Is there any reason why you cant place a canoe right side up ontop of a kayak saddle type of roof rack. I have been told that you cannot carry a canoe with the cockpit up and the hull down on a Thule kayak saddle even if I space them correctly apart.
Two reasons come to mind
I think structurally trying to tension the cam straps/ropes against the gunnels in that position and then thow in any twisting and bending from wind forces could be troublesome. Secondly, if it rains in any significant amount, you could easily wind up with a lot of added weight sloshing around, most likely a bad thing. Then again, I could be wrong.
Occams Razor
"The simplest answer is almost always the best"
One of the great things about buying a roof rack for a canoe is that you can save $100+ by not having to get saddles.
Upside down canoes slide easily across the bars when racked. I can’t think of any advantage to the saddles.
have done it on short…
…hauls, less than 100 miles. But, the situtation was when I was hauling 3 or 4 canoes on a 2 canoe trailer. The bottom 2 boats were upside down and strapped in and then the other boats were placed rightside up on top of them. Needed lots of ropes to make sure there was no sideways or end to end sliding. I’d be careful strapping them down though, too much force could try to ‘spread’ the sides of the canoes, and you could put an indentation in the bottom of the hull from the points of contact on the carrier.
Water could be a big problem if you forget them that way during a rain, as mentioned above. Know of a guy who left his for a few hours in the back of his truck while visiting a local establishment and it bent in half from the weight of the water.
Occam’s Razor
Topher is correct.
And I would hate to think of the kinetic forces generated by even 10 gallons of water @8.2 lbs/gal rushing foreward during a panic stop.
We need to have some curious P-Netter run tests!
Jim