HARKEN Hoister Overhead Garage Storage Hoist System for Kayaks, Canoes, Surf & Paddle Boards, (60lb Capacity, 12ft Ceiling) Self-Leveling, Safe Anti-Drop, Easy One-Person Operation - Model 7801.12

We recently purchased a Hobie Oasis twin (2016 model) kayak with Mirage drive. This is a wonderful kayak, but it is heavy and pretty big for a kayak. It weighs over 100 pounds and is about 14' long. Further, our main kayak carrying vehicle is a 2006 Honda Odyssey van, which is pretty tall in our modest two car garage. Because of the height of the cross beams in the garage (about 9') we needed to lift the heavy kayak as close to the beams as possible. After searching and sifting through the many options on Amazon and other places online, i settled on the Harken four point hoisters as the way to go. They work for my purpose in several ways: 1. Sufficient weight capacity and pulley reduction to make lifting and storing over 110 pounds of kayak a safe and reasonable task. 2. The four point pulley system gets the kayak as close to the beams in my garage as possible - I only lose a couple inches of space between the beams and the top of the kayak. 3. The system comes in various sizes in both weight capacity and height from the floor. I did puzzle over the very high price relative to other hoist systems, but ended up deciding that the ready-to-use kit was the way to go, especially after seeing users with almost exactly my needs praising it. I have to say, it is worth it me since, although I am a pretty handy guy, I can't see myself gathering the hardware that goes into this kit. This is especially true of the "organizer" and the main pulley that has the locking cam in it. All the pieces are of high quality and the unit is well thought out. I have included a photo of the opened, but still boxed, kit. The unit is not for the un-handy to install. If you struggle with IKEA furniture, for instance, you are gonna fail with this even though the instructions are better. I found the instructions to be good enough for me, but even then, had to take a few minutes to make sure I understood them a couple of times. All that said, it installed fine, works well, and I have attached a photo with the kayak hoisted to the beams in our garage. We've used it several times and it's great. If you have an expensive, heavy kayak or canoe like ours, do to hesitate to get the Harken Hoister. It's the best.

I am using this to store my Yakima Skybox. It works very well for this purpose. Overall, I'm happy with the product (especially considering the price). Instructions were fairly clear, though I did have to read them about ten times before it really clicked. I consider myself to be marginally competent in the DIY-space, and I found this system pretty challenging to install correctly the first time. Someone with little-to-no experience would be wise to just hire a handyman or recruit capable friend(s) to set this up. I have a decent collection of tools, and I employed quite a few to get the job done. ...in addition to the included hardware, you will also need: [10] 3-1/2" lag bolts, a couple 2x6s or 2x4s, a decent drill w/ various drill+hex bits, an impact drill, a stud-finder, a ladder or stool, a chalk-line, measuring tape, dock cleat (or similar rope tie-off hardware), potentially a skillsaw or handsaw

I bought this utility lift to store a small 125-lb paddleboat in my barn. The barn currently does not have electricity available, and a chain hoist is impractical for this particular use. The most important feature was the weight capacity, as I don't want the lift straps or hardware breaking and falling onto someone or something. Some of the installation directions could have been more specific, but after reading it a few times, I was able to understand what to do for each step. How easy installation will be depends upon where you plan to install the lift. The directions are intended for installation in a garage so that you could drive your vehicle in, hook up the straps, and lift the boat off the vehicle. The lift is designed so that the next time you want to use the boat, you simply lower it back onto your vehicle, secure it, and go about your business. In my barn there is 8 feet between trusses, so I had to build a frame for it. I think that potential buyers should know that if you intend to use this in a location other than a garage, basic carpenter skills and tools will be needed. Overall quality is excellent, and it easily lifted the boat. I rated it excellent because overall it works as expected, and the hardware, ropes, and overall design quality are excellent.

This product worked exactly as described. I can easily raise and lower my 135lb rooftop tent with little effort. The installation instructions are very clear and easy to understand but they had errors on the size of the mounting boards (which I reported and they said they would correct). But it’s difficult to install and requires two people and several hours.

