Soft Rack recommendations

[Pakololo]

I used to go surfing in a 4WDs so mounting my 9' boards on the roof racks was never an issue.

Once I took a 3+ hour surf trip in my girlfriend's car, a 4-door sedan, and used a Dakine or Local Motion soft rack or some other brand I bought in Japan.

I had that thing set up right and it was as tight as it could go, and them some, but the board would catch air and flopped around too much for comfort. Much of the driving was on highways at 120kph. After that I was never comfortable to use a soft rack again.

Flash forward 20-something years and I now find myself in a similar situation, no 4WD and driving a 4-door sedan.

I could go buy a Thule hard rack but am not sure how long I'll have the car, and if I could get tried and true recommendations for soft racks I would prefer to go this route. My nearest drive to the ocean is 2+ hours all 70mph+ highway so it's really got to work well on a regular sedan with no roof racks.

Thanks in advance for the suggestions.

[oldmansurfer]

Modern cars don't have rain gutters to clamp racks on so you have to use the through the door type of soft racks. If you put our board with the nose forward upside down then air flow will push the board down into the rack instead of lifting it up. Depending on the slope of the roof this can be a significant difference.

[waikikikichan]

For cars that have Gutterless doors or what some call airplane doors, there are brands like Thule and Yakima that make roof racks for that purpose.

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Word of advice, to get ride of the HUMMmmmmmmm, put a twist in the tie-downs.

[Lebowski]

Soft racks do look they they will take off at speed, but you have to trust them.

Try to put your boards as far back on the roof as reasonably possible (make sure the front strap is still around plenty of board and not right at the nose/tail). If they are far forward, air rushing up the windscreen hits the underside of the boards and pushes them upwards. As wkkk says, put a twist in all the straps otherwise they will be incredibly loud and annoying.

[oldmansurfer]

Cool! they have in the door hard racks as well. I guess you have to try them out to see if they fit your car doors. I have driven my car to the beach without strapping the board down and it stayed on the roof because the nose was forward and air flows over the top pushing it down. (not 70mph). I have seen boards fly off of other cars as I was driving with both soft and hard racks. Both times it was multiple boards however the way they were put in created lift and they flew upward

[RinkyDink]

I've been using the Block Surf soft racks for awhile now and they've worked out fine. I've taken two boards on a 300 mile round trip, often going 80 mph, and I never had a problem.

[Namu]

I second the Block Surf soft rack. I use those every week to drive 25 miles to the beach at 70 mph usually with a 9’ long board. I have a 4-door Hatchback and find that placing the straps far apart, front strap far forward near the windshield/sunvisor and the rear strap as far to the rear of the back doors best. Also try to have most of the board behind the windshield, I end up having the board sticking out past the end of the rear bumper.

[billie_morini]

Pakololo, run search on forum for "soft rack." Your result will provide many 10's, if not 100's of discussion results. billie

[Pakololo]

thanks all so far, have not been back to the site in a few days

I was looking at the FCS Soft Rack, the hard racks like Thule, which I used to have, are much more expensive than I thought. I used to have one they don't make anymore, for windsurfing, which had curved holders on the racks, wish I kept them.

[Vertam]

Check out Amazon for several reviews... we have used Handiracks for trips from London to Devon and Wales with our canoe. No damage to the roof despite heavy rain.