Anyone haul a Canoe on their truck....???

Figured I would chime in. Built my rack out of some 2x6 2x4 and 1x6. My main concerns were maintaining access to the truck bed, ease of removal and obviously stability. I stole the theme from a partial rack earlier in this thread.



The 1x6 supports are held on by bolts with Wong nuts so thy can easily be removed for storage. I built the front and back support so as not to have it resting on the cab since the be and can can move independently of each other.

Canoe is a 17'6" hellman prospector Kevlar.

 

Don't use foam blocks on the cab if you're using the Xporter. Just loft the canoe high enough to clear the cab and cheat it forward. The Xporter is plenty strong.

 

I had a rack on my 88 toyota and yesterday I finally fitted it to the 2010 Tacoma. Just had to weld some 1"flatbar tabs to pick up the rail system on the tacoma. Used the inserts for my cap for the sides and made up 2 for the front...Seems solid!

 

I've come up with a kayak carrier that includes an old Sears X-Cargo carrier and an elevated platform in the bed of my Taco. The idea is to place items like paddles & wet life jackets underneath the platform and kayaks on top above the X-Cargo carrier.

The elevated platform is constructed of 2X6 boards & marine grade plywood and supports a homemade dual kayak carrier constructed of 3/4" natural gas pipe. Both the wood platform and pipe are attached to the truck bed with 1/4 inch steel cable. It has room for 2 kayaks, has a fairly large dry cargo storage area, and has space for other miscellaneous items that do not have to be protected from the elements under the platform. The only thing left to do at this point is spray paint the X-Cargo carrier flat black to match the platform and pipes.

I will post some pics as soon as I finish painting the X-Cargo Carrier. My wife has been telling me that it now looks like a plumbers truck but I don't see it!

 

Hauling a kayak or a canoe shouldn't be difficult at all, and you don't need to purchase any expensive racks. My kayak sits directly on top of a full size spare centered in the bed, and slightly elevated up on to this extender. Rachet it down and your good. I've driven 75+ on the freeway with this setup, as well as down curvy hill country roads to get the lake more times than I can even count. The key is to pay money to get some decent ratchet straps, ratchet it down in the front and back of the boat, and to load it so the center of gravity sits directly over the end of the bed. Of course this will be a little tricky for you guys with 14ft. canoes.

 

I carry up to three 10 foot kayaks in my 5 foot bed. They are on their sides resting on my bed extender. They still do hang out a bit, but nothing major. I use a few 800lb ratchet straps.

 

I plan on buying either a Thule Xsporter or TracRac (basically the same thing). My uncle has one and it is pretty versitile system, which can carry everything from lumber to a roof-top tent.

 

4 not advised on a Yakima with q towers.

 

I haul three sometimes as well with the same technique, however when I haul three I put a 2x4 perpendicular to the the bed of the truck, over the full size spare to evenly support two on the bottom. The third sits centered on top of the two, then ratchet down. Not going anywhere lol.

 

check out my new setup. I installed a Thule bar up on the cab too and it comes out perfectly level. to deal with the slope of the canoe i used two foam canoe pads on the middle bar and all i good. we had it out in central oregon 2 or 3 times last summer. cheers. ted

 

near three sisters in bend, Oregon cheers ted

 

. heres a pic getting ready for a trip. Ted

 

I have a 13 foot yak that I use for fishing, but thinking of getting a 16 footer that tracks better in the water for those longer trips. Currently just use the roof rack, but it affects the mpg and im always worried its not going to hold up to the weight and force put on it at 70 mph
I really like and changing to the set up that that Surf Taco has because it keeps it off your roof and it lets you keep the tail gate up for all the other gear.
However with a 6 foot bed that still leaves 7 to 10 foot of kayak sticking out the back!
Might have to couple it with a hitch style bed extender in order to suport the kayak hanging off the end of my truck.

If money was not an option, then I would get this

http://www.deezee.com/products/3292...A-Rack_Cargo_Management_System.html/video.asp

The yakima bed racks are real nice but they are always on your truck and many of them "whistle" the entire time you drive.
The one above is "hidden" when not in use and can hold up to 500 pounds.

 

From this

to this


I love using the cap. I can go camping with the kayaks and sleep under them.

 

Yakima Hullraisers work great.


Untitled by xcmtb83, on Flickr

 

I decided to drill and bolt the racks to the fiberglass cap. Seemed much safer than screwing into the cab sheet metal.

 

Hey Voyager, Nice rig. Have you ever carried a canoe on the rack? I'm wondering if it clears the double cab or not? I'm having a dilemma on how to carry my canoe on my new dbl cab with a cap. Roof racks on the cap, roof racks on the cab or will I need both (uhg)?

Thanks for the info.

Cheers

 

F2R, I have carried my canoe with it just attached to the cap, and have also carried it with it tied to both cap and cab via a single tube yakima attachment. I did not find that it was any more secure with it attached to both, so now i just attach to the cap. Plus the wind noise generated by the cross bar on the cab is a bit much for more than a 30 minute drive. Cant answer your question for the double cab, but this is what worked for me.

 

*EDIT (updated Sep. 23, 2013)*
I wanted to update this thread with some unfortunate (for me) news. Hopefully I can help someone avoid the issue I have encountered. After using this method a few times I was saddened to find some dimpled areas where the rear-bar-feet had been pressed into the sheet-metal with a bit too much force. I have an 18ft long (~70 lbs) canoe and a couple of mountain bikes (about 20 to 30 lbs each). Having that much weight on the rack and, more to the point, having that much weight to the rear of the rack, led to the dimples over the rear passenger doors.
I am going to look at mounting one of the bars on the rear of the camper, which should properly distribute the weight.

Long story short. Don't do what you see in the picture unless you are OK with possible damage to the roof!

---Previous post---
Greetings all, I wanted to post a pic of my standard Yakima rack hauling our 18ft OldTown Discovery. I have had this rack for a long time (this will be the third vehicle) but have only used it for mountain-bikes up until now. It was not cheap (you can price one out, but they are usually about $400 when all is said and done) so, as you might imagine, I did not want to add/change anything if I didn't have to, but (thanks to the SnugTop camper shell) I wasn't sure the normal position for the rack would work. I was afraid that either the front of the canoe would limit visibility, or that the rear would touch the cap and I would have to get a (pricey) kit or set of brackets to attach at least one of the two rack bars to the cap itself.

After debating with myself I finally decided just to try it with no modifications.

As you can see with the canoe positioned just right it is perfect. I drove about three hours with it like that on highways/surface streets and even in some rough terrain heading to the lake. The canoe was rock-solid and never touched the cap (except gently when I take the straps off, it is barely balanced to the rear and wants to tip that direction. Having someone hold the end while removing the straps solves this problem).

So if you already have one the Yakima will handle a large canoe and not touch a standard-level camper shell (mine's a SnugTop Rebel). I was a bit worried it would flex and mar the shell (it's about three inches away) but it proved to be just fine.

If you go this route I recommend getting a set of these to help you set the location of the canoe on the rack < http://www.yakima.com/shop/racksystems/accessories/universal-snar > I paid about $11 for four at REI (so don't buy them from the url!), then bought bolts from the hardware store for about $2. Once you have the canoe where you want it just bolt them up against the boat. once there it is easy to put the boat in just the right place every time.

So it is an expensive solution if you don't already have the rack, but cheap to add canoe carrying functionality if you do
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Hauling my buddie's Old Town Discovery up top and my solo Old Town Guide 119 in the back, for a day out on the Tar