3 Canoes on 1 roof

[yellowcanoe]

Mike vans are easy to haul three or four with the long roof. I think SW has a truck with an open bed ( crew cab). But I would be interested too; he may have also been hauling a travel trailer though probably not.

 

[Gerald]

If removing thwarts on one canoe would permit nesting two of the canoes then problem over.
G.

 

[Guest]

vans are easy to haul three or four with the long roof. I think SW has a truck with an open bed ( crew cab). But I would be interested too

The van has 11’ of roof line rain gutter, so four spaced crossbars/four boats is do-able. The little Tacoma has six feet of bed and four feet of cab roof; with racks over the bed or on the cap and a third crossbar over the cab roof three canoes, with the middle one cantilevered a bit out over the windshield, should work.

I may yet add a third crossbar for over the cab, if only to make cross-loading multiple canoes on shuttles easier.

I duuno if I’d call tying four canoe on a high van roof “easy”. One roof racked boat is cake, two is easy, three gets tricky, four is a bit of a chore; in part simply finagling belly lines, in part remembering which of the four boats goes where in what order.

Each of the four hulls is trapped between paired gunwale stops both bow and stern. Just figuring out a workable gunwale stop arrangement, one that left an unconcluded crossbar expanse for sliding the canoes on and off, was a challenge. Hint – the outside gunwale stops are not on opposite sides of the hull \0/ __\0/, but instead paired a gunwale width apart on the outer edge of the crossbar \\______//, trapping one outside gunwale on the crossbars and leaving open slide on/off space.

Confused yet? We’re just getting started.

With four boats and four crossbars each canoe is resting on only two of the crossbars, and each boat gets two belly lines off that crossbar, so to finagle the belly lines the two interior boats need to be racked first. Because of the tapered stem offsets one interior canoe loads from the front, one from the back. More on that later.

So far so good, but a tall van roof with high towered Quick and Easy’s puts the crossbars well out of reach, so a step ladder is needed. All of the belly lines are run through a crossbar eye bolt on the outside edge of each hull, so up the step ladder twice on one side, two belly lines, then walk around the van and up the ladder on the other side twice for two more belly lines.

You did carry the stepladder around with you, didn’t you? No? Walk back around and fetch it. I did that “Oops, no ladder” so often that I began bringing two stepladders and positioning one on each side of the van.

Two boats on and secured. Time to rack two more. More van circumnavigation; at least there is a ladder waiting on each side. Because of the spacing, overhang and taper nestle the two canoes positioned outboard, again one loaded from the front, one from the back, are always the two longest hulls.

I became fairly fast and efficient at that back and forth times four (bless the second step ladder), but I still needed a “cheat sheet” to remember which boat best loaded where in what order.

Cheat sheets plural, boats plural. I have a saved collection of 14 index cards with assortments of seventeen different canoes loaded in different positions. dang near every variation of boats we have owned, including decked canoes.

No way could I remember those particular arrangements from trip to trip. heck, sometimes (often) I needed to look at the cheat sheet before re-racking the boats after a trip.

Racking boats on a canoe trailer is so much easier, but I hated towing a trailer just for boats, especially if they would all somehow fit on the roof racks, and we have driven to Maine, Florida and out west with that 4-boat arrangement.

 

[lyle]

you know max width is 102 inches, that's to rims the side wall can be over, mirrors can be over.

 

[Shearwater]

Big time sorry for the long delay in replying and for not taking a photo.
The two outside canoes pushed a little back and the middle one pushed a little forward worked perfectly and darn easy to set up.
The other two canoeist think I'm brilliant and bought me a few beer so I hope they never see this thread!
Thanks to everyone for ideas.
Cheers Ted

 

[Guest]

The two outside canoes pushed a little back and the middle one pushed a little forward worked perfectly and darn easy to set up.
The other two canoeist think I'm brilliant and bought me a few beer so I hope they never see this thread!

Ted, good to hear that the tapered offset method worked well for you, and happy to help convince your friends that you are brilliant and worthy of free beers.

With gel coat and carbon gunwaled canoes on a 400 mile trip at highway speed I’d much rather have all of the canoes firmly gunwales down and not touching than stack a pyramid or lean them /I\ two against one.

And, as you said, much easier to put the canoes on, take them off and tie them down with that method.

I really need to get a third crossbar for the cab roof of the truck, if only for 3 canoe self-shuttle help. Did you use three crossbars, or make it work with just two?

 

[Shearwater]

Three cross bars. Two on the bed and one over the cab. Probably didn't need 3 as the middle one was somewhat superfluous but sure made for an easy setup.
Thanks again.

 

[Grandpa Paddler]

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.

Used to do this years ago hauling 3 Grummans to Algonquin on an old '65 Ford Ranch Wagon. We didn't even use rope or straps... just bailing twine. Sounds crazy but then we were young and not so bright (but never lost a canoe).