TexasKayakFisherman.com

I have a 12.5 ft kayak and a passenger car and was wondering if I could haul a jet ski trailer with my kayak on it (eventually my girlfriend's kayak too). The idea of the trailer is that it is small,. low and light for a passenger car. However I think part of the kayak will be off the trailer for several feet (length wise).
Is that ok? What are the regulations? Thanks for helping me with that.

Size and weight should be no issue for you or your passenger car. I am in the process of building a kayak trailer out of an old jonboat trailer and it's going to be primarily hauled by a 4 banger Hyundai Elantra. You may want to look at possibly lengthening the tounge a bit if you are concerned about how much will be hanging off the back, but as far as the regs are concerned I'm not 100% possitive.

In a nutshell anything hanging off the back more than 48" has to be red flagged. If at night has to have lights on it. My yak hangs about 42" off the back but I still red flag it. Too many blind drivers out there.

milret and sinkingship, thank you so much for your inputs! I knew I could count on tkf and its members! If I don't find a jet ski trailer to buy around college station bryan area, I'll try a john boat trailer...

milret wrote:In a nutshell anything hanging off the back more than 48" has to be red flagged. If at night has to have lights on it. My yak hangs about 42" off the back but I still red flag it. Too many blind drivers out there.

not trying to be argumentitive here but if im not mistaken anything that hangs off the back has to be red flagged even if its just 6". And doesn't have to have lights at night (although a good idea.) this is for truck beds so a trailer might be different.

Where can I see registration/tags information for jet ski trailers that I intend to use for hauling kayak? I must be doing something wrong, already went to DMV but just can find. Anyone had this experience?
I just want to know if it is worth all the hassle, otherwise I'll keep my yakima rack on top of my car.
Thanks guys.

I'm pulling a jon boat trailer with my Miata. It's way easier than putting kayak(s) on top.


2 other benefits. My gas mileage is better with the trailer than yaks on top and I don'tget wind buffeted pulling the trailer.

I've had 3 yaks on it behind the Miata.

Too Busy wrote:I'm pulling a jon boat trailer with my Miata. It's way easier than putting kayak(s) on top.


2 other benefits. My gas mileage is better with the trailer than yaks on top and I don'tget wind buffeted pulling the trailer.

I've had 3 yaks on it behind the Miata.

WOW, that's a heck of motivation for me! Also I think the gas mileage make lot of sense, since I can feel how the wind really dragging my kayak on top of my VW Golf.

That's one of my "where there's a will, there's a way" pictures. I like sports cars, kayaks, and fishing. This set up lets me enjoy them all.

One more plus of the trailer. I can put the top down on the way to the water.

Hey peterpan, here is my kayak trailer, formerly a jet ski trailer. all I did was bolt the crossbars to the boards using "u" bolts.
My longest kayak is 12.5' and the trailer works just fine.
I do need to make the tongue a little longer but so far I've had no problems driving it all over.
Some of the Yakima stuff I already had and the rest I found on craigslist pretty cheap.
Let me now if you have any questions.

When I got my trailer I did a lot of research on this and found my answer on the Texas Dept of Public Safety website. What I said in a nutshell is what I found out. If you do a search on the TKF board you will probably find the same answers.

FishingSETX wrote:

milret wrote:In a nutshell anything hanging off the back more than 48" has to be red flagged. If at night has to have lights on it. My yak hangs about 42" off the back but I still red flag it. Too many blind drivers out there.

not trying to be argumentitive here but if im not mistaken anything that hangs off the back has to be red flagged even if its just 6". And doesn't have to have lights at night (although a good idea.) this is for truck beds so a trailer might be different.

Thanks Zarco for the pics and the rest of the people for the inputs. Now I think I can get going on this project. Found some used single jet ski trailers for around $175 without the boards (whatever that is). Is the price right? I guess it should be right? No tags, no registration, etc...
The other plan I have is to install the hitch from U-Haul on my VW Golf, has anyone had experience with those? It seems to be ok and the price is $165.00 (I don't know if they do the wiring as well, gotta check).
Appreciate the inputs!

Uhaul installed the receiver on my jeep, did good job, and they also did the wiring. No complaints.

milret wrote:When I got my trailer I did a lot of research on this and found my answer on the Texas Dept of Public Safety website. What I said in a nutshell is what I found out. If you do a search on the TKF board you will probably find the same answers.

FishingSETX wrote:

milret wrote:In a nutshell anything hanging off the back more than 48" has to be red flagged. If at night has to have lights on it. My yak hangs about 42" off the back but I still red flag it. Too many blind drivers out there.

not trying to be argumentitive here but if im not mistaken anything that hangs off the back has to be red flagged even if its just 6". And doesn't have to have lights at night (although a good idea.) this is for truck beds so a trailer might be different.

I stand corrected!!! I would imagine that those regs are meant for comercial carriers, but the statute does not specify that they have to be comercial so no flag/lights, they can ticket you!!

That said, in the past 6 years of transporting my yaks 2-3 times a week, I have never been pulled over and most of the time I dont even have a red flag (I usually use the florecent green end of my ratchet strap). Guess i've just gotten lucky!!!!

Anyone selling a single jet ski trailer nearby College Station - Bryan area? Thanks.

uhaul did a good job on my wife's accord coupe. pulls the trailer with no problem.

I had a bad experience with Uhaul.
I got a quote for a receiver hitch from the local Curt hitches distributor.
I called Uhaul because they're around the block from my office.
The first thing they do is take your name and number before they will ever give you a quote.
Their quote was $70 higher, so I said thanks but no thanks.
Their manager called me right back and asked the lower quote, then said he would match it - installed (it's really nothing to bolt a hitch to an F150).
When I drove in, they had an invoice for me that was $50 higher than quoted and told me that I had agreed to it over the phone.
The manager was of course no where to be found, but I wasn't wasting time to bite his head off, because they had already wasted too much of my time.

If you're in San Antonio or Austin, I highly recommend Texas Hitch and Truck Center

My dad recently bought a hitch for our Dodge Stratus. We will see how that goes. Does anyone know a good no too pricey trailer that could handle a drive to the coast and back(from DFW) once a month maybe?

A friend of mine lightly modifed a motorbike trailer. Lengthened the hitch, added some wooden runners and bolted on a rear lighting board.