I’d like to pad some 78" Yakima round bars for transporting canoes, but some options seem horrendously expensive.

78" bars mean I need to pad about 13 feet! I don’t think I can get away with just padding portions or using load stops since I often don’t have a helper and like to slide the canoes up onto the rack from the back of an SUV.

Commercial rack pads are great, but very expensive. NRS Barrito pads, which I had on my last rack but forgot to take off when junking the truck, run at $64 for 32 inches, about $2 per inch , $24 per foot or $312 for the entire rack!!! That makes the Austin Canoe & Kayak pads for only $32 for a 36 inch pad look cheap at only $10.66/foot or $138.58 for the entire rack.

From what I read, the usual pool noodles don’t seem to last too long, but I’m unsure what they’re dying from. If it’s not UV, maybe the repeated compression from tying down makes them fall apart. In any event, at $1 for 3 feet, the rack would be covered for about $5! Wrapping them with duct tape may improve UV resistance if that is a problem.

Kayamedic has in the past suggested roll bar foam instead of the pool noodles as a higher quality alternative. The local offerings in our car racing store were inadequate and expensive, but I did see some online that’s cheaper, 3 feet for $5 or $1.66 per foot, $21.66 for the whole rack. All are designed for 1.5-1.75 inch bars, where the Yakima bars are 1.125. The hole in the padding is offset. The retailer told me they’re fire retardent but don’t have UV protection.

I’ve also seen clear vinyl tubing suggested and really like the idea. I could choose an inner diameter of 1.5 inches and have the tubing roll when sliding the canoe on but stick once it is tied down. My hardware stores don’t sell clear tubing larger than 1.25 inches inner diameter, but sell some 1.5 inches reenforced braided clear vinyl tubing for $4.50/foot, or $58.50 for the entire rack.

Cliff Jacobson suggests rubber heater hose slid on with brake fluid, but I’m having trouble finding the right inner diameter of 1.25 inches. I think that would make for some nice padding, though. I can see it roll as you slide the canoe on, then grip once it’s tied down.

Someone suggested bicycle tubes. Walmart’s Sunlite bike tube costs $3.39 for about 80 inches, or $0.50 per foot. I don’t know how well the canoe would slide over them or if they provide enough cushioning, but the price is right at $6.50 for the entire rack.

Then there’s old fashioned carpeting. I carpeted the top of some flat factory bars and it lasted for a while, but then the actual carpet came off and left me with foam and glue on my bars, nearly impossible to get off. Also, how do you carpet a round bar? Just a strip on top, or all the way around? Carpet (or towels, blankets) with zip ties might work unless it looks too ghetto.

Opinions?

Rack pads - that’s why pool noodles were invented. Duct tape invented to make everything better than originally made!

Gorilla tape has worked better for me than Duct tape. I have fat pool noodles secured with Gorilla tape on a DYI rack. Third year using it. While the noodles have compressed a bit, Gorilla tape still looks pristine.

@Rookie said:
Gorilla tape has worked better for me than Duct tape. I have fat pool noodles secured with Gorilla tape on a DYI rack. Third year using it. While the noodles have compressed a bit, Gorilla tape still looks pristine.

Good to hear the pool are in fact holding up, at least for a few years. First I thought they’d crumble off like I see pipe insulation do, but then I read they’re compressing down permanently before tearing off? Tape would probably help with the tearing.

Brake fluid can damage paint finishes.

Do you live in a city? If so, you could do what I did and find a carpeting contractor and ask to take piece of scrap out of their dumpster. Cut a strip of carpet to cover each bar, and make it just wide enough to wrap most of the way around (it works best if there’s a gap on the under side - you can attach it a lot tighter that way). I have used both fence wire and electrical tape as fastening materials. Fence wire is great, but difficult to work with, and you might not happen to have a one-mile spool of the stuff in your garage like I do. In any case, properly cinched, with the twisted “knot” on the bottom of the bar, the wire digs-in to the carpet so deeply that it won’t scratch your gunwales. It does a very neat job. Electrical tape has a huge advantage over most other kinds of tape for this kind of application, in that it stretches, so it’s very easy to multiply the wrapping force so that the carpet is held to the bar with crushing force and it will not twist or slide on the bar. I put one multi-layer wrap about every six inches. My current set of carpeting, held on with electrical tape, is getting pretty close to ten years old and it’s still in pretty good shape, and I always load my boats by sliding them, so this padding has been used hard. You won’t get that kind of wear out of pool noodles, pipe insulation and the like, and you can’t beat the price. Total cost is probably between 25 and 50 cents! (that’s for the electrical tape, because the carpeting should be free)

Here’s a pic: https://tinyurl.com/y78zqjmv

@rnsparky said:
Rack pads - that’s why pool noodles were invented. Duct tape invented to make everything better than originally made!

