3 Canoes on 1 roof

[Shearwater]

I need/must get three 31" wide 16' long canoes on the roof of my truck.
Two are gelcoat kevlars with aluminum and one is clear coat with carbon gunnels so gentle is a good idea.
2 is a piece of cake but 3? Any brilliant ideas?
I can't afford a canoe trailer and no clue where to store one if I could.
3 side-by-side is almost 8 feet wide so that's a non-starter.
Shall we stack them but how?
Thanks for any help I can get.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

There are two options.

Pyramid with two canoes side-by-side and the other balanced on top: _-_

One canoe at the center of the rack and and the other two leaning against it: /-\

I'd probably go with the second option. Strap down the central canoe and then put two long straps over the leaning canoes. Tie the ends of the leaning canoes diagonally from the bow and stern. You can try to protect the hulls where they touch by using pipe insulation on the leaning canoe gunwales, or with towels or blankets at the contact points.

 

[Mason]

I've used Glenn's first option with good results. In between the two layers I had two 2x4s for the third boat to sit on, independently tied to the racks. Third boat attached to the 2x4s, but the ropes continued to the main rack.

 

[PeteStaehling]

I've used Glenn's first option with good results. In between the two layers I had two 2x4s for the third boat to sit on, independently tied to the racks. Third boat attached to the 2x4s, but the ropes continued to the main rack.

I've been on a trip where we did that too, but probably never on my vehicle. It worked okay. It helps if the two on the bottom are of similar heights and shapes. The guy whose truck they were on did it before and probably somewhat frequently because he had a pair of carpet covered 2x4s at the ready.

I have also done the other way mentioned with success.

Yet another way is to have a rack with an upright bar and the boats on edge sometimes with more piled on top. I've done that too, but more often with a mixed bag of whitewater kayaks, open canoes, and decked C1s. Sometimes with a dozen boats on a shuttle. I don't recall specifically how many, but I am sure I have had a pile of ww canoes on my old van. You may not want to subject your gel coat to that kind of handling, but with a little padding and some care... If for example running a wild river where the shuttle might be an all day drive getting a lot of boats on the truck/car might have a high priority and a few gel coat scratches may not seem as big of a deal.

 

[Guest]

And yet another way, which we have used many times on long trips to carry three or even four boats on roof racks, all securely gunwales down and none touching.

But, for three canoes it requires using a third crossbar. The rack spacing required to carry three canoes does not need to be dictated by this ()()(). That arrangement places all three canoes staged side by side at their widest point.

Take that arrangement and cantilever one canoe forward a bit and the other two back a bit (or vice versa). Now the tapered stems are “nestled” close together and the crossbar length required is greatly reduced.

I don’t know what rack system you use on your truck, but if bedrailed a third crossbar on the roof, or even a goalpost T-bar on the hitch might allow offsetting the canoes.

This is four 31” wide decked canoes on the van roof, using four crossbars.

IMG015 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

We use the same multiple cross bar system to carry four open canoes, two set forward, two set back. With four canoes that is actually, one forward, one back, one forward, one back.

All with two belly lines each, bow and stern lines and DIY’ed gunwale stops keeping the hulls from rubbing against each other. Thousands of miles, never had any issue.

And not necessarily just a one trip deal. The other welcome advantage of using multiple crossbars is having rack space for another boat or two when setting a self shuttle on group trips.

 

[LanceR]

Or in some cases you can use and piece of Unistrut or something similar and a couple of foam pads with a strap passed through the door. Or use a canoe loader or t-bar in either a rear or front receiver.

https://bushcraftusa.com/forum/threads/diy-rooftop-boat-rack.283620/#post-5127924

Best regards to all,


Lance

 

[scoutergriz]

I've done 3 many times and as many as 6 once, stack the 2 most level ones with straps that go over one, under the crossbar and back over the second to lock them in place. Add 2 pieces of lumber high and wide enough so the next layer won't contact the first directly over your racks, high ends might mean a 4x4, and tie them to the racks.
now here's the tricky part, and requires 4 ropes or straps- add the third canoe and tie one end of your strap to the 2x4 tight to the hull, over the boat and to the RACK, not the 2x4 (one side pulling down, other side pulling across.) do the same on the opposite side, then again on the rear crossmember, this locks the canoe down without the need to tighten the crap out of your straps, possibly damaging the hull because everything's in tension, not compression.
tie the bow and stern lines from the top canoe to the lower canoes and on to the bumper or hood to get your v's and you're good. I've done it this way with 17lb carbon fiber racing shells and not damaged one yet!

 

[Guest]

Two are gelcoat kevlars with aluminum and one is clear coat with carbon gunnels so gentle is a good idea.

We have done the pyramid stack, most often on short shuttles, but occasionally on longer trips, and with aluminum, plastic and beater boats.

With Kevlar hulls and carbon gunwales I would much rather have all three canoes gunwales down and not touching.

If you do go pyramid stacked, or even leaned /|\ against each other, check the ropes or straps every time you stop, and make sure nothing has shifted and the boats aren’t rubbing. Especially if it is windy, in either guise that presents a lot of “sail” on the roof racks.

I said “never an issue”, not true. On one four boat trip one of the hulls jumped the (too short) DIY gunwale stop in high wind and rubbed against the boat next door. What it rubbed was the bolt head from the rudder pedal. It did some fugly damage to its neighbor’s gel coat.

 

[Shearwater]

Thanks everyone, great ideas here.
Some of these trips will be 600 - 700km long at 100 kmph so your ideas will be needed.
Three buddy paddlers in solo canoes so nobody wants to be solo in their car on the drive there and back.

