Hauling Two Canoes When Thule Hates You

[Keeled Over]

Problem solved!

I sincerely appreciate all of the great ideas. "All of us knows more than one of us". Plus my level of mechanical anything does not rate on any scale.

I had tried both of the retailers mentioned, but one wouldn't sell me bars I need for legal reasons ("not the recommended item") or the slot to adjust the towers width wouldn't slide far enough.

The final solution came in from carpenter via Mr. McCrae. Perfect assist! Inno 79" square bars - 1 pair with noggin protecting end caps. Hundred bucks. Like all of us, I have about a thousand straps and can cinch the bar down securely.

Several folks pointed out not to use the middle anchor point to tie down the canoe due to the flexing of the truck/bed. THANK YOU! I had not thought of that and my safety side was going in that direction.

Thank you!

 

[Boatman53]

Please share a pic when you get things set up, I’d love to see the result.
Jim

 

[Boatman53]

I needed to carry two canoes to the WCHA assembly and like most did not want to spend $600 for something I would use a couple times a year and mostly short distance.so this is what I can up with for my 2017 Subaru Outback.
I bought two yoga blocks and cut them in half for 4 pieces. Each piece is a different shape so they had to be individually fitted, then I drilled a hole through for the pipe. I still might shape it fore and aft for more aerodynamics.






Now to make a J hook to fasten it down.
Jim

 

[Keeled Over]

As it turned out I only haul to haul the one boat. On the Friday before our Monday departure date my brother tore his retina so had to pass. I had decided I would just use some of my existing canoe straps to lock it in place on top of my standard width bars. Maybe next year!

 

[Jmharrick]

I thought I would chime in and say that I had to extend my 60” Yakima bars to bring 2 canoes to the WPASCR. I did this by zip tying 2x4’s to the tops of my existing bars. I used (4) 175 lb rated zip ties for each bar. I then used paracord as a back up and securely tied the 2x4’s to the cross bar towers. Finally the straps themselves wrapped around both the 2x4 and existing crossbar. This worked just fine for me and only cost me about $25 to do. I did drill a hole on either end of the 2x4s and then tied a piece of rope through the hole as a stop so the boats couldn’t easily slid off the end of the 2x4 when loading/unloading or if we caught a crazy wind.

I drove an hr each way and most of that was on the interstate around 70mph. Everything stayed nice and tight, and none of the 8 zip ties showed any signs of wear and tear. The image below isn’t great, but shows the 2x4’s. I wouldn’t hesitate to do this for a longer trip.