Forester for me.
Sometimes you need to bring the kayakers along - for a ride back to the car...
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Show us pictures of your canoe vehicle with boat(s)
- Thread starter Glenn MacGrady
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Sometimes you need to bring the kayakers along - for a ride back to the car...
This is a forester I have with custom 2×4 roof bars. It burns oil like crazy since day 1 so I will not be going with another subaru in the future. The dealer says its normal haha yeah right! Everything else about it is great for a long distance travel vehicle except checking the oil every other gas stop. I use a 5 quart jug of oil every time we go to the bwca or wabakimi and such from Vt. The canoes are a northstar magic and a Jensen C1W.Attachments
Another reason I need to keep my '15 manual transmission Crosstrek going until the robots kick us off the roads.Haha, indeed! Back when it came with a 5-speed, too
My old Forester had the same problem - quart of oil every 1000-miles. Not sure what the issue was, but even the dealer told me that it wasn't worth trying to fix. I did buy another Forester. No problem with this one, or any of the other Subarus we have owned.
I’ve been thinking about DIY-ing a set of wooden crossbars—may I ask how you like yours, how you attach them to the rack, and whether you ran into any problems/challenges when designing and building them?
I love my Outback and hope/plan to keep it for a long time, but starting from ~90,000 miles, something expensive has had to be replaced every year. Fixing it always seems like the best option vs. buying a different car, but I’d have a lot more money for canoes if I weren’t spending so much keeping it on the road!
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I've done "custom" 2x4 racks added to the factory setup (or added to Thule/Yakima) on multiple vehicles. I also made them from electrical conduit and black gas pipe.
For making wider bars to carry multiple boats I'd usually find a way (often carriage bolts or u-bolts) to attach the wider bars onto the factory cross bars.
I think one of the biggest rack improvements that can be made is to extend the forward length of the rack setup so you have a bigger spread between the front and rear bars. This makes the boat much more secure and completely eliminates the boat moving left to right when hauling, no matter what the wind does. This can be done in a myriad of ways. None of my methods ever had any aesthetic appeal but they were all very functional. Very similar to the vehicles they were attached to.
Alan
For making wider bars to carry multiple boats I'd usually find a way (often carriage bolts or u-bolts) to attach the wider bars onto the factory cross bars.
I think one of the biggest rack improvements that can be made is to extend the forward length of the rack setup so you have a bigger spread between the front and rear bars. This makes the boat much more secure and completely eliminates the boat moving left to right when hauling, no matter what the wind does. This can be done in a myriad of ways. None of my methods ever had any aesthetic appeal but they were all very functional. Very similar to the vehicles they were attached to.
Alan
@Sliding Focus I've made crossbars out of 2x3's twice now. I like that one can make them as wide as needed (within reason). Mine are about 62" which perfectly fits my canoe + my wife's kayak without having to put either boat on its side. As we're both on the shorter side, being able to load boats flat and from the side is much easier.
It's a very versatile set-up - 1 canoe + 2 kayaks on their side; 1 canoe 1 kayak flat; 2 canoes. All easy. Next time I'll make them a little wider to be able to accomodate two tandem canoes side by side (though offset front to back a little to avoid each other's widest parts) instead of needing to prop one up on the other.
I installed mine using U-bolts with lock-nuts (nylon insert). I chiseled out a depression in the 2x3s so the U-bolts don't protrude above the wood, and the bolts are long enough (barely) to stick out below the factory rack to receive the nuts. I cover the whole bar in pipe insulation and gaffer (cloth) tape. The wood itself, with the end-grain sealed, seems to hold up well (I think my current rack is in year 3, give or take a year).
I will say it's a bit of a gas mileage killer. I'd guess I loose 1-2 mpg with my Thule square bars + pipe insulation, and an additional 1-2 mpg with the homemade rack.
If you ever want to see mine in person, let me know. I could share pics as well, though the top is covered in that pipe insulation. I'd like to find a more durable padding and/or tape. I feel like my older gaffer tape lasted a long time, but the newer stuff needs re-doing every season or so (my rack's on my car probably 9-10 months of the year, so a lot of UV and weather exposure).
It's a very versatile set-up - 1 canoe + 2 kayaks on their side; 1 canoe 1 kayak flat; 2 canoes. All easy. Next time I'll make them a little wider to be able to accomodate two tandem canoes side by side (though offset front to back a little to avoid each other's widest parts) instead of needing to prop one up on the other.
