[Backwoods]

What is recommended to carry a canoe?

We have Thule roof racks for our old Pathfinder, so I am considering getting these feet to use with our cross bar, cradles and tie downs.

http://www.rackattack.com/product-pages/thule-450-crossroad.asp

Or, are these Nissan cradles strong enough to use with the factory cross bars??

http://www.nissan.ca/en/vehicles/general/gen_accessories.html

 

[kokopop]

The factory bars should be more then strong enough to hold a canoe. Even one of those old Aluminum Gruman owns we had to portage everywhere in boy scouts!

 

[Lyrex]

The factory bars should be more then strong enough to hold a canoe. Even one of those old Aluminum Gruman owns we had to portage everywhere in boy scouts!

LOL!

 

[kokopop]

The factory bars should be more then strong enough to hold a canoe. Even one of those old Aluminum Gruman owns we had to portage everywhere in boy scouts!

LOL!

It's not funny it Sucked! When I was trail leader I always planned trips with a carry of less then a 1/2 mile! Nothing like trying to get 20 - 14 year olds and 2 cranky adult leaders to carry their share of the load!

 

[Lyrex]

I feel for you. I'm just laughing because I know EXACTLY what you are talking about. "Back in the day" we did not have the fancy little wheels that you attach to the end of the canoe so you can just roll it along with all your gear inside.

Nothing sucks worse than a canoe trip in the summer, aluminum canoe on your head, Duluth pack on your back and a trail of crap that you drop but don't want to stop and pick up. So you end up walking the portage twice to make sure you do not leave anything behind.

Back to the topic-at-hand, you should not need anything extra to carry a canoe on the X's roof rack. In fact, the rack will probably do more damage to your canoe than it will do to the rack.

HINT: Go to Home Depot, Lowe's, etc. and buy some foam tubular pipe insulation and put it on each side of your canoe before securing it to the rack. It will help protect the canoe edges and the roof rack. Plus it will help keep the canoe from moving around. Its cheap and you can make cuts in it to fit the thrawts on your canoe.

 

[Yeller_X]

Very handy advice, you could also use some old inner tube, but that foam rubber would probably be much easier.

 

[Chug]

Now, how big a canoe we talking about?

I have a 17 footer, Not real sure how it will fit, with the Cargo spot up front. Then to Tie it down will be another issue.. only have one tie hook.

Unless I jerry rig something. Do like the Foam to add to the canoe.. that will help.

any good photo's?

 

[GISX]

I have a 17' old town penobscot and I haul it with the X all the time...

I use the factory rack and it works great. I dont have a roof basket to worry about though. I use 4 of those foam canoe blocks like these that pad between the canoe and the rack (no rubbing/scratching).

I have one tie-down off the back (to the hitch) that goes almost straight down. I have two off the front - One to the passenger side tow hook and the other into one of the holes in the frame on the drivers side (grrr - we need another tow hook - anyone want to write-up a how to on this?!?!?!). I then have one around the canoe attached to the factory rack (about the middle). No issues so far and I have hauled it quite a few times...

 

[norshor]

This is how I tie down my canoes.

I use 1.5" flat webbing looped and folded with a hole through them, and sandwiched with the inner fender bolt through it. works great. You can buy hood tie downs with grommets through them. When your not using them for tiedowns, you can tuck the webbing underneath the hood.

The bow tiedowns are 5mm climbing rope, looped through each of the boats painters and each tied with a trucker's hitch, and a backup knot for the tag end. With my Yakima rack, I would probably be alright without bow tiedowns, but being that any long load has the tendancy to catch wind, I always tie the bow. Cracked carbon fiber is a PITA to fix.

My bars are 78" wide and have plenty of width for 2 solo canoes. I use gunwale brackets and 12' NRS straps to hold the boats to the bars. The towers are the now discontinued Yakima X-tower that I got off of a buddy that traded in his older Xterra. Yakima DOES NOT RECOMMEND using these, because they were discontinued before the '05+ came out and they never had a chance to test them out. Anyway.

For stern anchor points, which as many have pointed out, we have none, I used
Straprings. I drilled 2 holes on the edges of the bumper. They are totally out of sight, not in the way at all and very useful for tying down longer loads on the roof.

Fishing rod rack/paddle holder. Lifevests and kneeling pads go underneath shelf.

 

[Longboardr]

Necromancer bump for a pretty slick way to tie down the front of a canoe.


I've got a 15' Gheenoe that's going to have to go on the roof next weekend. Normally it rides on it's own trailer because it's too heavy to be fun to put on the roof solo, but I'll be pulling an enclosed trailer full of motorcycles.

I tied the 12' Pack on the roof for the last trip and found if I tied the rear down on the ladder so it pulls to one side the boat didn't move side to side from the wind with no tie down in the front. It also was under tension when driving but I could open and close the hatch no problem without touching the rope.

