Has anyone carried a kayak or canoe on their xB, or seen it done? A potential future owner has asked me about the availability of tie points, front and rear. I suggested the possibility of using two of the 'tow hooks' that thread into the front and rear of the xB on the driver's side (see owner's manual).

By the way, does anyone have a Scion part number on that particular item?

mine only sticks out 3 or so feet so i wrapped it in a blanket to keep the interior clean. Then i just roped the hatch half shut and drove to the nearby river

Hey TomTom, probably the best way to mount a kayak or canoe is to use a Yamika roof rack, because it is adjustable. There are tie points in the front & rear.

My Yakima rack can cary my 10' longboard just fine, and as long as the canoe is under 160lbs it will handle that as well. I know what you mean about front and back tie downs...if it's long you'll definitely need them. The factory points would be perfect.

Hey All -

'Pleased to be making my first post here. Thanks for all your comments, they helped us to decide on the '06 XB earlier this Spring. We had been set on the Honda Fit for almost a year but concluded that it wouldn't hold our kayaks.

Yesterday we installed our Thule rack system (with the Fit Kit for the XB, Prius and Aveo, using the same bars from our old car) and took the boats out for the first time. Definitely handled great. I know some of you were looking for photos of kayaks on top, so thought I'd share one:


http://www.seangallagher.net/xbrack.jpg

The boats are 13 ft., we used to have extra room on either end on our old 1993 sedan.

Based on other photos I've seen, the "feet" for the rack look to be in the right place. We did notice that the measurements in the instructions from Thule must be off - the 27" from bar-to-bar absolutely does not align with where the feet would be over the windows. That's as I have it installed/pictured above, 40" apart. The front feet are 16.5" from the edge of the windshield, as in the guide.

Anyone care to share measurements on their rack relative to windows/ends of the car, etc?

Thanks!