Kayaks on the Ladder Rack

The weather is finally starting to warm up a bit, so I thought I better finally try tossing the kayaks up on the ladder rack just to make sure there are no surprises. I'm happy to report that everything worked great! What's really nice about this ladder rack is that it is quickly removable, leaving behind only the aluminum rails that it mounts to. I don't leave the ladder rack on, so my first step was to attach the ladder rack onto the bed rails, then toss a kayak up on top and figure out a mounting scheme. I ended up going with 8 stainless eyes with 4 ratchet straps, 2 per kayak. When tightened, I gave 'em a shake and uttered the obligatory, "That's not going anywhere."

I made a dry run out to the lake and back - dry because it's only 50° out and the winds are gusting to 40MPH today. But anyway, here's what it looked like with two kayaks strapped on:

I should have given the Ridgeline a bath first. :(

For reference, I bought some 3/8" tapped stainless eyes from the Amazon to use with the VanTech ladder rack. Those worked out great. That's a Truxedo Sentry CT roll-up tonneau cover that barely fits between the VanTech ladder rack rails. I actually had to file the mounting holes into slots to bolt down the VanTech rails slightly wider than intended. Other people have posted here on ROC that other roll-up tonneau covers fit between the VanTech ladder rack bed rails with no modifications.

The stainless eyes will also attach to the mounting studs that connect the ladder rack to the permanently installed bed rails if you need another tie-down spot: