TOOENJOYHeavy-Duty Kayak Lift Assist Roof Rack, 100 LBS Capacity Kayak Canoe Rooftop Loader, Elevating Assist System for Easy Loading

I bought this rack becuase I am no longer happy with the vertical rack I bought for use on the back of my 5th wheel RV. And since I had a trip planned where only one kayak would be needed I pulled the trigger on ordering this one. The package arrived quick and when I opened it I found it all nicely and securely packaged. Instructions were good and I probably spent a total of 20 minutes putting this together (taking my time and doing some other things in between). Once assembled i took it out to my truck to install the base and then to insert the rack into the base. My truck is tall, so I still had to use a step stool to get everything put on. The rack fit perfectly and I opted to the external u-bolts over the T-slot since this was not something I planned to leave on the truck fulltime. Once on i confirmed what the instructions said - you really need to put some force on it to extend it when empty. You need to pull out and down at the same time, which requres me to step up on something for the "out" part of the motion. If I just stand below it and try to pull down it will not work. This is not a problem for me. I know I have a tall vehicle so it's the price I pay. The last thing I did while installing was to put two large rubber strips on. They have a strip of REALLY THIN doublesided tape. Once installed the rack sat for a while. Later that day I had to go somewhere and when I got hom I saw that the two rubber strips had been ripped off by the wind. I think some thicker 3M VHB might have held better than what's on them. Aside from this the rack was fine. Loading and unloading a kayak made this thing 100% worth it. No more standing on something and trying to get it on top of my truck and then trying to secure it. This let me put it on and secure it while at a good, easy level. Releasing the latches and letting it swing up to the roof were the easiest part of loading it up. It was nice to be able to have this secured on the roof while still being able to tow my RV and it was also nice to not have the kayak on the back of the RV blocking my rear-view camera. Over the initial 2.5 hour trip (each way) the rack and kayak held securely and other than the expected added wind noise (even with no kayak) it was all good.I did reach out to the seller asking about a part number for the two strips that were ripped off. The initial response was great, but after my 2nd message I haven't heard from them in a few days. It's nothing major and does not impact the overall functionality. I've temporarly put some other rubber strips on there while I wait to receive a response.One thing that led me to get this rack over a competitor (that costs twice as much) is that this rack isn't just for kayaks. With the t-slots on the two main rails I'll be able to use my bike racks if I ever want to take my bikes somewhere and can't use the bed of my truck. I believe they have a basket that will work on this rack too, in case I ever need something like that. The added functionality swayed my decision in this direction (in addition to the price - not saying this is cheap becuase it is not, but I didn't want to pay almost $1000 for a single use rack).If you're on the fence about this item go for it. If your vehicle and not too tall and you can extend/close standing on the ground your experience will be better than mine. I still give it 5 stars in spite of the rubber strips not holding. I hope to be able to replace them once I hear back from the seller.

**SHORT REVIEW**2 of these Racks will fit on 53" Thule Wingbar Evos. We used them to carry 2 XL Malibu ocean Kayaks on top of a 2021 Kia Sorento. Super solid build quality. Easy assembly and loading. Price is unbeatable. **It did require us to get longer bolts to fit the wingbar evos with the rubber wind gaskets installed. We used m6x10 rather than the m6x8 that are included.**Extended Review**This is our first camping trip since Covid hit and we decided we wanted to get our own Kayak racks rather than borrowing my grandparents Suburban and Rack. We were wanting something that made it easier to put up and down and almost went with the Hullivators from Thule but felt that they weren’t a very sturdy looking design. My Dad happened to find these racks and we both fell in love with them. We were originally going to mount them on my parents 2018 Yukon but discovered that it won’t work on their car because the way their crossbars mount they are at fixed points rather than adjustable placement. **THIS RACK REQUIRES ADJUSTABLE CROSSBAR PLACEMENT**Seeing as my 2021 Sorento has adjustable crossbars I volunteered. We have two Kayaks however and weren’t sure how wide of a bar I was going to need to make two of these mounts fit. We saw that they overhang the ends of the crossbars quite a bit and decided to gamble on a 53” bar. They fit perfectly up there with a few inches of play on all sides. The build quality of this thing is superb. We are machinists by trade and know when corners have been cut. This thing looks and feels amazing. The bolts all of some pre-applied lock tight to keep everything from rattling loose. Though the included hex wrench is pretty cheap quality. Now to get the base to mount onto our Thule Wingbar Evos with the T-slot we did have to grab slightly longer bolts to make this work. The rubber wind strip on the crossbars made it just slightly too tall to slide it on. All our local Home Depots were out of stock of the bolts we were wanting but thankfully we have a machine shop and raided the bolt department. M6x10 Bolts are the perfect fit. Those couple extra threads made all the difference and we were able to slide the base on with ease. The top section of the rack then slides into the base and locks in. You may need to loosen your crossbars to get the spacing right as when we first threw the rack up there one of them slid with ease while the other was catching. We loosened the crossbars and wiggled the placement around until both were sliding easily. THIS THING DOES TAKE A TON OF EFFORT TO GET DOWN WHEN THERE IS NO KAYAK MOUNTED. You’re fighting the shocks that help make the kayak go up easily, so without that extra weight it can be a bit difficult. When needing to raise it back up without anything mounted on it I found it helps to drape myself over the end of it while I push down and release the locks. It seems the release point it lower and if there isn’t any weight on it you can’t move the release locks. There aren’t any locks to prevent theft but they would need to know how to remove the top sliding portion in order to get to the lower mounting bolts. I don’t think it’ll really be an issue. Though we have removed the top sliding section for the past week leading up to our camping trip and left the bases mounted up there. My parents went up to grab the kayaks from our family cabin and gave the racks their maiden voyage back home. First time mounting them took them and hour and a half but that included getting the kayaks down from the rafters and fighting a stuck ratchet strap. We think once we load them up for our trip this weekend we can have them fully secured in 15 or so minutes now that we now what we are doing. Easy strap placement as you can walk between the kayak and the car the place the strap on the back side.On the way home they opened our sunroof to see if anything shifted. My dad took it all the way up to 75mph and said they didn’t move at all. There was a slight whistle at 45 mph but it quickly went away once you went any faster. Overall we LOVE these things. Be prepared to get stopped and tell people all about them because they definitely draw some attention. Build quality is phenomenal, assembly is a breeze, and mounting is the same as any other rack. For the convenience it bring and at half the price of the name brands it’s a no brainer purchase!