I'll make sure they keep the speed down to 100 or I'll be a nervous wreak.
It's my truck and my clear coat carbon gunneled Shearwater.
Cheers Ted

 

[Guest]

Four boat front view

IMG014 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

 

[LanceR]

Mike, how far did the kid in post #8 make it before he fell off?

Lance

 

[Guest]

Mike, how far did the kid in post #8 make it before he fell off?

He was a burly little dude even at that age and kept a firm grip on the bow lines as long as I kept it under 55.

I loved that Toyota Hi-Lux; the most basic long bed, manual transmission truck you could buy at the time. Under 7K new from the dealer lot.

Added a Warn winch, 5-gallon Gerry can mounted on the side, used aluminum cap with crossbar extensions on the ladder racks to accommodate two canoes and the usual live-aboard outfitting under the cap; foam mattress, curtains, lights, 5-gallon water carboy, ice chest, etc.

The only flaw, once kids came along, was the vinyl bench seat; not enough room for a passenger and a kid car seat.

 

[scoutergriz]

Mike Mcrea; I had the Toyota Custom (next model up 4x4) and loved it! that 22r motor was unstoppable, and the box was big enough to sleep two, the cargo hooks were sheer genius! but I hear you about the seat- my daughter used to take great pride in kicking it out of gear on the highway, and a car seat really reduced the elbow room.

 

[Guest]

the cargo hooks were sheer genius!

There are a lot of features I miss on later model vehicles, rain gutters and side vent windows are high on the list. But those simple cargo hooks, three down-facing hooks as part of the exterior bedrail on each side, really were sheer genius.

For tying boats (or anything else) on the cap roof I could tie the belly lines off to the truck body instead of to the racks. Much easier, much more secure.

And that 22R engine? The old Hi-Lux had nearly 300,000 miles on it when I had to sell it for a kid car-seat vehicle and it never once let me down.

 

[Canotrouge]

My bars are wide enough for three full side tripping canoes, but when not, we place the third canoe on top of the first two in a pyramid form.. run the straps into the other two canoes straps and bingo!!

 

[saltandsky]

I have used the two canoes on the bottom with spreader bars and the third on on top with good results (about 1,000 miles of driving). The two bottom canoes were similar size and reasonably solid composition boats. The one on top was a bit shorter and lighter weight. All boats tied independently to the main roof rack bars and ends of the car.

The cleverest idea I have seen for carrying three canoes came from Paul Meyer of Colden Canoe.
When I met Paul to get my Nomad I noticed the modified racks on his truck. He had normal width round roof rack bars with smaller pipes that fit inside the main bars and could slide out. They were held in place with hitch pins pushed through appropriately drilled holes. The extension bars had end plates to keep straps from sliding off. When the extension bars were pulled out it was wide enough to fit three canoes side by side . My recollection was they extended the main rack about a foot on each side.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

A lot depends on (1) the length of your bars, (2) the height of your vehicle, (3) the size and shape of your boats, and (4) the material composition of your boats.

You can fit three canoes side-by-side by using slide-out cross bar extensions. Thule has sold them for decades and Yakima probably has also. Maybe that's what what Paul Meyer uses. Because of their cantilevered leverage, however, such extensions are not as stable as the primary bars, which may or may not matter for the size and weight boats you are carrying.

It's a lot easier to use a pyramid if you have a low vehicle than a high vehicle like a van, because it's easier to load and remove the top boat of the pyramid on a low vehicle. And sometimes the shape of the canoes militate against using a pyramid. In those cases, the double lean against a centralized canoe (usually the biggest boat) is more solid and stable.

If all three canoes are Royalex or plastic there are minimal reasons to be concerned about loading a pyramid and the potential for chafing. In my whitewater days, the pyramid stack was very common. However, with expensive composite canoes most of us would be concerned with sliding friction and vibrational chafing while loading and driving. With these delicate boats, I think the double lean technique is more protective particularly if you cushion the places of contact, which will normally be a gunwale rubbing against a hull or rack bar. These contact points can be protected by slit pipe insulation or pool noodles slid on the gunwales and rack bars.

 

[Canotrouge]

Well I have a 3/4 ton 4x4 p/u.... I loaded everything from big heavy royalex canoe to super light racing(real racing canoes) canoes and a mix up of everything. Most of our boats are composites, with some royalex from 11 feet solo ww canoes to 18 feet tripping canoes and pretty much everything in between! Never had a problem other than a few scratches...

 

[Guest]

3 side-by-side is almost 8 feet wide so that's a non-starter.

Maybe not, and off-set tapered you may not need 8 feet.

I’ve made simple wood rack extensions for my past truck racks. Not pull out extensions, although that may be a solution, but extra wide crossbars secured to the top of the existing racks, so we could taper nestle multiple canoes all gunwale down.

I figure that, provided the racks don’t stick out past the side view mirrors, we’re street legal and unlikely to clip anything with the racks.

The racks on the van in the photos above are 8 feet long, Quick & Easy 2x4x8 crossbars, but they are still an inch shorter than the side mirror edges on each side. But that 8 foot length was necessary to accommodate four 31” wide hulls, plus an inch of no-rub gap between each boat.

4 x 31 hull width plus 3 inches of no-rub gap = 127 inches. Without offsetting the hulls tapered ends near tapered ends that would necessitate nearly 11 feet of crossbar.

Even with a /-\ arrangement you may want wider crossbars. I’d prefer that the contact area of the edge angled canoes be the upside gunwale, not the thwarts.

Let us know your 3 boat solution, and how it worked.

 

[Guest]

I found some old photos of four canoes, all gunwales down, on the van roof

Rear view

EK_0004 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Off-set stem tapers nestled top view

EK_0002 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Still curious about what methodology Shearwater used to rack three on his truck.