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Name: xwarrior26

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I don't know if anyone has noticed yet but the Yakpads heel pads do not work for waffle-type foot pegs. I've heard from my local kayak shop that people have performed surgery on these Yakpads to make them fit their waffle style foot pegs. I didn't want to do that - I figure - if I buy something - it better work for the equipment I have or I don't want it at all. In the early part of 2008 - around February - I contacted Yakpads and asked if they have new heel pads that will fit the waffle style foot pegs and they said no but they did tell me that they've developed a prototype and made 2 of them - one they sent to China so they could make it and they offered to send me the other prototype for me to test and keep. Of course, I was more than willing to try it. I've never used Yakpads' heel pads before but here's my feedback on the heel pad and this new design that fits the waffle style foot pegs.

First, I agree with the other reviewer that mentioned that the pads slide around and doesn't stay in place. This is particularly evident if the bottom of your kayak isn't flat. The pads seem to slide towards the center of the kayak - if you have a flat bottomed boat - I don't think you'll have a problem. Don't get me wrong though - once you do a little footwork in your boat and get the pads positioned to your liking it will stay there as long as you have your heel on it.

As for the solution they've implemented to secure the heelpad in place for the waffle style foot pegs. I have one very important suggestion for you - do not attempt to install the footpad when you are already in the water in your kayak - you will be in danger of flipping yourself. Install the footpads on land outside of your kayak. It takes a little bit of maneuvering and crouching to get it in place but once its attached and you've tightened the nylon string that holds it together it stays in place.

Overall, the heel pads are great especially if you're paddling great distances. It takes a lot of stress off your heel and makes your paddling experience much more enjoyable.

This is an update of my review from 5/5/2008. After a couple…

This is an update of my review from 5/5/2008.
After a couple more phone calls to Rack and Roll they finally addressed the issues to my lock issue by sending me replacement locks. I'm a little peeved that they didn't bother to send instructions to replace them but I did get it figured out myself. Also, I finally received the parts I needed to apply the part required for the recall they announced for the KD trailers. That wasn't too bad to install and they gave their customers some comp stuff to make up for our time and effort which was highly appreciated. My dealer did have to replace a fender that was scratched and cracked when I took delivery of the trailer and when the part finally arrived they discovered that the pre-drilled hole for the lights on the side of the fender were much, much smaller than the original fender hole but that was a pain for the dealer to deal with not mine but still - it's an FYI for those of you that may need to get replacement parts for them. Make sure to ask if the parts are the same circumference, measurements etc otherwise - you'll have to perform "surgery" on your replacement part.

Now that everything is finally done and good to go - I ordered the trailer in March but didn't get it until May - I will have to say that its a great trailer. In my opinion, yeah, it is very expensive but the trailer is made with good material. You get what you pay for....

Here's some tips -

  1. The holes where you put the pin in that allows you to join the trailer and tongue needs to be filed down per Rack and Roll. This makes it easier for the pin to be inserted. I just sanded mine down using sandpaper made for metal and a dowel.
  2. Another tip I learned is in order to make it easier for everything, like the pins and locks to fit together you would definitely want to insert the pins in and secure it in place before you lock them down. There's three locks, one to join the tongue and trailer and two to join the wheels and shock absorbers.
  3. Finally, the wiring on the trailer isn't perfect so you'll definitely want to use either electrical tape or even better, liquid electrical tape to protect the exposed wires - not the connectors of course.

Pros - There's no doubt that its a great trailer. I took it out yesterday and used the foam blocks for now to test it and it worked great. It was a dream to finally not have to wrestle my kayak off and on from the top of my truck. And yes, I can barely tell that I'm pulling the trailer behind me. Storage? Oh my gosh - yes it does store flat against the wall - I have a truck and car in my garage and this trailer stores in there with no problem.

