RV Kayak Racks

Buyer Beware! Although RV Kayak Racks (Yakups brand) appears to be a great (albeit expensive) solution for RVers to transport kayaks, due to difficulties with the company president/​owner. I cannot recommend them. In short, the rack would not work for our set up (it literally dragged on the ground) and, for the reasons described below, we needed to return the rack. Although the owner, Larry Gray, said this was the first time he had ever had a dissatisfied customer, he refused to pay the cost to return the rack. While we appreciate his willingness to refund the cost of the rack itself, in addition to the disappointment of having to leave our kayaks behind, we had to pay over $ 300 in shipping fees. Even after saying he would reimburse us for the rack, Mr. Gray was reluctant to do so and only after several unpleasant phone calls and emails did we finally get the refund.
The details: My husband and I ordered the combination kayak/​bike rack for our 5^th wheel at a cost of over $ 2,000. We took careful measurements and spent considerable time with the owner, Larry Gray, making sure that our 12 foot kayaks would not exceed the 13’6″ federal height limit. His website
recommends against kayaks over 11′ in length, so we had concerns about the rack’s suitability. Mr. Gray assured us that 12′ kayaks were not a problem and that he could make it work. Nowhere on the website does it state that returns are NOT allowed. Not until we had made the purchase and received the PayPal invoice did we see the return policy, buried in a middle paragraph. When it was apparent that the current set up would not work, Mr. Gray offered to modify the hitch and give us $ 600 to put toward shorter kayaks. While we appreciated his offer, there were several valid reasons why this was not an option. One, we had already spent over $ 2,000 on the rack. The added expense of selling our current kayaks at a loss and then searching for and purchasing two new kayaks was simply not in our budget. Two, we had travel commitments that could not be delayed further. Three, we had already moved out of our house to live on the road and had no way to sell our existing kayaks. Besides all that, our 12′ kayaks best suited our needs and we did not want shorter ones. We kayak in a variety of settings, including across open water, and anything shorter than 12′ was not desirable. In summary, the safety benefits of being able to load and unload kayaks while standing on the ground simply don’t outweigh the risk of not being able to return the rack should it not work due to circumstances beyond the buyer’s control. In short, dealing with RV Kayak Racks was an extremely unpleasant and expensive experience.