Do you just tie a loop like a double fisherman’s knot once you feed it through?
Canoes tend to slide forward, especially on rough roads. The solution is to tie one of the thwarts to a parallel crossbar so the canoe can’t slide forward.
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With a canoe hull up on a double bar roof rack with crossbars strapped down using loop cam straps at both locations is not going anyplace IMO. The bow and stern tie down are then put on a safety factor. In my pre retirement job as a designer we called this “belt and suspenders design”. The bow and stern straps should just put a small amount of holding pressure on the canoe to stabilize it at highway speeds. The main reason for them again IMO is to keep the canoe with the car if the rack system were to fail.
I haven’t seen a car that doesn’t have some bolts that can be taken out and put back on with a strap loop that can stay on year round with the strap folded inside. I have them on both cars and I also have a set of the ones with a tube that you close the hood on. I use that style on the back of the car with the trunk lid or hatchback. I like the DIY one I made best using strong rope and a length of scrap PVC pipe.
These loop straps are not that expensive and work very well and I use them both around the canoe and as bow and stern straps. Ropes and trucker hitch knots are fine but require a little skill and IMO I trust the cam buckle more than I trust a trucker hitch.
No one wants a canoe flying off, but if it were to happen I want it to stay connected to my car and not becoming an airborne projectile to those behind me. 
Already traveled 2500 miles this month and no hood loops do not abrade the hood
Been up to 75 nph no wobble
Cam straps
Load brackets
hood loops with rope and running truckers hitch
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Years ago I saw a very nice Kevlar Wenonah Voyager that had been destroyed when a rack system or possibly a cam strap on the leading end of the canoe failed. I have heard of the cam on cam straps failing. In this instance it may have been the strap or some portion of the front rack tower(s) that failed, I do not recall which.
The vehicle was going at highway speeds when this happened and unfortunately there was not bow tie down securing the front end of this long canoe. What happened next was nearly instantaneous as it was described to me. The lifting force on the leading end of the boat lifted it up like a sail breaking both gunwales at the location of the rear rack crossbar and tearing the hull fabric on both sides down to the hull bottom. With the canoe now broken and forming a nearly right angle the force on the front 2/3 of the boat that was sticking nearly straight up resulted in the boat tearing the rear rack and crossbar off of the vehicle.
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The two best knots to know when securing the leading end of your boat are the bowline and the trucker’s hitch. If you don’t know these you can do a google search and find tons of online animations or videos showing how to tie them.
A bowline is best for securing your rope to either a grab loop or thwart on the leading end of the canoe. Some might argue a figure of eight knot is superior because it is stronger, and it is a bit, but a properly tied bowline is more than strong enough and is very easy to untie even after it has been tensioned.
A trucker’s hitch will allow you to tension the line where attached to the vehicle. Some might prefer a tautline (rolling) hitch, AKA midshipman’s hitch, but a truckers hitch is more secure and just as easy to tie.
I prefer to use either one line long enough to go from a front grab loop through both of the two front anchor points and then tied back to the grab loop on the canoe with a trucker’s hitch, or two individual shorter lines each tied to the grab loop with bowlines then individually tied to the two front anchor points using trucker’s hitches.
Yep. I use a bowline on a bight and feed the main rope through the cross bar. A trucker’s hitch is used to secure to both bars.
would you be talking about Ed?
MCreay would know who I’m talking about
Anything can fail and I’m sure cam buckles are no different. I use two around the belly of the boat and around my crossbars. After I pull them tight I take the tail and loop it around the bars and then tie it to itself as a way of getting rid of the extra length and if the cam failed it would still be held together. In the bow and stern I use two each cam buckle straps one going to each of the side hood or hatch tie down points. I wrap and tie off the ends in a similar way. I do all this if I’m going any great distance or higher speeds. When I go to my local launch my top speed is 15MPH and trip time about 3 minutes and I don’t bother with the bow and stern points. Returning home top speed is about 30MPH and time of about 15 minutes and I will use a single bow and stern cam strap.
When I mentioned highway speeds I’m very concerned with putting a couple huge canoes on a small car where they are much longer than my car and I do everything I can to avoid interstate roadway and if I’m forced on one as no other way to get where I’m going I defiantly am closer to the minimum speed than the max. IMO it pushing the limits no matter how well the attachment is with expecting total safety with big long boats strapped to the roofs of tiny cars. I would rather spend a few extra hours on the road and not push my luck with high winds and being passed at high speeds by 18 wheelers.
Every situation is different. None of us have actually engineered the solutions for hauling our boats. Everyone takes their best shot at what they feel is enough and hope for the best.
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When I use cam straps, After tensioning the strap, I tie knot with the remaining strap directly after the cam. This serves to protect in the event of the cam failing and secondly it prevents the strap from losing tension.