This is an excellent hoist. Considering doing other side of garage ceiling when the need for more storage arises. I built a custom size pallet to store some bulky items up high outta the way. Shopping and planning took a while (and painting). I took my time, to get it the way we wanted, and it took quite a bit of "time." Like others, am suggesting you too take your time for planning. Considered putting the pigtail bolts directly into rafters (and could have), but went with the recommended system structure (I mean, the hoist manufacturer recommends following the directions for a reason, right!!)? Regarding the instructions, IMO, the instructions are a bit choppy (some details were in some areas, but other details, for example, would be in an inset diagram). The information is there, just maybe not succinctly. Just take your time before drilling, and review install manual, then re-read prior to putting holes in wood or ceiling. Hope the pics give you some ideas along the way, as i reviewed others, and found maybe 3% of reviewers provided good images, and recommendations. The best guidance was from some youtube videos I searched long and hard to dig up. Technical Advice on Install: I found the 10 pc neodymium super strong magnets (easy purchase on Amazon) were extremely beneficial locating the rafter lines. The magnets find the nails in the rafters and stick to the ceiling attracted to the nail, so this helps you visualize the rafter line across your ceiling regardless if you have a stud finder or not. I do also recommend a stud finder to verify/confirm the center of the wood - but the magnets kind of get you started and help visually continue planning to bolt the 2x6's to the ceiling. One of my pics has the magnets showing what i'm trying to explain. For your precision lining up your mounting hooks to the ceiling pig tail bolts, recommend getting some string (cord) with a couple heavy washers, and holding that cord against your ceiling (while on your ladder), and seeing exactly where the corners of your object are, so you can precision mount your hookup points. After a week of marveling t my install project, I thought few a couple of *important* (for piece of mind) afterthoughts.... and took action to address them in the garage. This leads to another technical tip on this hoist, like I've seen others mention, once the hoist is in place and your object is overhead, the single welded eye (that the moving tackle and all the ropes attach to in the wall - a single bolt supporting all the weight of your object) does make you really desire (a lingering internal curiosity) to reinforce/beef up the single bolt that bears holding the weight into your wall.... so i have included pic of what i did to assist in securing the welded eye to my setup, and would imagine something similar could be done if coming straight out of your wall plate, with some wire rope eyes bolted to the plate on left/right side, fastened with lag screws and heavy duty washers. (So i took the welded eye 2x6 bolted into wall, took it down temporarily to adopt my support plan). Tensioned down the wire, twisted it once around, and secured it to another adjacent board i installed (see pic). The 2x4 i cut out pre-slots with skillsaw, so the wire rope isn't chaffing on the 2x4. All of this now holds the welded eye nice and tight, now in both directions. Once pallet hoisted in place, suspended in are, as another after thought, and for added piece of mind, i also added a paracord 550 (1/4" thick), with CamJam XT locking tie down tighteners on both sides (center 2 rafters) to ratchet off a little tension of the 4 main hoist lines, simply to take some tension off of the four main lines. This is a quick disconnect setup before we would lower the pallet, anytime we want to lower the pallet, just pull out the rope from the cam (on both sides, a quick snatch), and aweigh we come down. Again this was for extra insurance and piece of mind (see pic). Finally, want to mention your rope management (you'll want to ensure the extra rope is not in the way when your object is up in place), and we installed large cleats to line up a guide to ensure no snares or chafing; and to also both support the load, and to manage the excess rope that will be overflowing when you lift your object). We went with the 200lb capacity (posting the "review" both here, and separately posted on the 200lb hoist link), in the event we wanted to put a few more things up outta the way on the pallet. Again, from most reviewers posting here, i didn't see great images, nor tips to get around some tricky planning - so wanted to share. Pallet weight is 87 lbs, so we have plenty of space and weight to add onto the pallet if/when that should occur. Hope this review helped, and BTW, you'll be very pleased once you get this in place. Really happy with this hoist, and just what freed up lots of walking space in our garage!!! It's easy, but does take clarity of thought and planning - just take your time, and enjoy the project. You're going to go up and down ladder many times, and you'll go to the hardware store more than once - but you'll be thrilled when you hoist up your gear - you'll take pics and send to several of your buddies. Enjoy.

Bought this to hoist my Yakima Skybox 18. Install was fairly straight forward. I didn’t find the instructions lacking. Hardware seems great quality. Based on my layout, I ended up flipping a couple things so I could pull the other direction. I also attached the pull rope to a winch to raise it so I deactivated the brake lever. I got another pulley from McMasterCarr so I go turn the rope at a 90 and connect to the winch. I had a hard time getting the box all the way to the ground and getting the straps level, I think it’s mostly based on my specific garage geometry and the add ons. I have a 10ft ceiling and bought the 7802 (10 ft) and have enough line, I just think the pulleys are too close so it bottoms out before the straps are down. Also, without any weight, it wouldn’t really lower down. So I built a little frame with some eye bolts to hold the box and get it to raise evenly. It works like a charm. Ropes seem to hold good with no creep and it hasn’t dropped on the van yet. Pretty pleased. As a side note and not a brag, I am a mech engineer so the install, instructions, knots and other complaints I saw in other reviews didn’t really bug me. As I said, I really just wanted the hardware so I could tweak the dimensions and set up to fit my garage.

Good quality materials and it works fairly well but requires more room from front to wall than I have because of a cross beam. Thus it only drops to about car roof level which means muscle still needed to reposition my cargo box a few feet onto the car roof rails. Also, it took several hours to install and pretty difficult. For this price, it should ship with steel brackets and lag bolts for ease of install and structural safety. By comparison, I also installed an ONRAX 3' x 6' motorized rack lift on the same weekend as the Harken Hoist. The much larger, motorized and heavy duty ONRAX took less time to install than the Harken and was easier even with its beefy motor.

