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Poll: What type of vehicle is your usual canoe vehicle currently?

What is your current usual canoe vehicle?

  • Car - 2 door coupe

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Car - 4 door sedan

    Votes: 4 3.9%
  • Car - small hatchback

    Votes: 5 4.9%
  • Car - convertible

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • SUV/station wagon

    Votes: 28 27.5%
  • Pickup truck with open bed

    Votes: 30 29.4%
  • Pickup truck with bed cap

    Votes: 20 19.6%
  • Minivan

    Votes: 7 6.9%
  • Full size van

    Votes: 5 4.9%
  • Other (what?)

    Votes: 3 2.9%

  • Total voters
    102
I have an Aluma trailer 4 x 8 that I have used a couple times for carrying canoes when there’s a. Inch of us paddling. The drawback is the short tongue, so my longer boats end up too far back and reduces the tongue weight so much that I worry about the trailer going unstable.

I also happened to buy a wrecked, all aluminum sled dog trailer, can’t remember the name brand. When I have a free week or two I’ll cut that trailer up and retrofit it with a longer tongue and racks for maybe six boats. I only paid $200 for the trailer, and it has at least that much scrap value in the excess aluminum.

And I’m not sure if I posted this already, but I sold my Honda Element that I had been driving for 14 years, and I picked up a wrecked 2015 crv for $6,000, real clean and low miles. Easy fix just had to weld in a piece of quarter panel, B pillar, replace a couple doors and a couple air bags.
Timing couldn’t have been better, I got 38 mpg on one of my ski day trips to VT!!

“Easy fix”

😲
 
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And so's to not stray too far off topic, here's that Aluma

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So I recently put that CR-V to use...also first use of the new to me Thule aerobars. Got the aerobars cheap, used, from Amazon. Pretty sure they were only removed from the box and then returned, $75 with shipping for the pair. Found the feet and fit kit on Marketplace, for $100.
I was amazed at how quiet it was with those bars and the boats on top, and impressed with how securely the boats sat on the racks.

IMG_3856.JPG
 
Do you find that arrangement produces a lot of drag? And is there some sort of stop to rest a thwart against to hold position while tying the boats down?
I'm not sure if there's more drag that way but the track sits kind of low so bow would bang on the roof of the truck if the racks were the same height.

The angle is not so great that any canoe slid while I was tying them down.
 
I have seen the Frontier racks used on more than a handful of cars. I thought they were built well...
 
(oh & yes, the rack I basically stole from a U-Pull. The lady said $30. I was like "OK" In & out like a thief in the night)
It's nice. Wind deflector in front. The crossbars are adjustable. The trim pieces broke quickly with the canoe loading but that's why they make black Gorilla tape.
 
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