My NEW DIY kayak rack. Credit to the posters on the Hobie forum - you guys are great! Link HERE to see the inspiration for this rack.
I'll start this blog post off by admitting that I had a problem. Over the last several years I have accumulated way too many kayaks and way too much gear. Storage for all of this gear has become an issue to say the least, and I desperately needed a solution to provide some more space in my garage because I was beginning to look like a hoarder.
Over this past holiday break I decided that the time had come to figure out how to solve my problem. I would either find a way to store them or sell some off - either way I had to be able to access my garage, living like this was simply not going to work.
Here is a picture of my garage before I built a storage rack.
My "Before" picture
As you can see, my two Hobie PA 360 take up all the room in my garage - not to mention the Jackson Coosa HD on the other side of my garage. This is not a good way to store kayaks, it is a total mess and I had no room to maneuver in the garage - it was time for a change.
Step one to finding a kayak storage solution was to google the problem.
I googled "Hobie PA Kayak Storage" and the first site that came up was
"Pro Angler Kayak Storage Rack - Hobie Forums - View Topic" Amazing!! First try and I came up with an entire forum on the subject from Hobie. Here is the link if you are interested: https://www.hobie.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=54428 There are lots of great Ideas on this forum and I highly recommend checking it out.
I scrolled down a bit and like magic I see the perfect DIY Kayak rack for my situation. All credit for the rack that I built goes to the forum and a couple of posters that you will see in the link.
Here is a step by step guide in pics for how I built it...again all credit goes to the posters on the Hobie forum linked to above!
Here is the Link to the Hobie Forum where I got the idea and information for this rack: https://www.hobie.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=54428
Step 1 - Get all the materials. Here is what I started with:
2x4x12: qty 6
2x4x8: qty 14
Casters: qty 6
Brackets for PVC to attach PVC: Qty 16
10' 3" PVC: qty 4
Step 2: Build the frame. Length is 12'. Width is 4' , height is 7'. I cut the 8' boards in half for the cross sections and cut 1' off of them for the vertical sections so it would roll in and out of the garage without hitting the door. ( The casters add some height too, so I had to accommodate for that as well)
Build the racks. I went 3' up for each rack
( this bottom rack height is a little short, the seat in my hobie catches on the cross beams so you might want to go a little more than 3')
Add 3" PVC tubes and attach with "L" brackets. I spaced mine 11" apart on center and attached with "L" brackets. Please refer to the hobie forum for more examples of this.
Add Casters ( 6) to the bottom so you can easily move the rack.
Add Kayaks and you are done!
I will post more when I get my entire garage cleaned up and ready for fishing season.