Lashing the pole to a roof rack?

[yaricoy]

I always lash my pole to the roof rack using the old classic boy scout lashing technique. I use a smaller cord ( 550 ish size). Clove hitch on the rack bar, under and over the rack and pole until you're ready to frap around between the rack and the pole, then end with another clove hitch. I've used this same technique to make improvised 2x4 boat racks on the factory racks of cars, too. Then I secure it with the tail ends of the webbing straps for the boat for extra measure. Then I hold onto the previously mentioned pole with my left hand through the open window while I drive for just a little more security (That's not true, but I do find that I reach up and try to move it for the first few miles of the trip to make sure it's not going to turn into a javelin on a hard braking). I've had one of my WW kayaks pass me on the highway once so I like to have some backup and overdo anything I put on the roof rack.

 

[Tsuga8]

So I had to deal with this question today and figured 'surely there's a CT thread....' and voila!

My question: has anyone actually been in a car accident with their pole on the roof?

The pole may be tied down tight but what happens when the car decelerates from highway speeds to 0 in a hurry? I often wonder about this with my boats and racks....it's prompted me to use bow lines pretty much always even though I don't need em to keep the boat on unless I'm on the interstate. But a pole with a metal shoe seems a lot more dangerous at 60mph than a boat, and a lot more likely to go thru someone's windshield in a head-on.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I've never seen an accident with poles.

My pole was break-down so I didn't have a 12' problem, but a 12' pole could be lashed inside any of my canoes that I would use for poling. In addition to the methods already mentioned in this thread, one could DIY a pole bag with MOLLE loops pretty easily with average sewing skills.

As to boats (with or without poles lashed inside) shifting fore or aft due to sudden vehicle decelerations or accelerations, that is possible because most people angle their bow and stern lines in the wrong direction. They should be angled like this \----/ not this /----\. Alternatively, you can tie snotter lines from your bow and stern to your rack bars to prevent fore-aft boat movement. But if your entire rack comes loose, snotter lines tied to it won't help everything flying off your roof.

Here is Rolf Kraiker showing how properly to angle bow and stern lines:

 

[Boreal Birch]

Head on car crashes are pretty unforgiving, rather drive into to the ditch than try to survive a head on crash.
When I picked wild rice in Northern Minnesota, we always tied the pole inside the canoe.

 

[Tsuga8]

Yeah, I was tying mine in the boat as well, but a new-to-me-boat has floatbags, which complicates getting a pole in and out of the boat. I had success attaching the pole to my rack with some Voile ski straps today. I used a 6-wrap prussik in p-cord at each end, carabinered to the rack, aka the suspenders for the Voile strap belt. Either seemed like it would hold the pole well by itself. I think this might be my method for getting to the local poling spot down the road. If I get on the interstate I'll deal with deflating and inflating the bags to hold the pole in place inside the boat.