BowDown (2008-2022)

Really great universal racks for kayaks! Easy to use and have held up well over the years. Definitely recommended.

Been using the bowdown for 10 years and LOVE IT! Yes like the other reviews mentioned they can move a bit on the round bars, so I just load straight fro the side of the car no problem. One word of warning - being a typical guy when I first put a yak on them I tied them up the way I thought best - and it fell off before I got out of the driveway. Once I tied it up the way suggested I NEVER had a problem. I even found I can skip the front and back lines and drive 75 mph on freeway without a hint of a wiggle. A FANTASIC way to keep the kayak safe. Now I am buying a second pair for my wife's kayak. Now I drive a mazda with factory bars and these things fit way better than the round bars I used to have.

The bowdown is a great folding J carrier but two things I don't like. It has the little tabs under the tip of the hoop I once had the strap around one of those when I threaded the strap with the kayak already on the and nearly lost my kayak on the interstate when the strap slipped off the little tab in turbulence behind two semi trailers lucky for me the rear rack held it until I pulled over. My fault since I didn't check it and didn't have bow and stern lines. The other issue is that they don't grip round bars very well but that will be a mute issue after upgrading to core or jetstream bars.

I have owned 2 sets of these since 2010. They are used on my wife's Suburu Forrester. I do not use the factory bars as we do not leave them on the car. I have the rail grabs with round bar so I can take the whole thing off in minutes and not have to "set them up" again. Down side is the horribly designed clamp system that refuses to hold on the Yakima round bars. Nothing more fun than to begin loading a 55 lb kayak on top the car and then have the bowdowns roll fore or aft on you. VERY frustrating. Only solution I found was to get an old truck inner tube and cut strips, wrap them around the bar and clamp it down again. Seems to work but with the complaints about this issue, one would think Yakima would come up with an insert that would actually grip the bars. Come in Yakima, solve this issue. We shouldn't have to resort to garage find solutions.

I have attached two photos. We had this rack for a year or so and sued it 10-15 times with only one time being on a 55mph freeway and when we did we used a second tie strap pulling the boat back against the rack. The center part of the Bowdown in only plastic, and broke on both racks, causing the kayak to fall off the roof of the car on the Hwy. Fortunately, we were only traveling at 45mph with little to no wind at the time and were able to quickly pull over. The only thing that saved a major problem was having the bow and stern lines attached. I would not use these racks without both the bow and stern lines AND a second strap pulling the boat in the opposite, or back towards the rack, taking the pressure off the rack. Yakima was great with customer service and replacement./Users/allensmith/Desktop/Kayak Hanging.jpg/Users/allensmith/Desktop/Kayak Bowdown Broken.jpg

I have two sets of bowdowns for 13' Kayaks. They work well enough for Kayak loading/unloading and transportation, but they DON'T BIND well to round bars! No matter how tight you get them they will want to twist around the bar when loading and unloading and even get push back or twisted around from the wind when traveling at highway speeds. Get a flat bar if you going to use bowdowns.

I have a tandem sit on top kayak. It has a pretty flat wide base. The Bowdowns seemed like a good idea because I wanted to carry the kayak on its side while I was using a top carrier cargo box. Two problems ar always present. 1) the bowdowns rotate on the round bars regardless of how tight you lock it down. 2) the kayak catches too much wind and pushes away from the uprights unless you add additional straps. I like Yakima products, but I'll be selling the bowdowns and looking for a carrier that carries the kayak flat.

I've had a set of these for 3 years now. They mount directly to the flat bar on my 2013 Outback without issue. I especially like that I don't have to remove them when driving the car without the kayaks, or when driving into my garage. I purchased a second kayak last year, and for some time have been using the single BOWDOWN, strapping the second kayak directly to the factory rack. On my trip this past weekend, we had pretty hight winds on the highway, and got pretty beat up by the wash from semis. When we arrived at the campsite, I noticed that the factory-rack mounted kayak had come loose and had actually moved almost a foot on the car. I always use bow/stern straps, so there was no danger to losing the 'yak, but it unnerved me. Of course, the BOWDOWN-mounted kayak was still firmly planted. I looked at other systems, including the 2-kayak "stackers", but after helping friends (you need an extra set of hands with the stackers), I decided that the second BOWDOWN, with it's higher price, was the best system for me, as I do often take a single kayak out, and often need to mount/dismount the boat by myself.

I've had a set of these for 3 years now. They mount directly to the flat bar on my 2013 Outback without issue. I especially like that I don't have to remove them when driving the car without the kayaks, or when driving into my garage. I purchased a second kayak last year, and for some time have been using the single BOWDOWN, strapping the second kayak directly to the factory rack. On my trip this past weekend, we had pretty hight winds on the highway, and got pretty beat up by the wash from semis. When we arrived at the campsite, I noticed that the factory-rack mounted kayak had come loose and had actually moved almost a foot on the car. I always use bow/stern straps, so there was no danger to losing the 'yak, but it unnerved me. Of course, the BOWDOWN-mounted kayak was still firmly planted. I looked at other systems, including the 2-kayak "stackers", but after helping friends (you need an extra set of hands with the stackers), I decided that the second BOWDOWN, with it's higher price, was the best system for me, as I do often take a single kayak out, and often need to mount/dismount the boat by myself.

I love my BOWDOWN's! i have been using them for the past 3 years and havent had any trouble with them at all. as for my crossbars, towers and clips, thats another story that i hate talking about!. The BOWDOWN's are good though.