Cons? I have a few, if you've visited the Rack and Roll website before they have a video of this woman who seems to have no problem breaking the trailer down. When I did it, I had lot of trouble removing the pin that connected the tongue to the trailer, I also had trouble removing the pins that connected the wheels and the shock absorber to the main trailer although it wasn't quite as bad as the tongue and trailer. There are locks that connect the tongue to the trailer and the wheels and shock absorber to the trailer. Those were a nightmare to remove, you have to push down on the handles really, really hard to unlock them. Yesterday, it took me about 30-40 minutes to put it all together because of the lock and pin issue I mentioned earlier. It almost seems like the holes on the trailer are just a tad bit too small for the pin and yes, I made sure they were aligned properly. On the storage side of things - the license plate doesn't quite align to the pre-existing holes on the trailer so I had to use zip ties to attach them - what does that have to do with storage? Well - if you store the trailer upright - when you attach the license plate its about ankle height so if you're not looking where you're going you can easily scrape your ankle/leg against it. And yes, I definitely emailed Rack and Roll about this. We'll see what they say.

Pull-tab broke without breaking the seal of the kayak combing and the sprayskirt while I was underwater upside down in my kayak attempting an exit. Thank god there was an instructor there to help me get out of my kayak. First experience with a sprayskirt and it was horrible. I will never buy any Harmony products ever! This one almost cost me my life.

I found the boat to be extremely stable and light to carry on my shoulder. The stability I felt while on this kayak made me feel very confident while on the water. I also love the style of the boat and how shiny it looked when I got it - it almost reminded me of a little sportscar. I emailed Liquid Logic to get some stickers and they were more than happy to hook me up with stickers and posters! Great company - great boat and my local paddling shop really thought me a lot about kayaks that I will only buy boats from them.

First kayak I ever bought. Found the boat to be very stable. I love the deck rigging in the front. I now have two kayaks and decided to keep this boat as my river / fishing boat. Its tough, short and light enough for me to throw it on my shoulder for short portages. Its also very easy to get in and out of because of the large opening. Because of the short length - its nice to just be able to throw it in the back of my truck, strap it in quickly and run to the lake for a quick paddle or go fishing with it -- unlike my "touring" boat that I have to muscle up to the saddles on top of my truck and then tie down. This one takes me about 5 minutes strap on my truck and away I go. I took it to my first river paddle about a month ago and it performed real well in class I / II waters again without a skirt. The seats are nice and comfy and they backrest sits high enough that your back is really comfortable. Great rec kayak!

I took a self-rescue / team-rescue class on this boat and I was sold on it. Less than two weeks later, I traded in a rec kayak I had for this day touring kayak and I havent regretted the switch at all. This baby "glides" on the water and handles chop like a hot knife through butter. My other kayak, although very stable, made me feel like I was plowing through the chop, this baby made me feel like I was riding on top of it. Very nice feeling and boy... its fast. I'm sure there are faster kayaks out there but I can appreciate the speed I get on this boat. I like the deck rigging on the front and back. The only thing I wished was better on it is the seats - I wished the seat back was higher - I'm wondering if the style of seat on this boat is "encouraging" you to sit straight up and down rather than slouch back on the boat - other than that - its a dream to paddle.

Bought mine at K's merchandise for $399. I was excited at first because it was a 3-seater and knew that it would seat me, my partner and our son. We finally got it in the water and were terrified at how UNSTABLE the canoe is. I weigh about 175, my partner around 250 and our son 70 and even though we tried to distribute the weight as much as we can, the 2 heaviest people sitting on opposite ends of the canoe this boat "wiggled" so much in the water that I was afraid the entire 5 minutes all three of us were on it that we would all end up in the water. When the heaviest of the 3 finally decided that it just wasn’t worth it leaving the other 2 on the canoe it was much better. I now wished I waited and bought a much wider canoe. We've taken a canoe trip once before and the boat never felt that shaky but I'm betting it was probably because we had a wider boat. The boat does track pretty well but I'm tempted to either sell the canoe and get a wider one or buy stabilizers for it.