ascent. This length is recommended to accommodate the two hullavators with the necessary over hang over the side of the vehicle. Each kayak needs to weigh no more than 45 lbs, or a combined weight of 90 lbs. to make sure that it does not go over the maximum roof weight load.
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The Thule ProBar comes in 69" length and can easily be cut down with a hacksaw. That's what I did.
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