Title:

Mechanical Kayak Loader

Many kayak owners, be they elderly, of short stature, or otherwise unable to lift a kayak above their heads, struggle to load their kayaks onto roof-mounted automobile racks without assistance from others. Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Project Group 4a sought to design and build a working prototype of a mechanically-assisted kayak loader that would allow kayak owners to easily mount a kayak onto existing automobile roof racks by themselves. Existing solutions are either overly expensive or are incompatible with a consumer’s existing roof rack. Group 4a’s proposed design is intended to work with any automobile that has a trailer hitch, any commercially available roof rack, and any kayak. The prototype consists of a trailer-hitch-mounted, winched lever arm and a roller guide that attaches to a car’s rear window. The lever arm assembly was fabricated with 2” square steel tubing and a commercially available two-way winch. The roller guide assembly was fabricated with ¾” PVC pipe and commercially available automobile suction cups. At $183, the prototype was inexpensive to fabricate compared to the products currently on the market. The prototype performed as expected and was a successful proof of concept. Further design refinement would be needed to provide a retail-ready product, but the prototype proved the viability of the proposed design.

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