: Scott, with these cradles, where do you put the straps? On many production
: j-cradles (from Yakima and Thule) the strap goes through the top of the j
: and then down around the crossbar.

: On yours, do you just put the strap down around the crossbar on both sides of
: the kayak?

: Brian

Yep, that's it. I think it's important to tie the boat to the bars and not depend on the integrity of the cradle and its fastenings to keep 200+ hours of work safe and secure. In fact, if I could tie the boat directly to the car itself and skip the bars, I'd do that instead. That said, I really like the way the cradles resist cross winds while at the same time being so friendly to the hull. When the boats are mounted, you can grab the bows and shake the whole car side to side.

A couple of design notes. The reason I made a "toe" on the "kinky" cradle is that I found I would occasionally scratch the hull on the rather sharp corners of the square-edge cradles when loading while tired or in a hurry. The rounded "toe" is much more forgiving. Also, the older, square cradles are a pretty good universal design: they actually fit our round-bilge strippers very well, so if I were to make cradles to fit a variety of boats, I'd go in that direction, adding the toe shape instead of the square shape to the outer edge. And I'd retain the slice 'n dice strategy, as it creates multiple sets of uniform cradles with a bare minimum of work.

--S