My wife has an EV (bicycle) that is transported with a hitch mount on the back of my Subaru.
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Happy Marine Mammal Rescue Day! 🐳🐬🦭🦦
New cars: are they as impossible as they seem for cartopping?
- Thread starter Tsuga8
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Not quite what I had in mind, yknpdlr! I suppose one could combine an e-bike with a bike trailer for hauling a canoe, but that's a topic for a other thread!
I have an F150 Lightning, which cartops just like any other F150. A canoe on top does decrease my mileage, and thereby range, but I have yet to drive far enough to identify the delta.
Had an ’07 Outback and put wood crossbars (xbars) on railings. They are a very heavy, dense pine I got from a construction site. They’re spacers between the batches lumber used to build houses.
Tied down xbars on railings, and canoe on xbars. Had bow and stern tie downs. In CO, I’m told the main reason for end tie down is prevent canoe lifting by wind. When I had a Grumman on a van many years ago, tie downs helped (in my mind) canoe from sliding fore or aft in case of an accident. That’s what I learned as a kid in the Catskills. Now, I’m told by other, out here it’s wind. Used store-bought loops under hood for front. There was a tie down under the rear of the ’07.
This January I bought a ’23 Forester, Premium model. Mostly, I wanted the same type roof railings, as no other car I saw (in my price bracket) had a railing as secure (IMHO) as the Forester (same as the ’07 Outback). Adjusted the boards a bit for wider body. Drove it with canoe, concerned the end hanging in front of rear view mirror and cameras might defeat the cameras. Dealer said it wouldn’t effect the driving if they were off-line. It drove fine.
The ’23 has no tie down in the rear. Had to make a loop of flexible webbing thru a 1” dia. PVC pipe. Put pipe inside back end a little right or left of door latch, let webbing hang out a few inches, shut door, and used the loop for tie down. Forgot to make photo of PVC, and I’m away from my place for a week. Hope you can visualize and makes sense. So far it works fine.
Dealer told me there’s no wind/bug screen for this model due to the cameras looking right over the hood. Even a piece of plastic sticking up an inch would mess up the cameras.
Recently decided to help prevent any lateral movement in a crosswind (this is CO, WY, NE, UT) by placing 2” “L-brackets” wrapped with tape (to avoid scratching aluminum gunnels) on either side of the gunnels. Haven’t driven this rig yet, but I know the canoe fits snug between the brackets, and I’ve tied down the canoe several times on the ’07 with two, 1" NSR cam straps. It’s secure.
Last, I made a longer (blue) hood loop thinking I was going to need an alternative attachment system because of the different engine mount. Turns out I didn’t need the longer blue webbing, but you see how it can be used if you can’t screw down the grommet end. The black store-bought webbing is easily screwed down securely, and it’s easy to remove the webbing when not transporting the canoe. Now that I have some extra blue webbing and grommets, I was going to offer to make some loops for folks in the Rocky Mt Canoe Club….if anyone’s interested…or any of you readers. Not trying to make $…just help out.
Here are a few pics to show what's described above. Hope that helps a bit.
Tied down xbars on railings, and canoe on xbars. Had bow and stern tie downs. In CO, I’m told the main reason for end tie down is prevent canoe lifting by wind. When I had a Grumman on a van many years ago, tie downs helped (in my mind) canoe from sliding fore or aft in case of an accident. That’s what I learned as a kid in the Catskills. Now, I’m told by other, out here it’s wind. Used store-bought loops under hood for front. There was a tie down under the rear of the ’07.
This January I bought a ’23 Forester, Premium model. Mostly, I wanted the same type roof railings, as no other car I saw (in my price bracket) had a railing as secure (IMHO) as the Forester (same as the ’07 Outback). Adjusted the boards a bit for wider body. Drove it with canoe, concerned the end hanging in front of rear view mirror and cameras might defeat the cameras. Dealer said it wouldn’t effect the driving if they were off-line. It drove fine.
The ’23 has no tie down in the rear. Had to make a loop of flexible webbing thru a 1” dia. PVC pipe. Put pipe inside back end a little right or left of door latch, let webbing hang out a few inches, shut door, and used the loop for tie down. Forgot to make photo of PVC, and I’m away from my place for a week. Hope you can visualize and makes sense. So far it works fine.
Dealer told me there’s no wind/bug screen for this model due to the cameras looking right over the hood. Even a piece of plastic sticking up an inch would mess up the cameras.
Recently decided to help prevent any lateral movement in a crosswind (this is CO, WY, NE, UT) by placing 2” “L-brackets” wrapped with tape (to avoid scratching aluminum gunnels) on either side of the gunnels. Haven’t driven this rig yet, but I know the canoe fits snug between the brackets, and I’ve tied down the canoe several times on the ’07 with two, 1" NSR cam straps. It’s secure.
Last, I made a longer (blue) hood loop thinking I was going to need an alternative attachment system because of the different engine mount. Turns out I didn’t need the longer blue webbing, but you see how it can be used if you can’t screw down the grommet end. The black store-bought webbing is easily screwed down securely, and it’s easy to remove the webbing when not transporting the canoe. Now that I have some extra blue webbing and grommets, I was going to offer to make some loops for folks in the Rocky Mt Canoe Club….if anyone’s interested…or any of you readers. Not trying to make $…just help out.
Here are a few pics to show what's described above. Hope that helps a bit.
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Great that you could engineer and build your own rack system instead of having to buy the outrageously priced commercial stuff. I continue to use Yakima stuff I have had for years and have used on multiple vehicles, mostly Subaru Foresters (I am on my fourth Forester), the current one is 2021.