Ok, It'll be a tight squeeze but I might have to give it a try and hope it'll work out. If I put the boat in the garage and close the garage door I should be able to carefully maneuver the canoe for storage..at least for longer term during winter when I don't take it down every other weekend.
My canoe is about 54lbs.
Mike do you happen to recall what kind of metal brackets you purchased?
Something like this?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004Z0ZJ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
It is kind of a tight squeeze with the Indy, largely because I have shelving on one wall and the tracks for the garage door are somewhat in the way, but it works.
The supports are exactly those Stanley shelf brackets, which are uber sturdy. They are screwed into the wall studs (3 very long screws with fender washers on each bracket). The crossbars are 1 ½ inch wood stock, attached to the top of the bracket using round head carriage bolts so I don’t mar the gunwales when sliding the canoes into place.
If you are really gunwale protective you could countersink the bolt heads, or simply carpet the crossbars. I suggest something in a nice raspberry shag (any carpet, but indoor/outdoor carpeting works well)
The brackets/crossbars are spaced 7 feet apart, and with the sheerline taper of the canoe the wood extensions are only 2 foot 8 inches long, which still leaves me with 4 inches to spare at each station on the hull. Your spacing and dimension may need to be different; just set the Explorer up against the wall and grab a tape measure (and stud finder)
BTW, if you have a sheetrocked garage/shop etc it is future beneficial to grab a stud finder and long level and pencil mark
all of the studs. Ceiling joists too. I did most of the walls when I enlarged the shop and it was empty, and wish I had thought ahead and marked them all when the shop was wall and ceiling accessibly empty.
The straps from the ceiling are probably unnecessary with those Stanley brackets; I wasn’t convinced about the sturdiness of that system without proof of concept and had extra straps lying around unused.
Those brackets have proven to be plenty sturdy, but there is a lot of shop stuff stored on the walls around those boats, and the straps provide insurance that I won’t accidentally knock a boat off while pulling down lumber or some storage box (or falling off a ladder while pulling down some lumber or storage box, taking the canoe downwith me). I have heard such boat falls off the rack stories, and hitting the concrete floor from 7 feet in the air would not be good.
In a similar vein the boats I have stored outside are all tied to the racks, but it took a couple of occasions where high winds tossed a lightweight canoe to the (thankfully soft) ground before I became more anal about tying down. Another good use for painter lines bow and stern.
. we do too. Its an issue in the winter. When we get our driveway plowed all cars must be inside.
