Attn: This is regarding installing the towers on round rails, not attaching round bars to the towers. My AI (AI in Verdana font) Google searches have been worthless, It keeps coming up with how round bars fit onto the towers.
I'd like to increase the distance between the bars so that there's more of the canoe mid-section between the straps, with a bigger difference in width between the center of the canoe and where the straps are located. That will help keep the canoe from inching backwards/forwards and more importantly, help to reduce wind leverage and side-to-side movement of the bow and stern.
I got the idea from people that have wide distances between bars and how solid the canoe is on the racks. On our roof rack, there's only a 100cm (39") spread and the bow(s) sticking out into the wind can really get thrown around on the Interstate. So...
I'm thinking of attaching a 157cm (~62") round bar to each of the roof rails so that there's enough of the bar extending past the factory rails to attach the TimberLine Towers. That will give me about 50cm (~20") of additional distance between bars; total of ~150cm (~59") spread. I think that'll make a big difference on our solo canoes and even with our 16'9" tandem Polaris it'll make a difference in how stable the canoe is on the rack.
This is what a Yakima TimberLine tower looks like...
But, I'm not sure if attaching the TimberLine towers to a standard 28.6mm (1-1/8") round bar is going to be solid enough. On Yakima's website they provide this....
So it appears that it'll work but that minimum diameter of only 8mm (5/16") seems really small. I suppose as long as I put stoppers on the ends of the bars so the towers can't slide off the ends it should be fine. The towers will hopefully lock into position once they're tightened down, though there's no flat area for the towers to rest on like with the factory rails. I'm going to attach the round rails to the factory rails using a second set of TimberLine towers we happened to have. The bars will fit next to the factory rail and both will be clamped down together, basically using the towers as hose clamps. I may reinforce them using actual hose clamps, just for insurance.
Any suggestions or comments? Constructive criticism especially welcomed. Thanks!
I'd like to increase the distance between the bars so that there's more of the canoe mid-section between the straps, with a bigger difference in width between the center of the canoe and where the straps are located. That will help keep the canoe from inching backwards/forwards and more importantly, help to reduce wind leverage and side-to-side movement of the bow and stern.
I got the idea from people that have wide distances between bars and how solid the canoe is on the racks. On our roof rack, there's only a 100cm (39") spread and the bow(s) sticking out into the wind can really get thrown around on the Interstate. So...
I'm thinking of attaching a 157cm (~62") round bar to each of the roof rails so that there's enough of the bar extending past the factory rails to attach the TimberLine Towers. That will give me about 50cm (~20") of additional distance between bars; total of ~150cm (~59") spread. I think that'll make a big difference on our solo canoes and even with our 16'9" tandem Polaris it'll make a difference in how stable the canoe is on the rack.
This is what a Yakima TimberLine tower looks like...
But, I'm not sure if attaching the TimberLine towers to a standard 28.6mm (1-1/8") round bar is going to be solid enough. On Yakima's website they provide this....
So it appears that it'll work but that minimum diameter of only 8mm (5/16") seems really small. I suppose as long as I put stoppers on the ends of the bars so the towers can't slide off the ends it should be fine. The towers will hopefully lock into position once they're tightened down, though there's no flat area for the towers to rest on like with the factory rails. I'm going to attach the round rails to the factory rails using a second set of TimberLine towers we happened to have. The bars will fit next to the factory rail and both will be clamped down together, basically using the towers as hose clamps. I may reinforce them using actual hose clamps, just for insurance.
Any suggestions or comments? Constructive criticism especially welcomed. Thanks!
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