I'm not willing to try not tying down the front of the Gheenoe since it weighs about 4x as much as the Pack and will be hanging over the hood more. I've never liked having a rope come up from the bumper and touch the hood for tying down the front of a boat so I'm going to see if I can't do something like @norshor did with his X.

 

[AlbatrossCafe]

Do you have a DepHep roof basket @Longboardr? I can't tell. I want to get a canoe this summer but trying to figure how to carry it with DepHep and ARB awning.

 

[Longboardr]

Do you have a DepHep roof basket @Longboardr? I can't tell. I want to get a canoe this summer but trying to figure how to carry it with DepHep and ARB awning.

I made my own.

https://www.thenewx.org/forum/15-how-tos/234010-how-cargo-carrier-converted-roof-rack.html

It's flush with the top of the factory tubes so it doesn't really help or hurt with tying on a canoe. I don't want the boat touching the wet box at all so I ran a couple landscaping timbers across the factory tubes to get the clearance I wanted, you can see the timbers between the boat and tubes in this picture.

 

[mtnbound]

This is how I tie down my canoes.

I use 1.5" flat webbing looped and folded with a hole through them, and sandwiched with the inner fender bolt through it. works great. You can buy hood tie downs with grommets through them. When your not using them for tiedowns, you can tuck the webbing underneath the hood.

The bow tiedowns are 5mm climbing rope, looped through each of the boats painters and each tied with a trucker's hitch, and a backup knot for the tag end. With my Yakima rack, I would probably be alright without bow tiedowns, but being that any long load has the tendancy to catch wind, I always tie the bow. Cracked carbon fiber is a PITA to fix.

My bars are 78" wide and have plenty of width for 2 solo canoes. I use gunwale brackets and 12' NRS straps to hold the boats to the bars. The towers are the now discontinued Yakima X-tower that I got off of a buddy that traded in his older Xterra. Yakima DOES NOT RECOMMEND using these, because they were discontinued before the '05+ came out and they never had a chance to test them out. Anyway.

For stern anchor points, which as many have pointed out, we have none, I used
Straprings. I drilled 2 holes on the edges of the bumper. They are totally out of sight, not in the way at all and very useful for tying down longer loads on the roof.

Fishing rod rack/paddle holder. Lifevests and kneeling pads go underneath shelf.

Great ideas and a very clever way of carrying not one but 2 canoes(or yaks if thats your thing) on top of the X!

 

[Chug]

had a photo, from My X with 17' Alum canoe.. But $$hit PB Purge lost it..

17' canoe will fit no problem. Just secure to rails, add strap with few turns to stabilize in wind.. Strap on back to hitch/stinger.. Like mentioned keep above the wetbox.

only issue I had was hitting tree branches with the Canoe.. Kayak slips right under..

 

[ZheKing]

HINT: Go to Home Depot, Lowe's, etc. and buy some foam tubular pipe insulation and put it on each side of your canoe before securing it to the rack. It will help protect the canoe edges and the roof rack. Plus it will help keep the canoe from moving around. Its cheap and you can make cuts in it to fit the thrawts on your canoe.

Very handy advice, you could also use some old inner tube, but that foam rubber would probably be much easier.

Just get a few pool noodles and cut them.
@makuta has one on their rig on their profile avatar pic thing as well.

 

[Longboardr]

Here's what I came up with to make @norshor 's setup on my X. I reused the bolts that were already in the fender. The bolts are tightened the whole way down, I didn't feel like doing the extra work to space so the 12" Ancra Soft Hooks were free to move and I'd have had to used a longer bolt.

 

[Chug]

^^^^ I stole that idea from someone on the board many many years ago.. But, instead of adding a flat bar bracket..
using Climbing Strap. Grabbed a 3/8" bolt Torch heated that sucker up to red glow, melted a hole in the strap. DONE.

just using the bolt in the frame near your spot. slipped strap under bolt, Tighten down.. DONE.
when not in use.. lay over under hood.
Works great.. and holds my Kayak, Ladder.. just perfect. added photo

 

[Longboardr]

Any port in a storm I had some free time for once and the material and a mill. I don't really have a use for these 12" soft hooks anymore so they're probably going to live under the hood until needed again.

 

[hybrid90]

Or you can just buy this. The hole fits perfectly with the existing bolt underneath the hood.

https://www.amazon.com/Built-U-S-Sherpak-Hood-Loops/dp/B0024ALDMS/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1530803670&sr=8-8&keywords=kayak+hood+tie+down&dpID=41P7694VwpL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

 

[Longboardr]

Here's my work in progress.

https://www.thenewx.org/forum/15-how-tos/270538-diy-roof-rack-canoe-ladder-etc.html#post4228542