Yakima Mako Saddles Kayak Rack Reviews All Kayak Rack & Canoe Rack Reviews & Ratings

The only improvement Yakima Racks has had to make to the Mako Saddles is now including a Yakima Bow/Stern tie-down strap so to offer the same hardware & accessories as Thule Racks (Thule began packaging a tie-down strap with their kayak saddles a couple of years ago). Otherwise we've found no real compelling reason to improve on the Mako Saddle design. The strong yet flexible cradles, combined with the grippy cradle padding do a fantastic job of conforming to form fit whatever kayak we load onto it. The grippiness of the pads does provide some resistance when sliding the kayak onto the Makos, and we found the ideal set-up is when a pair of Mako Saddles are combined with a pair of Yakima HullyRollers on the rear crossbar. Installation is a breeze with the over-sized T-style hex keys and carriage bolts that tighten the snap-arounds to the Yakima base rack round crossbar (also provided an equally snug tight fit to Thule Racks' square load bars). We found it best to not fully tighten the Mako Saddles the first time the kayak is loaded so you can move and fine tune the cradles closer together or farther apart depending on kayak hull size/shape for a perfect fit. Once this is done the Makos can be tightened down and we didn't have to fuss with them ever when loading/unloading the boat afterwards. We also connected the Makos to Volkswagen Touareg, Saturn VUE, Subaru Forester & Jeep Grand Cherokee roof rack factory crossbars using the MightyMounts adapters instead of the included snap-arounds that are used on Yakima rounds bars and Thule square bars. The Mako / Mighty Mounts combo worked very well with each factory rack crossbars style.