It took me way too long to make it easy to raise and lower my kayak that normally, when off duty, is hanging from the garage ceiling. I can pretty much always get some assistance when I need to get the kayak up or down but it's also great to be able to do this on my own - hassle free, more or less. The very reasonably priced solution I chose to try is the Attwood kayak hoist; also sold as MrHardware, RAD Sportz, Dragon Kayak and probably several other brands as well but the basic rope construction with pulleys seems identical.
The hardware in the kit is robust and the (long) rope seems okay as well; that's definitely a good thing but note that there is no proper block and tackle arrangement that would take care of the heavy lifting behind the scenes. Be prepared to use quite a bit of muscle and body weight to lift the load! The not-so-good manual says you can lift up to 120 lbs (54 kg) but I wouldn't go higher than, say, 80 lbs in order to feel comfortable with the strain applied to the ropes and the ceiling brackets. See to it that the included heavy duty bolts are screwed all the way in solid wood when fastening the ceiling attachment - otherwise you might end up in very serious trouble.
I had a hard time trying to figure out just exactly how to route the rope though the pulley system and it seems I'm not the only one. Luckily, there is a great YouTube video that shows exactly how this is done; you should find it here.
In case your kayak is not an extreme heavy weight, the hoist should perform roughly as advertised. However, using the included load 'hooks' makes it impossible to get the kayak all the way up. This was not an option for me so I removed the hooks and now my modification allows me to get my boat really close to the ceiling.
Still, I don't quite trust the hoist enough to let my kayak rest on the rope-and-pulley system all winter so I have my old support straps taking the kayak weight when the hoist is not in use.
How cool is this kayak hoist, then? I'd say that the Attwood (or whatever) kayak hoist is definitely not extremely cool but, in most cases, it gets the job done - on a budget.
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