By “rack pads” you mean pool noodle + duct tape, right? Not the commercially available ones (too expensive). Are your noodles holding up? How long have you been using them? Mine would be installed permanently.

The best thing I found for carrying a canoe with the least damage are the Yakima load brackets. You can put the gunnels on them and it eliminates movement on the bar.

@string said:
The best thing I found for carrying a canoe with the least damage are the Yakima load brackets. You can put the gunnels on them and it eliminates movement on the bar.

They’re great but don’t allow a single person to load a canoe by sliding it up the rack from the rear. You need a helper to “helicopter” the canoe into the brackets from above.

@PaddleDog52 said:
Brake fluid can damage paint finishes.

True, and you could change the word “can” to “will”, and then add the modifier, “almost instantly”.

@Guideboatguy said:
Do you live in a city? If so, you could do what I did and find a carpeting contractor and ask to take piece of scrap out of their dumpster. Cut a strip of carpet to cover each bar, and make it just wide enough to wrap most of the way around (it works best if there’s a gap on the under side - you can attach it a lot tighter that way).

Gap on the underside of the bar? Or carpet? Not sure what you mean.
Also, when using electrical tape, does it actually touch the bar much or just the carpet?

I like the carpet idea.

The strip of carpet is only wide enough to wrap most of the way around the bar, not the whole way around. That way, when it is cinched tight, the two edges of the carpet strip do not come in contact with each other and thereby cause the material to “bunch up” and not make tight contact with the bar. To put it another way, the carpet wraps all around the sides and top of the bar, but does not completely cover the bottom surface of the bar.

The electrical tape will contact the bottom surface of the bar if the gap in carpet coverage is wide enough. This isn’t highly critical, but a wide enough gap in the carpeting to allow more tape contact with the bottom of the bar helps to keep the carpet from slipping around the bar when you slide your boat. Also, if you look at the picture I posted the link for, there’s lots of tape contact with the bar at each end of the carpet strip. There, part of the wrap is around the carpet and part is just around the adjacent part of the bare bar, so there’s very solid anchorage of the carpet at that spot.

I think you are over thinking this. Fat pool noodles over the bars with duct tape should last a full year if never removed. Replace next year if needed for $10. Buy a lot of noodles in Sept.

Another option is pipe insulation. You can get foam 1 inch x 6 ft. sections for $2.13 or 3/4 in. x 6 ft. Rubber Self-Seal Pipe Wrap Insulation for $6.60 at Homedepot. May last a bit longer than a pool noodle.

@Guideboatguy said:

@PaddleDog52 said:
Brake fluid can damage paint finishes.

True, and you could change the word “can” to “will”, and then add the modifier, “almost instantly”.

No not almost instantly. You have some time to wipe.

@Doug Gilliland said:
Another option is pipe insulation. You can get foam 1 inch x 6 ft. sections for $2.13 or 3/4 in. x 6 ft. Rubber Self-Seal Pipe Wrap Insulation for $6.60 at Homedepot. May last a bit longer than a pool noodle.

I find pipe insulation to be worthless if heavy boats are loaded by sliding, because it’s probably not good for more than half-a-dozen uses (and loading my guide-boat will ruin it on the very first try, unless I’m super careful about the oarlocks, and I don’t want it to be necessary to be that careful. I want to baby the boat, not the darned padding). Good carpet in the form of scrap is not only free (as described above), but is practically indestructible.

No not almost instantly. You have some time to wipe.

True, but you’d better be on the ball when it happens.

There’s a heavy duty foam noodle made which is much more suitable than the standard beach variety.
https://tinyurl.com/y9lceodm

The carpeting option sounds like a good one as well. Provided you use a carpet material that will dry quickly and not mildew.

Remember, he’s sliding the canoe across the padded load bars from rear to front when loading and front to rear when unloading, not loading from the side.

I’m thinking that a lot of foam products, including pool noodles, may not hold up to that type of assault, especially if any screw heads are proud of the gunwales when sliding across the padding.

I’ve never loaded a canoe this way onto padded bars, so I’m just speculating.

Carpet and cable ties to hold it on. Figure circumference cut carpet tad short so it just doesn’t touch.