Tie-downs for Transport

[Guest]

Worst tie down jobs

A novice friend showed up on a group trip with his first canoe. He had purchased 100 feet of very expensive rope from a sailing chandler. He didn’t want to cut his pricey new line, so he ran it up, over and round the canoe. He used one length of line for bow, stern and belly lines. Of course as soon as his macramé got loose in one spot it was loose everywhere.

Another friend loaded a rec kayak and a Pack canoe in the bed of a full sized pick up for a short shuttle, angled in / with the tailgate closed. It probably doesn’t count as a tie down job because he didn’t. At the first stop sign he hit the gas to scoot across the road and the boats levitated briefly before gravity took over and they landed in the middle of the intersection .

The worst I’ve seen was a Coleman on a minivan at a rest area on the Jersey turnpike. Resting on pool noodles. Upright. Held on by giant semi-truck style ratchet straps that ran all the way around the van, ie underneath the vehicle. In a driving rainstorm.

That was a very quick rest stop visit; I wanted to make sure we got back on the highway before he did and the exhaust finally burned through the straps.

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

One solution, albeit awkward to adjust and tighten, is to reverse the orientation of the gunwale brackets and put them inside the hull(s) where they don’t take up any crossbar space.

Good advice!

 

[Guest]

I once met a local paddling group at a paved parking area. A fussy guy I knew pulled in with a brand new 14' carbon Hornbeck-his first lightweight. He unfastened it and then went over to great a new arrival. a slight gust of wind caught the canoe and sent it end over end and skidding across the parking lot. This is why I always fasten a short bungee strap from the rack bar to the front thwart as soon as I lift the canoe onto the vehicle, it is the last thing I un hook before unloading also.
Turtle

 

[Peach Canoe]

". . . I always fasten a short bungee strap from the rack bar to the front thwart as soon as I lift the canoe onto the vehicle, it is the last thing I unhook before unloading . . ." Turtle

Ditto.

 

[yellowcanoe]

". . . I always fasten a short bungee strap from the rack bar to the front thwart as soon as I lift the canoe onto the vehicle, it is the last thing I unhook before unloading . . ." Turtle

Ditto.

Good idea for those with sailweight canoes!

 

[Guest]

Good advice!

Yeah, doesn’t that seem obvious? It wasn’t to me.

I was complaining that gunwale stops don’t work well on some shouldered tumblehome canoes because the top of the stop is the only part in contact with the hull. Someone on Canoe Tripping suggested “Just put the stops inside the hull”.

A fussy guy I knew pulled in with a brand new 14' carbon Hornbeck-his first lightweight. He unfastened it and then went over to great a new arrival. a slight gust of wind caught the canoe and sent it end over end and skidding across the parking lot. This is why I always fasten a short bungee strap from the rack bar to the front thwart as soon as I lift the canoe onto the vehicle, it is the last thing I un hook before unloading also.

Lightweight canoes need some special attention, not just on the roof racks. We had an 18lb pack canoe untethered on a sandy beach when it suddenly took flight, blowing end over end like a gymnastic floor exercise. That canoe was known ever after as “The Leaf Boat”.

Not just lightweight boats either. My Monarch blew off the roof racks once before I could get a rope around it. On another occasion we had a couple of RX solo canoes out on a windy marsh trip and we barely managed to get the boats tied off on the racks with one person forcibly holding them down while the other fastened lines.

I may have to make a thwart to rack connection, maybe a custom length of webbing and a Fastex buckle.

 

[Guest]

I also always tie my canoe to a tree after going ashore. I do this after retrieving a tandem canoe that blew into the water on Stillwater res, stranding a couple.
Turtle

 

[madmike]

The outfitters in the Upper Delaware area transport thousands of poly canoes each day on Mo trailers, and quick and easys secured only with bungies.

 

[Guest]

I have some long super bungees 2 times as thick as the standard ones. I have used them to hold down multiple boats when I run out of straps. trailers have a long rack span which makes tieing down much easier. Some vehicles have a short span which really makes a secure tiedown jog harder.
Turtle

 

[Jim Dodd]

I have always been a rope fan, but must admit my knot tying failed on one occasion !

Alan and I hashed straps versus ropes, last weekend. I use straps, a lot of times in conjuction with ropes, where I'm traveling far.

Jim

 

[Guest]

One never will I ever.

Once the canoe is on the roof racks and I have untucked the painters from beneath the deck bungees to use as bow and stern tie downs they get fully tied off before I become distracted or proceed to do anything else. I’ve seen two friends drive over dangling bow lines, and seen the aftermath of a third.

1.Tore through the grab handle on vinyl deck plate.
2.Broke a windshield and crushed the front of a van roof. The Disco 174 was fine.
3.Nearly destroyed a composite hull. Broke the wood gunwales on both sides and shattered the gel coat.

 

[yellowcanoe]

I now never talk while securing boats. Particularly a trailer load of boats. I failed to notice that one was not secured once and I took off , did a u turn with the trailer and one canoe did a barrel roll off the trailer. hit the double yellow line and two more full rolls in the air before landing in a ditch. Now there is a no talk rule.
Despite the boat being relatively unharmed. It was a ceconite covered hull. Needed a little paint for road rash.

Nor does anyone else EVER secure my boats. Boat people understand this. Lay people do not.

Some very notable paddler has completely trashed a custom FlashFire by driving over a loose rope.. Not me ( but I learned from that too)

 

[Canotrouge]

I now never talk while securing boats. Particularly a trailer load of boats. I failed to notice that one was not secured once and I took off , did a u turn with the trailer and one canoe did a barrel roll off the trailer. hit the double yellow line and two more full rolls in the air before landing in a ditch. Now there is a no talk rule.
Despite the boat being relatively unharmed. It was a ceconite covered hull. Needed a little paint for road rash.

