Never expected Gunwale Hardware to be so destructive

[Chip]

The hardware that sticks up above the gunwale on my Old Towns have struck again.



In June I wrote about how my Thule cross bar suffered under the repeated sliding of canoes on and off the rack. Those little finishing washers and screw heads, seen above with incriminating chunks of something caught under the screws, peeled the plastic coating off the bars and rust took over from there.

Well, I just repaired the canoe rack under the deck. Photo below shows the replacement beam and the original, rotted beam. Note, the rot occurred under spots where you can see the top of the 2x4 is worn. The wear is caused by the protruding gunwale hardware. I guess gunwale hardware is an imprecise term, it's the hardware that secures the thwarts and seats.



It took about 20 years, but slide that hardware across a 2x4 enough times... I guess if water can wear away rock, wood v stainless is just a matter of time.

You veteran CT-net guys probably knew this. I've only been a paddler for about 20 hears, so it was new to me. I'm not sure I know a way to rack the boats without sliding. But I probably don't have twenty years of canoe racking left in me, so maybe it's something I don't need to worry about.

 

[Guest]

Chip, two things.

1.Although the flange washers alone can chew into wood when sliding canoes on and off the racks it looks like the machine screw heads are standing a little tall in the flange washers.

I don’t know if those are the original machine screws/flange washers, of if the machine screws were installed at a slight angle, but something doesn’t look right.

2.I use a piece of PVC pipe, with a 1 ¾” slot removed on my storage rack crossbars. It absolutely helps protect the wood crossbars, and the canoes slide on and off slick as snot on a door knob.

Slick enough that I tie the stems to the rack

 

[gumpus]

If you buy some clear flexible plumbing tubing from the hardware store and cut it into sections and slit it on one side it makes great gunwale protectors. I suggest 1 1/4 inch diameter. I use it to protect my gunwales from my racks but you could use it to protect your racks from your gunwales.


or you could just stop using your canoe as a saw

 

[scoutergriz]

Those washers look wrong to me, usually there are cup washers where the screwhead is below the rim, not above it like shown.

 

[Mason]

I don’t know if those are the original machine screws/flange washers, of if the machine screws were installed at a slight angle, but something doesn’t look right.

I think the original machine screws were domed, not flat. And those shown are at an angle. Washers look correct for Old Town.

 

[Guest]

I think the original machine screws were domed, not flat. And those shown are at an angle. Washers look correct for Old Town.

Yes, Old Town used wide-base flange washers, not “cup” or “finish” washers, to help spread the load. To complicate matters OT used two different diameter flange washers; those do appear to be the wider version OT used on vinyl gunwales.

The domed heads of the machine screws should fit nicely into the flange washers, without much wood grabbing head protrusion.

About the machine screw angles; Old Town did (does?) a horrible job of installing their machine screws true and vertical. I think that is why OT stuck with flimsy drilled dowel drops; drilled much wider than the hardware. There is a lot of installation-forgiving slop in that system.

Our Penobscot had factory seats/drops and not a one of them was true, looking down the sheerline at the this-way-and-that-way hung dowel drops I thought I was wobbling drunk.

I might have been, but that was the worst sloppy-arsed job of installing seat drops I have ever seen. It was actually comical to behold, with every peg at a different angle. Guaranteed to wank the machine screws over seat time, and I quickly replaced the drops.