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| Thule 897XT Hullavator Kayak Roof Rack Mount Carrier | 
 enlarge | Brand: Thule
Category: Sports
List Price: $499.00
Buy New: $399.20
You Save: $99.80 (20%)
New (8) from $399.20
Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 84797
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 44.3
Dimensions (in): 34 x 17 x 6.5
MPN: 897xt
Model: 897Xt
UPC: 091021897571
EAN: 0091021897571
ASIN: B000QV1WSM
Release Date: August 4, 2007
Promotion: Get free shipping on this item when you spend $150.01 or more on All Items offered by Rack Attack. Terms and Conditions
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Reduces effort to lift boat with gas assist shockt that help raise boat onto vehicle roof | | • | includes lift system, integrated padded support, mounting hardware, and all straps to carry one kayak | | • | Mounts to Thule standard, Rapid Aero, Xsporter, and Yakima load bars | | • | Superior boat protection with integrated paddes support | | • | Accomodates kayaks up to 36" wide and 100lbs |
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| Accessories:
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The award winning kayak lift system has been enhanced and now offers greater boat capacity and protection with a more robust latch mechanism.Accommodates kayaks up to 36? wide with improved cradle design. More robust, user-friendly latch mechanism ensures carrier stays down when loading/unloading, and securely on roof for transport. Reduces lift height required to load and unload a kayak by 40?. No need to reach top of vehicle to secure boat to carrier ? boat strapping is easily done with carrier in down position. Improved boat protection with oversized, integrated padded support. Mount side by side with other accessories as the lift system only requires approx 25? of load bar space for mounting. Fits Thule square, Xsporter, Aero and Yakima round load bars.
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| Customer Reviews:
Great idea needs better execution August 3, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I've seen many video clips on the net introducing this product (search youTube) so I will skip the functions of it. Lifting my 17' kayak onto my CR-V roof is not something enjoyable, so I bite the bullet. I had to abandoned my factory cross bar and installed the Thule Aero Rapid bars (Thule square and Yakima round will also work but the Aero bar looks much nicer) to accommodate that. This is needed for the load bar to extend 4 to 8 inch beyond the foot, my factory bar will not do that. So after sinking in about $700 I got this going. The installation was not difficult; they even included a DVD with installation instructions. It seems the Hullavator is designed with the square bar in mind. The adaptation to the Aero bars looks like an afterthought. They gave you 4 thin plastic clear films per arm to protect the contact points. A square bar would fit nicely under the mounting bar. But for the Aero bar there were just 4 contact points; I don't even want to tighten the screws too much because of that.
I know before hands that the added height to my CR-V will not clear my garage door; so keep that in mind. The shorter cradle can barely makes it; the bottom taller cradle just simply won't. Now Thule has the Hull-a-port PRO which has a cradle/carrier that will fold, you would think they could have that feature on this $440 product, right? That will sure let me drive my CR-V into my garage without taking it off. The DVD suggest that you take the whole arm assembly off when entering a low clearance garage and states that it is easy.. Ah, it was not that easy, the arms are heavy and putting and removing the pivot pins through the holes can be tricky. I think I will just take the cradles off for now.
Another thing is the Aero bars are nice looking but this Hullavator is not; two big gray boxes without much aero dynamics are sitting on my car roof.. They did pack a lot of mechanisms in there so I guess there is not much room for improvements in that regard. Oh, also be careful not to hit your head, it sticks out just enough to get you. on the other hand it was a good thing that it leave more space on the rack for other things. I moved the front cross bar to in between the front and back doors to avoid it. I can see some other car may not have that choice.
Enough whining I guess the benefits are exceeding the shortcommings so it is a keeper for now.
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