YakAttack GearTrac Upgrade

When we began rigging YakAttack products on the 2012 HOOK1 Edition WS Ride 135, there was a discussion of whether the GearTrac behind the cockpit should be 8″ or 12″ sections. Luther had 8″ sections available, so that’s what I used, but I kept it close to the cockpit so that I would have room to swap them out for 12″ sections later.

Here, I’ll document how easy it was to make the switch.

Here is the package, as received from YakAttack. You’ll notice that a drill bit is supplied with the kit. This bit is slightly undersized, since the mounting screws cut their own threads in the hull. This makes for a tight, secure and watertight fit.

Here is the 8″ section, installed behind the seat.

Begin by carefully removing the 8 mounting screws. As you can see, I didn’t over torque the screws when I installed the original GearTrac, so these holes are still fully useable for the new section, since ALL GearTrac uses the same hole spacing.

This is a personal preference thing, but I decided to add some STS to the area before mounting the new GearTrac. Even though I’m reusing all 8 of the original mounting holes, so there is no chance of water leakage, running the screws through the STS will REALLY ensure that there is no leakage. (Okay, I’ll admit it – I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.) –


The eagle-eyed among you will notice that the STS has covered up my original mounting holes. However, since I replaced the sections of track one at a time, I had a good idea where there were and a few probes with a toothpick located the mounting holes. I lined up 2… –

With the first 8 screws installed, I was able to use the 4 remaining mounting holes in the GearTrac as a drilling guide –

From here, it was just a matter of installing the first 8 screws in the existing holes. NOTE – I recommend installing these screws by hand, as opposed to using power tools. I was VERY careful installing the first screws, so these holes were able to be reutilized, but I wasn’t willing to take a chance of stripping the holes out by screwing too hard. I don’t care how many clutch settings your drill driver has – DO IT BY HAND!