cars and trucks wearing canoes as hats...
- Thread starter Dave Osborn
- Start date
millie_sass
Canoe anybody?
Some of these are not tied down in the front and back. Is that stable enough? I continue to do a tie down at both back and front, but wonder how necessary. Maybe it depends on travel distance and road roughness, but I would appreciate knowing your thoughts and experiences. -- Millie Sass
Craig Johnson
Lifetime member
Hi Millie.
I have never tied mine down at front and back. I use two ratchet straps but on my truck they are 8' apart and I also have a steel cable locking them onto the rack through the thwarts so if the straps fail they can't go too far. I have driven thousands of miles at 75mph this way. All that being said I would never not tie the front down on your Mini. The ammount of canoe sticking out past your front strap will provide enough tourque to make something fail. See you Sat.
Craig
I have never tied mine down at front and back. I use two ratchet straps but on my truck they are 8' apart and I also have a steel cable locking them onto the rack through the thwarts so if the straps fail they can't go too far. I have driven thousands of miles at 75mph this way. All that being said I would never not tie the front down on your Mini. The ammount of canoe sticking out past your front strap will provide enough tourque to make something fail. See you Sat.
Craig
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Greg Nolan
enthusiast
A couple of sailor's hats crossing Lake Champlain:
It is my usual practice to tie both the bow and stern down when car-topping -- see the 16' OT Ideal above. And for a long haul, I often also tie a thwart directly to a crossbar, something that can't be seen in the pictures above. But sometimes tying the bow and stern down is not practical or possible -- the cocoon protecting the one canoe left no practical way to run lines to the canoe itself. If I can't tie down both ends, I like to at least tie down the bow, even if it means improvising an attachment point.
However, you will notice that the amount of stern of both canoes overhanging the rear of the rack is longer than the amount of bow overhanging at the front, in the pictures on the ferry. This is quite purposeful -- a canoe wants to act as a weather vane and with the longer stern overhang, the airflow tends to keep the canoes aligned properly. If the bow overhang is the same as (or worse, longer than) the overhang at the rear, the overhanging bow becomes a lever arm that the weather-vaning airflow work with to wrench the canoe off. On this trip, since the canoe in the cocoon was not mine, and was particularly valuable,
I kept my speed well below my usual brisk pace this past summer while taking it from Assembly back to builder Steve Cayard, who has been doing some touch up maintenance for Ken Kelly.
The canoes in the pictures posted above by Benson all have a longer rear overhang. I forget what the issue with the blue Morris was, but the best I could do there was to have equal overhangs -- making the improvised duct-tape bow tie-down very important.
On a truck rig like Craig Johnson's, the carrying bars are far enough apart (8 feet) to greatly lessen the overhang and therefore greatly diminish the leverage that wind can bring to bear, making bow and stern lines unnecessary; the lever arm of the bow and stern is not long enough to create a problem -- most canoe livery trailers also have the carrying bars far enough apart that such lines are not necessary. But on a car-top rack, the bars are not that far enough apart (on my Subaru, 38 inches), so bow/stern lines become useful, and critical on a car like a Mini.
It is my usual practice to tie both the bow and stern down when car-topping -- see the 16' OT Ideal above. And for a long haul, I often also tie a thwart directly to a crossbar, something that can't be seen in the pictures above. But sometimes tying the bow and stern down is not practical or possible -- the cocoon protecting the one canoe left no practical way to run lines to the canoe itself. If I can't tie down both ends, I like to at least tie down the bow, even if it means improvising an attachment point.
However, you will notice that the amount of stern of both canoes overhanging the rear of the rack is longer than the amount of bow overhanging at the front, in the pictures on the ferry. This is quite purposeful -- a canoe wants to act as a weather vane and with the longer stern overhang, the airflow tends to keep the canoes aligned properly. If the bow overhang is the same as (or worse, longer than) the overhang at the rear, the overhanging bow becomes a lever arm that the weather-vaning airflow work with to wrench the canoe off. On this trip, since the canoe in the cocoon was not mine, and was particularly valuable,
I kept my speed well below my usual brisk pace this past summer while taking it from Assembly back to builder Steve Cayard, who has been doing some touch up maintenance for Ken Kelly.
