TMS® J-Bar Rack HD Kayak Carrier Canoe Boat Surf Ski Roof Top Mounted on Car SUV Crossbar w/ Free Cell Phone Case

After watching the assembly video (actually a couple on you-tube) and reviewing the parts ahead of time, the assembly went smoothly. Mounting the racks on the car is a little more difficult (mine is the Thule Aero-Bar roof rack) but can be accomplished and (I suspect) will get easier with practice. Have not transported the kayak as yet but am confident I will have no difficulty.

Easy enough to put together following the diagram. The written instructions are useless but the pictures are perfectly accurate.I installed these on 1999 GMC Yukon factory rack. My crossbars are 1/2" thick by 2 3/4" wide. I had to cut down the long bolts by 1/2" with a hacksaw so they didn't contact the roof. Plenty solid for holding my 10' or 12' kayak. If I had a boat longer than 12', I would get the Rolo racks for strength. If the foam fails in time, I'll just go to Home Depot and get some 1/2 pipe insulation. I also bought a pair of the Rolo J racks. They are slightly stouter and come more assembled. They stand the boat up more than the TMS racks, making the boat slightly higher when mounted. I still need 2" of clearance more to be able to pull into my garage with boats loaded, so if you have a really close clearance and you want to be able to do that, the TMS racks give the best chance for having clearance.I wanted my racks to stay on, so I replaced the handle nut with 8mm x 1.25 nylon lock nuts from Home Depot (in the drawers, not hanging up) and jammed them together after putting loctite on them.

It went together without any major issues. Had it put together and installed in about 30 minutes. It is not heavy duty steel. I had one carriage bolt inserted just short of 100% and it actually rounded the square on the rack enough that it spins. Either way its almost fully tight so so worries. The instructions consist of a diagram on one sidea and a parts list on the other. I don't see why you would actually need more than that to put the rack together, but a lot of reviews mentioned the lack of instructions. In this case I think a picture is worth a 1000 words. You get what you pay for and this is no exception but if you want an inexpensive J rack for your kayak, this fits the bill.

We bought this rack because I didn't want to spend the money on a name brand rack. It looks exactly like them, and functions exactly like a name brand rack. Easy to install, easy to load the kayak. Don't waste your money on a name brand rack.

These racks are well made for the most part, but the foam padding failed on the first use. If this isn't a deal breaker for you, you'll probably be satisfied. If you like having the padding, yours will likely look like mine in short order. I'm returning these racks and paying more for a better quality rack.

This is the second set I have bought and I’m super satisfied. The clamshell is easy to take on and off by hand yet very sturdy. These are just as good as the ones that are $100+ dollars at sporting goods stores

One of the nuts is a different size than the rest. Putting them together was much easier than other reviews stated. The phone protectors are cheap and fall apart when you open them, but the bars themselves seem to work great.

I had to return because they don't fit my Malone rack, but I can see how they would work on some others. Appears to be solid from what I could see.