Nor does anyone else EVER secure my boats. Boat people understand this. Lay people do not.

Some very notable paddler has completely trashed a custom FlashFire by driving over a loose rope.. Not me ( but I learned from that too)

I'm with you on that one.... Other than I do talk, I always give a tug to each boat before getting in the truck... I never let people secure my boat or the load that I'm carrying. And if some one does help me, you can be sure I will go behind them and check and retie if need be and I can tell you some of them get upset when they see me redoing there job but I'm pretty good at explaining the reason why!!

 

[Guest]

Some very notable paddler has completely trashed a custom FlashFire by driving over a loose rope.. Not me ( but I learned from that too)

Some not very notable paddler almost trashed a RapidFire by driving over the bow line. Me.

I had a RapidFire come down from Placid and met the guys at a rest area near one exit from my home. I tied the boat on our CR-V racks while chatting with them. Drove less than a mile back up the inter-State when the bow line suddenly came loose and flailed against the windshield.

WTF!. Pulled over and found the line was burned through near the end. Good lord, did I really forget to tie it off while I was chatting away. No damage to the boat, and I was really glad the Placid guys had headed in the other direction and didn’t see that action.

Actually I had tied it off. I didn’t discover the problem until later, when my wife burned through not one but two lines while returning from a trip.

The front of older CR-V’s has an odd front hood/bumper shape that angles back on each side, kinda \__/. With the right length canoe the bowline rests right at the vertex. It doesn’t take much movement for the line to slip off the side and rub against the tire.

Since then I always X cross the bowline on any boat on the CR-V.

 

[Peach Canoe]

I made up a dozen or so of these to buffer between the round Yakima rack and the gunwales.

The base is minicel, and the top is yellow 5 mm Evazote pad from MEC. Minicel is greasy-slippery when wet, so I used the super-grippy Evazote on the tops. I've carried some boats from Clipper in Abbotsford BC, at highway speeds through the rocks to Calgary AB with nary a slip-- I'm happy with them for my simple 2-boat operation.

I made mirror-image templates out of aluminum plate, and hot-wired the foam.

The primary reason I made these foam mounts was this: I've made some canoes with lightweight gunwales using Sitka spruce and Douglas fir, and they are relatively soft compared with traditional gunwale woods like ash and cherry. The lighter (and softer) woods get marked (indented) by cross-bars-- especially the round bars that focus the load onto a very small area.

 

[Guest]

For some boat toting purposes I prefer Thule Load Stops. Having a choice between a vertical | side and an \ angled side is helpful. The angled side works better with some shouldered tumblehome or decked canoes. I just glue on a strip of minicel exercise flooring as padding.

 

[HOOP]

Yakima bars and towers. Yakima gunwale brackets (old model). Bolt-on rain gutter style brackets on truck cap. Rope and trucker's hitches, x2 for each bar. End of the 78 inch bars taped bright so that tall guys can see and not bonk their heads. I am short and walk under with plenty of clearance!
See images below:

This one looks messy but its not. Its two ropes each tied separately with trucker's hitches cinched very tight. The ropes are older so not as strong as new. Redundancy for a cross-Canada drive. Canoe is not moving anywhere due to gunwale brackets. Note the safety on the seat for slide forward prevention.

Pros and cons of bars on a truck cap: The cons are that boat sticks out the back, so I always make sure to back into parking spots where the end of the boat cannot be clipped by a vehicle driving by. Front rope prevents back slippage. No rope needed on stern. Tail gait and cap rear window hatch are not impeded with any ropes.

With the 78 inch Yakima bars I can carry two canoes side by side easily, and work a little harder to carry 3. I have never carried 4 with this rig, but could for a short distance if need be, but would not carry 4 on a highway.

Pre test: Grab the canoe and try to shake it loose. The entire truck should move with the shakes, and no slippage of the boat what so ever.

 

[Canotrouge]

One way to solve the "problem" with a lot of canoe out back wile using bars and tower on p/u truck, is to instal a set of towers and a bar on the cab. I know some people will say that it is not a good idea for some reasons, but I do and a lot of people up here do and never herd or had a problem with that system!!

 

[blackfly]

One way to solve the "problem" with a lot of canoe out back wile using bars and tower on p/u truck, is to instal a set of towers and a bar on the cab. I know some people will say that it is not a good idea for some reasons, but I do and a lot of people up here do and never herd or had a problem with that system!!

This is what I do. I have a cap with rain gutters on it, but don't like the fact the canoe overhangs so far on each end - especially the back. I also like it towards the front so I can look out the windshield and have a visual indicator of what is happening up there. So I got a set of towers for the cab, for this year.

I haven't used them yet though - why do people say they are not a good idea? Hard to fasten to the truck?

 

[Peach Canoe]

There has been a long-standing debate on whether the flexural and torsional moments between the pickup's cab and box are significant enough to impact the structure and/or the security of the tie-down on the canoe.

The movement between cab and box on a pickup seems to have been more significant on older models, but I have no data comparing then and now.

I used to have a setup for my canoes that featured a cab-mounted rack and a T-bar from the towing hitch. The T-bar was a little wobbly, so I reasoned that that was a good thing-- to allow for any flex and torsion between the box and cab.

If you had stiff mounts on both cab and box-- and were concerned with movement-- you might consider foam mounts similar to the ones I posted earlier, to buffer between the gunwales and the cross-bar.

It's an interesting conversation to be sure.