The canoes in the pictures posted above by Benson all have a longer rear overhang. I forget what the issue with the blue Morris was, but the best I could do there was to have equal overhangs -- making the improvised duct-tape bow tie-down very important.
On a truck rig like Craig Johnson's, the carrying bars are far enough apart (8 feet) to greatly lessen the overhang and therefore greatly diminish the leverage that wind can bring to bear, making bow and stern lines unnecessary; the lever arm of the bow and stern is not long enough to create a problem -- most canoe livery trailers also have the carrying bars far enough apart that such lines are not necessary. But on a car-top rack, the bars are not that far enough apart (on my Subaru, 38 inches), so bow/stern lines become useful, and critical on a car like a Mini.
Kathryn Klos
squirrel whisperer
Dan Lindberg
Ex Wood Hoarder
Racks have been known to fail, that's why the extra lines on the bow/stern.
With this said, if I'm only going a short distance, say 20-30 miles, I usually just do the 2 in the middle, but if I'm traveling farther or at speed, they get the bow/stern, for insurance.
Dan
With this said, if I'm only going a short distance, say 20-30 miles, I usually just do the 2 in the middle, but if I'm traveling farther or at speed, they get the bow/stern, for insurance.
Dan
pklonowski
Unrepentant Canoeist
I'm with Dan... though I define "a short distance" as being much shorter than Dan does. Maybe 4-5 miles, not more than 45mph. I've had a crossbar pop off on the highway. Without bow & stern tie downs, two canoes would have had a very close encounter with the semi behind me. Scary.
rapidan
Curious about Wooden Canoes
Y'know, this very thought occurred to me as I hit the highway - Most of my other canoe haulers have been old beaters with pipe racks or big bolted on racks of some sort - The Yakima and Thule racks for newer vehicles without rain gutters are a brilliant design - But the design relies on very small tolerances. I always give them a yank before adding a boat, but it wouldn't take much of a shift to have them come right loose, with canoe attached. As I was having these thoughts, I pulled off the road and added the bow and stern lines.
JClearwater
Wooden Canoes are in the Blood
Here is a thread that discusses car topping canoes. http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?5017-Cartopping-a-wood-canoe&highlight=Durango
Jim C.
Jim C.
Todd Bradshaw
Sailmaker
I found this one the other day, from back when we first moved here. These days it makes my back hurt just looking at it. My wife and I put it up there and took it off a couple of times with no help - but neither of us can remember how we did it.
Mark Adams
all wood nut
Here is my entry; a 1895ish Rushton Arkansas Traveller and a 1931 Old Town sailboat. Strangers in a strange land. This is out on the Salt Flats yesterday. 
Daniel Day
Enthusiastic about Wooden Canoes
Hello,
I have not posted anything for a while. So, I thought I would post a picture of the canoes I am taking to the Northwest Chapter event on lake Coeur d'Alene in Sept. I am trying to get organized now so I am not rushing. HAHA Also, couple of weekends ago we went canoeing on the St. Joe river near St. Maries Id. Perfect water except for the power boats.
I have not posted anything for a while. So, I thought I would post a picture of the canoes I am taking to the Northwest Chapter event on lake Coeur d'Alene in Sept. I am trying to get organized now so I am not rushing. HAHA Also, couple of weekends ago we went canoeing on the St. Joe river near St. Maries Id. Perfect water except for the power boats.
ozarkpaddler
Curious about Wooden Canoes
Well, guess I'll post one myself. Cedarwood Pal on my truck. 
millie_sass
Canoe anybody?
Before and After shots of Peterborough 604.
2014
2015
2014
2015
Kathryn Klos
squirrel whisperer
Two weeks ago, we picked up our newly-restored Kennebec reproduction at Tom Seavey's in NH, and paddled it for the first time last Saturday at Ken Kelly's cabin, where several vehicles arrived wearing party hats... and ours wore a snowy hat on Sunday morning...
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