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Lightweight watersport carrier with lift assist lets you easily load 1 kayak or 2 SUPs onto your roof rack. Sliding arms let you load and secure gear at waist level, and then easily lift it onto your roof. Tie-downs included. Clamp-on installation.
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Average Customer Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (16 Customer Reviews)
Lightweight watersport carrier with lift assist lets you easily load 1 kayak or 2 SUPs onto your roof rack. Sliding arms let you load and secure gear at waist level, and then easily lift it onto your roof. Tie-downs included. Clamp-on installation.Awesome paddleboard rack system...my wife loves it on her 2015 jeep wrangler..
This is an excellent product that I am very happy with. The ease of installation is very important to me, as I periodically have to remove the racks to fit my vehicle in parking garages. Lifting the kayak up is very easy (a competing product has pneumatic assist, but this is more than easy enough, so I don't see the advantage). Bringing it down though requires a little oomph to pull the kayak straight out of the sleeves far enough to then lower it. Overall an excellent product and I highly recommend it.
The Yakima ShowDown Kayak carrier is awesome. I'm 67 years young and with the ShowDown can load our 2 person (67Lbs) Ocean kayak all by myself. I would highly recommend the ShowDown and all Yakima products.
The Showdown has been great on my Subaru Ascent with Yakima Aero crossbar system. I use it for my 12 ft fishing kayak.
Boxes were in rough shape from shipping but racks were in perfect shape inside. Seems well made and hopefully will be a good replacement for my hullavator which have broken gas shocks.
Building a van conversion on our 2015 Ford Transit wagon.
My wife required one thing above all else, and that was a means to transport her kayak on our trips.
Since the inside of the van will be set up as a mini-RV, the only place for a Kayak is on the roof... along with the Solar panel array, and the MaxxFan (also purchased from eTrailer). Somehow, I made it work after being told by some folks there wasn't enough room. You can see from the pic, it all does fit, and nicely I might add.
What made it possible is the use of the Yakima Showdown kayak mounting system.
The van is 8'2" tall. The only way to make this happen is with the Showdown, (or Hullavator) mounts. I like the idea of the Hullavator with the gas filled struts, but I don't like the price, or Thule engineering in general. I believe Yakima is far superior in all respects.
Admittedly, it's a bit more challenging to raise and lower the Yakima Showdown. Since my wife and I are tall people, the use of a small step stool makes it an easy task. The kayak is at chest height and very easy to load and secure with the straps.
The only part that's a bit difficult is raising it up level with the slide. Once it locks into the slide, the rollers make it a snap to slide it home. You then secure it with the attached pins that slip through the mechanism locking it into place. Done!
Lowering it is actually easier. The thing to remember is to pull it all the way out until you feel is stop, only then will it lower with ease.
This is an easy trade off. I don't think the Hullavator is worth the money. I've used a friends and it's not really that much easier to raise and lower. Yes, the struts offset most of the weight, but it looks clunky with the lower bar always stuck up in the air. Just don't like it's looks.
Yakima Showdown was a no-brainer for us.
The ShowDown was easy to install and is easy to use. I am sorry I didn't get this Lift Assist sooner.
I love that I don't have to use a step ladder to get my kayak up on my car! I thought I would be able to put my kayak on and off by myself, but apparently I'm not strong enough to lift it up to where it needs to be to push bar on top of car. That's the reason I gave it only 4 stars as the video showed a lady doing it by herself. Of course my kayak may be heavier than hers or she lifts weights.
Otherwise, I love it!
Very disappointed with Yakima on this lift, it is difficult to use and not well made like the other
Yakima kayak racks I have.
I haven’t installed yet but excited to put them to use. Etrailer delivered quickly and everything looks like it’s in good shape. I plan on using for my Jackson Bug Tuna and Cresent Crew kayaks.
We have done repeat business with etrailer over several decades. The deliver as promised, and their communication is better than any online company I have ever done business with.
etrailer always good. Yakima always goo d.
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Kathleen
12/6/2021
GREAT!! Im currently using it on top of a Jeep Gladiator.