After carefully weighing my options for the kayaks, I finally made a purchase.
My choice was between a roof rack or mooring my kayak in the water. The mooring was $150 each kayak for the season.
Last week when I was searching roof racks, I narrowed it down to the two most known brands: Thule and Yakima. Unfortunately the Thule would run me $724.75. I don't have that kind of money.
Yakima's website allowed me to put my car information in, and it told me what kind of rack I would need along with all the components. It was fantastic, and super user friendly. Yakima quoted me $483 plus tax. Better than the Thule, but still a bit more than I'd like to spend. So I started looking at other website that offered this brand.
Amazon came in at $410.24 plus taxes..and maybe shipping depending on who was selling me the item, if not amazon. OK, so now it is an easier decision...$300 for a few months or $410 for years. But could I do better?
I am a member or Ebates. So I put in "yakima" to see what sites maybe I could get some money back. A few sites offered Yakima products, so I built my system at REI, Moosejaw and Rakuten.
REI the products came to $506 + tax + free shipping + 2.5% cash back ($12) . If you are an REI member, you'd get quite a bit back from them in your account at the end of the year.
The rakuten order totaled $403.60 + tax + $15 shipping (for the cross bars, since it was from an outside seller) and 5% cash back ($20).
Moosejaw the pieces totaled $434.70 with free shipping and 5% cash back ($21), but I found out from this website that Yakima was offering a rebate. If you spend $300 then you get $30 rebate, $400 a $40 rebate and $500 a $50 rebate. The rebate is valid for authorized retailers (Amazon, backcountry, rack & go, REI, Sun & Ski among others and 'other'). Of course REI was out because it was expensive. Rakuten and Moosejaw was out because they weren't on the list...and I was too nervous to select "other" in case it was not a valid store.
Turns out that Sun & Ski is part of Ebates AND they had their own 30% off sale on Yakima products. The total for the same 5 components totaled $362.18 after their sale + tax + free ground shipping since the order was over $75. Plus I got 4% cash back ($14) and still qualified for the $30 rebate. So figure it was $318 + tax....just a bit more than it would have been to moor the two kayaks at the harbor for 1 season. Easy decision...buy a rack, which would allow me the flexibility to go to other areas to kayak (I signed up for a kayak meetup group).
The five components for me included a system (since I have a naked car): towers, cross bars and clips. Then of course the rack for the kayak, I chose the Big Stack so I can carry two - four. I can't wait for the roof rack system to come so I can start using the kayaks.
I'll write a review when I assemble it and use it.
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