u/calimoro

Hi redditors, really struggling with the right solutions here.

I have one 21'-long (Seda Tango tandem) and one 20'-long (Northwest Kayak tandem, I think) touring kayaks and planning to take out the entire family to the San Juan Islands near Seattle (2 hrs away from home, driving on highways) for 2- or 3- night camping trips. Each kayak weighs 95 lbs and while I manage to load/unload my car with one kayak, I don't have a good system to haul 2 kayaks at the same time.

I considered the following options:

Two kayaks on a car. Put two kayaks on a Toyota Grand Highlander. It turns out that with cross bars e.g. that would surpass the 175lbs "moving weight" limit of the roof. I have seen plenty of people mounting two hullavators on 65" or longer bars on a car like Subaru Legacy, and even loading lighter kayaks, it would still go over the safety limit. Wonder if I should take the risk.
Trailer. I can't easily find trailers that from the spec can fit 21' long kayaks. Furthermore we don't have a ton of space and ideally it should be possible to flip the trailer vertically for storage. Any trailer recommendations here would be very much appreciated.
Two cars, crossbars only. We can go with two cars but at first sight the Grand Highlander is not a fit for a 21ft kayak -- the cross bars are toward the front of the car which means it seems hard to load/unload a kayak from the back (with a roller), without landing it on the part of the roof close to the rear (no good denting my wife's new car).
Two cars, EZ rec-rac on the Highlander. This thing seems awesome (assist loading from the back) but not sure if it supports kayaks that long and regular cars (not tracks). Does anybody know?
Two cars, hullavator. The final option would be to install a hullavator on the grand highlander, which I am tempted to do but requires taking out the factory installed cross bars and getting cross bars + hullavator (or the yakima equivalent).

All options will be pricey (as in, more than I paid my used kayaks) but what I am concerned is landing on a solution that actually works. Anybody has figured it out before?

Suggestions to haul 2 21'-long touring kayaks.