I installed mine using U-bolts with lock-nuts (nylon insert). I chiseled out a depression in the 2x3s so the U-bolts don't protrude above the wood, and the bolts are long enough (barely) to stick out below the factory rack to receive the nuts. I cover the whole bar in pipe insulation and gaffer (cloth) tape. The wood itself, with the end-grain sealed, seems to hold up well (I think my current rack is in year 3, give or take a year).
I will say it's a bit of a gas mileage killer. I'd guess I loose 1-2 mpg with my Thule square bars + pipe insulation, and an additional 1-2 mpg with the homemade rack.
If you ever want to see mine in person, let me know. I could share pics as well, though the top is covered in that pipe insulation. I'd like to find a more durable padding and/or tape. I feel like my older gaffer tape lasted a long time, but the newer stuff needs re-doing every season or so (my rack's on my car probably 9-10 months of the year, so a lot of UV and weather exposure).
This one is a 2018 6 speed manual transmission on a FB25 4 cylinder 2.5 liter boxer engine. Yup burns 1 liter every 1000 miles. Currently has 66,000 miles.
There is also a nut under the washer. I have used this setup for 2 years now and still like it. I spray painted the 2×4 matte black to match the crossbars.
I also installed a strap across where the wipers are that attach to the hood hinge brackets to tie the front of the canoe to that so it cannot slide forward. I looped a strap around the trunk latch bracket to tie the rear end of the canoe to that to make a triangle strap formation. It cannot slide forward or backward. 
I went to a canoe trailer over 25 years ago.
@Alien Legs
like I do when I travel with my friend and his Hou 13
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or with my other friend -
then we take the beams and attach them to his small trailer so that we can transport both boats at the same time.
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like I do when I travel with my friend and his Hou 13
. . . . or with my other friend -
then we take the beams and attach them to his small trailer so that we can transport both boats at the same time.
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That is very helpful info—thank you!
I had been thinking of using U-bolts, and was wondering what the best way to keep them from protruding would be—I like the way your solution sounds. And that is generous of you to offer to show me in-person—thank you! Perhaps I’ll take you up on that—and at the very least, hopefully we’ll both be at the next Hudson Valley meetup?
Thanks for these photos!
A follow-up question: should I be worried at all about the strength of the materials I choose—especially if I cut into the bar as @Tsuga8 described, or if I wanted to ovalize it—or is it safe to assume that a standard 2x3 or 2x4 is more than strong enough? What about electrical conduit or gas pipe like @Alan Gage mentioned?
The 3/4" conduit (extended rack in length and width) was not very rigid but it worked. The whole thing would bounce and shimmy in the wind. It finally bent slightly when carrying a 21' boat at highway speeds in very strong winds but I continued to use it a couple more years without issue. I wouldn't recommend it but I think it helps illustrate what can be done.
I think 2x3 or 2x4 is plenty strong, even with the channel chiseled out for a u-bolt (great idea).
If I remember I used the black gas pipe as extensions on top of my 2x4 cross bars. I made the whole rack with 2x4s but I didn't want to use permanently wide cross bars since I usually only carry one boat. The longer gas pipe was bolted to the top of the 2x4 cross bars when I needed to carry multiple boats.
This vehicle had square tubing hose clamped to the factory cross bars to extend the length with 2x4 cross bars bolted on top.
This one had aluminum angle brackets bolted through the roof and then 2x4's attached:
A previous version that used black pipe:
Sometimes, when I've used 2x4s to greatly extend the length of the rack, I've put X bracing under the cantilevered section for strength and rigidity. I'd usually use conduit for this and would screw it to the bottom of the extensions.
All of these setups traveled thousands of miles on highway and interstate without issue.
Alan
This is exactly the problem with the 4Runner - the factory roof rails begin too far back. I think I am going to gamble that the Tacoma roof / door arrangement is substantially similar and get the small parts to convert my existing Rhino-rack towers to Toyota. I parked next to a friend with a last-body-style and they look the same to me. One load bar above the front door and a bar on the back of the factory rails will get me about a 6’ separation.
I need to drag my canoes out and set them on sawhorses side by side to measure their combined width at 3’ fore and aft of center. Their max combined width is 65.25”. I’d like to use 60” bars rather than 65” or 71”. We’ll see how it measures out. Meanwhile my old square bars work for a single boat, I just don’t like how much hangs to the rear.
@Alan Gage This is all really helpful—thank you! That gives me lots of ideas, and it's neat to see the various permutations you've come up with. And those Bloodvein canoes are so cool, too!
Astro FTW
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