Not my first attempt to find kayak saddles that would fit onto the Honda CRV crossbars, but the only one that DID fit. The saddles have a rubberized part that sits between the saddle and the top of the bar. This does not want to slip along the bar, keeping the kayak right where you want it, Even with the hold downs all loosened, it holds on, but will move when you push it, a good feature. It’s set into the top clamp instead of just laying on the top of the bar, so it is held firmly with the top clamp The bottom of the clamp is coated so it doesn’t want to slip either. The tighten down knobs are big enough to be able to easily use, but not so big as to get in the way of the tie down straps. The straps themselves have a piece of material at the buckle that protects the car surface from being scratched by the buckle.The saddles themselves where they support the kayak are also rubber and flex to the shape of the kayak. My kayak is wider in the middle than in the front and I could position each saddle to give maximum distributed support. With J-bars you don’t have that option as my friends show me, but they use the J-bars so they can put two kayaks on their vehicle. I have just the one.I had planned on using a J-bar rack for the kayak. With a J-bar you need to pick the entire kayak up, over your head and put it down on the J-bars. With the saddles you can leave the back end on the ground and lift the front end up onto the CRV. A hint I found online is to get a small rubberised rug and put it on the vehicle and then put the front of the kayak onto the rug. This protects the vehicle but more importantly you can more easily slide the kayak onto the saddles . This makes it an easy one person job to get the kayak on or off the vehicle.The goods came packaged like a mummy, very protected.