Malone System

Where does one begin raving about a product that makes their life much easier?  Since we’ve been living in our RV full-time, one issue we’ve had is how to transport our kayaks on the roof of the truck, while still making sure there’s adequate room over the bed of the truck for the RV to be connected and to pivot for turns.

Originally we mounted some Thule brand bars to the roof and would carry the kayaks flat, using kayak padding and swim noodle foam to pad the kayaks against the bars.  We then had a myriad of ratchet lines, one front and one rear on each kayak and a fifth line to pull both kayaks together. To load the kayaks we’d have to climb up and in to the bed of the pickup, lifting the kayak each step.  It was a long and tedious process and we discovered that we were warping one kayak when we’d cinch it down.

During our travels thru Maine this Spring, we thought about going to L.L. Bean to purchase some Thule J Bar carriers for the kayaks.  Because we were spending the night parked in Cabela’s parking lot, we went it to see what they carried.  They had Thule products, but they also carried a less expensive line by Malone that would fit the Thule bar.

On researching the Malone product, we found them for an even lower price at a truck accessory store in Portland we had shopped at many times during the 10 years we lived there (Yankee Custom).  They only had one set of J Bars so we decided to get them and try them on one kayak.  If we liked them they could have another set within 36 hours.

We tried the Malone rack and really liked them, so we requested the shop order another set for us.  When we went to pick them up and install them, we also looked at an accessory for loading kayaks up to the J bars.  We asked if we could try them before we bought them and got the ok.  What we didn’t know is that they needed some assembly before you could even use them.  Needless to say, once we assembled the Telos Load Assist units to try, we found they really did the job.

The reason the Portland ME truck shop was able to get us another set of J Bars is Malone is based in Westbrook ME, the next community over.  The kayak system was designed and packaged in the US (manufactured in China).

Besides the loading bars; which makes it a piece of cake to get the kayaks on and off the truck, the other nice feature of the Malone Kayak Carrying System is that the J Bars fold down when not in use, lowering our vehicle's overall height.

photos show us taking a kayak off the truck.  a) kayak in J Bar cradle   b) attach Telos Load Assist
c) lift kayak from J Bar into load assist brackets    d) bring load assist brackets down alternating lowering ends     e) remove kayak, then remove load assist bars      f) fold down J Bars