I was looking at some SUV's today and I noticed that there could be a design feature that is a problem when carrying a board on racks.My 2003 Honda CRV opens with a side hinge (like a regular car door) . However modern SUV tailgates open "up" and quite high . There happened to be one at the dealer today , a Subaru Forester , with a kayak on top. When I went to lift open tailgate I noticed it could not open fully without hitting board. Even more problematic the door can be operated to automatically lift by pressing the key fob button . So if you had a board on top and accidentally clicked button there could be some bad damage to car and board .Has any recent SUV owner experienced this ?

you can usually program the desired height that the powered tailgate lifts... it's designed into cars so they don't hit the roof of your garage etc...

Same thing as when you program your seat position for each key...

You will find that when you open from the back you can stop it with your hand before it hits the board. I have mine adjusted for the garage at my place it is pointless adjusting for a board you just need to be diligent and not hit the button inside the car, it is what it is.

DaveSandan said..
You will find that when you open from the back you can stop it with your hand before it hits the board. I have mine adjusted for the garage at my place it is pointless adjusting for a board you just need to be diligent and not hit the button inside the car, it is what it is.

David . Being diligent about "accidentally" pressing a fob key is not easy .
A crazy vehicle design in my opinion .
Why you would need any door to "fully" open by pressing a button seems over the top and a safety issue .
As you say "it is what it is " as it seems they all seem to have this "feature"
Maybe I am just getting old and grumpy but I prefer less tech . I haven't looked at buying a new car for 16 years . I just realised how practical my old CRV is .

......wtf.....I just saw the price .
That's 100 Sunovas. I would have to sell all of Tardy's boards

Ok this is what you can do, load your car then your board, reverse procedure once arrived at destination.
First world problems eh

Mick Smith have already thought of that but as you know trips with family often require access to the cabin .
It also doesn't deal with the issue of damaging board and vehicle if you accidentally press button on key fob.
Only work around is to adjust opening height as Dave said .
Yes it is a first world problem . Modern vehicle are way to high tech . When they work it's fine . But if a battery goes flat , there are cases where you can't even get in the vehicle to open the bonnet .

You should try it with a 2 door Mini Cooper hatch...adds a whole other dimension to packing the car & logistics!

My mate had a jeep laredo. Motorised tailgate opened with SUP above and ripped the e roof rails out

Went through this a while ago and due to height limitations for parking went for a wagon. Found same issue with powered tailgates however found in the settings area the powered function could be switched off and manually operated avoiding accidental openings. You might to check if this is possible on what you are looking at. Recommend you don't rely on the salesperson's advice and check in the showroom.

I agree with the general point that cars are becoming too tech-heavy. How bloody lazy do you have to be not to open your own tailgate? Plus, they are usually dog slow and make a stupid noise.

Various considerations have to be made when buying a vehicle if you are a watersports enthusiast. This is one of them. Most vehicles can have the motorised tailgate disabled completely by a mechanic. That's what I would do. But so far I've managed to find vehicles that don't have a motorised tailgate. And I accept that I have to load the car before putting the boards on the rack.

I use a trimmed length of clear rail tape over the edge of the tailgate, then let the tailgate go all the way up.
The railtape protects both car and board.
The friction from the boards deckpad over the front roof rack stops the board sliding off.
Looks a bit alarming, but it works

7' 2" Hypernut......done!

I drive a VW Caravelle with an upward opening tailgate, albeit non powered.
It has tracks / channels whatever you want to call them in the roof that as standard fitment had longitudinal rails in them that you would put cross bars on.
I got Rhino Rack bases that fit in the tracks / channels whatever you call them , that come in various heights. Cross bars go on the bases.
After a false start that had the racks ridiculously high, we managed to get the right height bases so the tailgate could not hit a board on the racks when raised.
See if I can find some photos....

I had a suburu outback before and it had an electric rear tail gate and integrated roof racks, both features i absolutely grew to hate. Roof racks were narrow, could only get boards on top of each other not side by side for a large car. Nothing fitted it, bike racks, ski racks etc, and to flimsy.
Rear tail gate, you could program open height, but slow, and you could damage boards if you got it wrong. Other than that, great car, but the above 2 were a deal breaker for me !!