Read the instructions through a couple times. Take them out the night before and familiarize yourself with them. Once you get going with the install, you'll notice that you're flipping back and forth between a couple of pages looking at the same 2-3 drawings. I remember one of these in particular is a little confusing. A box diagram is used to represent your garage, rafters, and how you should mount the system. It was confusing where the garage door was because it was omitted from the diagram. If you plan on getting some help, (which I highly recommend regardless of your construction skill level) allow your helper a good 30mins-hour with the instructions before you dive in. This will prevent delays of them trying to understand the instructions as they read them. Total install time from when we went over the additional lumber, and hardware needed, (then went to home depot 5mins away), to when we were finished, and the kayak was hanging from it, was about 4hrs. This is with 2 ladders, and two, let's say advanced DIYers. Both of us have successfully designed and constructed many wood, metal and PVC projects over our years. My only problem with this system is today's housing standard of what is considered a 2 car garage. My home is described as having one of these, however, unless one car is a mini, and the other is an compact, don't expect to be able to park 2 cars in it. Not only width, but the garage door height is the real trouble. My garage door opening is only 7'. I've lived in this home about 2.5 years and have had 4 trucks in that time. Only two have fit; a Dodge ram 1500 and a Toyota Tacoma. The other 2 did have lift kits, 6 & 8inches. Still, a Toyota Tacoma with 31" tall tires can not fit out of my garage with a WS Tarpon120 kayak attached to a cab mounted roof rack. Because of this, I had to rethink my whole usage for this system. The floor space isn't available. The boat is not staying outside...the only place for it to go is up. My goal was for me to be able to load my est. 75lb kayak onto my car without help. This harness allows me to drop it in place on my rack. Because of the low garage door height, I was forced to use my Jetta as my mode of transport for my kayak. This caused another problem. Since the cab of my Jetta is notably lower than the cab of my Tacoma, I had to relocate the eye bolt that holds one end of the pulley system to the anchoring wall. As the instructions describe, if you run it off at an angle, you increase that distance from the rest of the pulley system, which allows it to lower the boat more. Downside to that is, you can run out of the provided rope. I tied some auxiliary rope to the red and black rope pictured, but that only allows the rope to extend to where that knot meets the pulley. I do not know how to tie two lines together so that the knot is not larger than the line itself, which is what would be needed to allow more line to pass through the pulley system. What I have isn't as pretty as what came out of the box, but it allows the kayak to be pulled up above the garage door (which must be closed when raising and lowering the kayak) and lowered onto the roof rack of my Jetta. The pulley system allows raising and lowering of my 75lb boat with less force than would be required with a single pulley. This means your 110lb wife will be able to get out of the garage should you forget to raise it all the way (oops!) The "catching" mechanism in the pulley system also prevents the boat from free falling. You have to hold the rope at an intentional angle to get the boat to drop. I also really like the nylon straps. They are highly adjustable, and the buckles are metal, which enhances piece of mind. Every bit of this kit is built with rock solid design and materials. As you read the instructions, it can get very confusing very quick. Each piece has a part name that you can mix up. Once you get it assembled, doesn't look that complicated. Everything comes together and you'll think, ohh, that wasn't that hard. If you are considering this kit, and are wondering why it's priced so much higher than other kits, it's because it's worth it. I first wanted to go to a hardware store, and just walk around to find parts to make something like this; just wing it. After using this rack for a few months, and enjoying the piece of mind it provides for the strength and stability it provides to my boat and everything that finds it's way under it, I am very pleased with this purchase. ***UPDATE 6/09/2015*** After a year or two using this rack, my dad decided he wanted one too. Since he helped me install mine, and his garage ceiling is a modest 7' off the ground (as opposed to the 16 or so feet of mine) he successfully installed the entire system himself. The previously mentioned drop method I was using for my Tacoma (now with a Thule XSporter Pro kayak rack) has been changed again. Although I was able to align the top of the rack with the roof of the cab, and just barely clear the garage door opening with the kayak secured, it scratched up the roof of the cab something fierce. Because of the slight arc of the kayak, most of the weight was on the rear rack bar, and the nose (transported upside down) that was digging into the roof of the cab. My transport method is now with the XSporter bars lifted several inches higher than the cab, and the kayak face up and centered on the rack from front to back. I mention this, because I'm no longer able to clear the garage door opening and pull out of the garage. This is relevant to the hoist because now I have to lower the system until the boat is about 5' off the ground, hold onto the boat and undo one of the stainless steel buckles at a time. These buckles are directional so they only fit together one way (and like a USB plug, I never get it right my first try). This can get cumbersome when it's time to put the kayak back on the hoist by myself. *Note*- careful about ceiling light bulbs and their proximity to the pulley system rope. One of the crossing lines that runs closes to the ceiling passes within an inch a 75W bulb. I noticed it was fraying near the bulb. The rope has a little bit of damage, but it doesn't seem to be getting worse now that I've changed to lower wattage (and less heat radiating) CFL bulb.