DIY $13 Kayak Pulley Storage System 

I need to find more spots to add another 1 or two myself… lol.

Glad it had the info you needed! Still using this system, wouldn’t have it any other way.

Thanks! You are right. I may revisit this with 1 rope. At the time I committed to the 2 rope idea I was trying to overcome the sliding out of under the kayaks. The rubber mat addressed that, but I was already using 2 ropes then.

Glad it helped accomplish your end goal

OC Run I’m not an expert on pulleys, but if I pull 10ft of rope, it only raises 10ft. According to the calculation of Mechanical Advantage this is still a 1:1, and if I routed the rope as the kit intended it would be a 2:1.

@@SammyBenitez I can see in your video that each rope drops from a fixed pulley to a pulley at the kayak and then back up to a fixed attachment at the ceiling. If you measure the rope you'll see that every foot of rope you pull is divided 6 inches on the side down to the pulley on the kayak and 6 inches up to the ceiling on the other side of it. That's 2:1. And if you continued rigging to the other side with the same rope it would be another 2:1 for a total of 4:1. The efficiency of those pulleys will significantly affect the force you need to apply but not the length of rope you'll pull. Measure the distance from the bottom of the hull while suspended as you have it to the floor. Double that length and that will be exactly how much rope you let out to lower to the ground

OC Run yeah I see what you mean, I agree. It would be 2:1 as is and 4:1 as one rope. I tried the 4:1 system initially (prior to adding the rubber to the straps) and the kayak would slide off the straps. Making it 2 was my attempt to control each side instead of letting it dive and slide off.

@@SammyBenitez it's hard to balance weight where the moving pulleys are far apart. You solved the slipping part with the rubber mats and rope to prevent the spreading. If you try again just remember that the moving pulleys will adjust to move the side with the least amount of weight. You have to perfectly balance them. Even then, if your rope has any stretch it will cause unevenness.

OC Run - Thanks, this is great info about how the pulleys work and the need to balance the weight. I’ve watched several videos using this bike system and most didn’t seem to have an issue with balance but now I wonder if it was luck or knowledge. Guess I’ll have to do some figuring before I install one for my yak...

jay it’s been a while since the install. IIRC, with the one rope system (as the kit intended) the kayak slants significantly to one side while pulling up, causing it to slide off. I decided on the 2 rope system before I added those rubber pieces to the straps to hold it in place. It’s possible it would work with one rope now.

I used channel locks. You could probably also use a hammer/mallet and the ground to achieve the same. Thanks for watching!

@@SammyBenitez Thank you. I'll try to bend them this weekend. I copied your full set up in my garage to lift and store our cartop ski box. It worked great. Thanks for sharing.

Inside an RV? Maybe up to the ceiling, not sure how to use this to get on the roof

It’s possible that could work. Two reasons it may not work though, contact at only 2 points may cause it to flip/rotate. Unless I have something to keep the hooks from continuing to spread beyond the nose and transom (which I did add in the video), it would most likely just keep spreading and slip off. If you’re wanting to give this a shot, try that out first.

@@SammyBenitez It works pretty well with just the hooks. I definitely should have run separate lines for each end of the kayak though instead of using the bike hanger as it comes. It doesn’t want to raise evenly with only one line.

Definitely, just modify the size to fit your set up. I’m using the same configuration to hold my Crescent CK1 now

looks like flair

It’s time to get rid of Amazon

I tried one line and when I would lift the kayak would slide off the straps (prior to adding the rubber mat). Making it 2 was an attempt to control each side instead of letting it dive and slide off. It’s possible that now with the rubber I could do 1 and have no sliding issues as well as have a 4:1 pulley instead of the 2:1 I created.