Buckles slip all the time. Use rope.
Thanks everybody for setting my mind at ease about straps snapping or buckles breaking. It must be pretty rare if none of us know of it happening.
If it increases your travel confidence to double strap, then to you, it’s worth the effort. I will not be double strapping.
There is already redundancy in most of our tie-down systems. If you use two belly lines plus stern/bow, that’s four straps or ropes, and you could have one or two fail and the boat is still going to stay on the rack. I typically use a bow strap and two belly lines, no stern line because, in my vehicle/boat case, the stern line does little. The most important function of the bow line, IMO, is to visually alert me if the boat starts moving, such as it would if I lost a belly line. Also, it reminds me not to drive into overhead obstructions (like my garage).
Like ppine, I’m mostly a rope guy. However, I got a new kayak saddle that I like and it’s made for straps, so I’ll probably be using straps more frequently. And good luck to Mr. ppine on convincing people to use ropes. Yes, I know, ropes are faster, easier and in most ways equal to straps, except for one thing: most paddlers can’t tie knots.
Love yknpdlr’s photo’s of those long boats on short vehicles! Seems like a cross wind would almost knock the vehicle over with all that sail area. I was once driving across I-10 along the Mississippi, Gulf coast in a strong sidewind. There were a lot of bridges and elevated roadways on which the wind severely rocked my truck, and the boat was moving on the rack. I kept stopping and adding more lines to try to arrest the movement. By the time I got to Florida it looked like my truck was attacked by Spiderman. I didn’t have load stops then, which would have helped a ton. I can’t imagine that drive with a 34’ canoe up top!
i know nothing of kayaks in any way or of tying them down to a rack, but for transporting canoes, my Thule bar has moveable gunwale right angle blocks that firmly lock the canoe securely in line. Always with flat webbing and cams finished with a half hitch at the cam. NRS provided free cam straps at a recent Adirondack 90 mile race. I have many of these.
As far as stern lines go, for transporting extra long voyageur or C4 canoes I may use mid body or stern tie downs (usually just rope with a trucker’s hitch) to ensure there is no bouncing and movement on the rear support rack. For more normal size canoes, according to master canoe instructor/builder Charlie Wilson, the stern lines are not normally necessary unless you plan to drive in reverse at 70mph. Bow tie downs (rope with trucker’s hitch) are secured to convenient bolts with attached webbing strap loops located just inside the edge of the hood.
If the saddles you are referring to are the Yakima ones with slots on the side for straps, I’d caution against just strapping to the saddle, which a lot of people do. Run the straps through the slots and either under the load bars or better yet, through the side rail attached to the vehicle’s roof.
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In the event of a rack failure, unless the main straps also attach to a roof rail, a stern line can prevent slinging the whole assembly off the front of your car in the event of an accident. Rack systems will usually fail before the straps holding the kayaks to them fail.
If using factory crossbars, these sometimes come loose in a serious accident. In crash tests you will see them tumbling off the roof even with no load.
Which is why I double strap… this was a flaw in the strap that was not visible to the eye.
I understand that people love their ropes- but the same thing can happen with rope. I periodically get new rope to tie my kayak off where I vacation in Maine. It is easier than finding that a unseen weakness caused it to snap and my boat went sailing into Muscongus Bay without me if I mess up on a high tide overnight. I am usually clear of the water line on the beach I use but best laid plans and all. The ocean will get your ass if it catches you napping.
Two of anything is safer than one because if one fails the other is still in place. This is not about ropes v straps, just redundancy.
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On Monday we replaced our two season old Roof Tent with a AlluCab (from South Africa) which has a roof rack capacity of about 100 kg (we will be taking them off before raising the roof so that’s very conservative)
I suppose there are not any Overland kayak campers here, but we did a lot of research and it came down to this one being the gold standard. I’m curious about the rope vs ratchet strap philosophy as we begin to plan our summer excursions to remote lakes. It can get very steep (4 x 4) so having a superior method of tie down will be important. As you might realize, I am the only safety officer so maybe I can get some advice once we have it mounted on the Defender.
When the tent is down
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Ratchet straps are fine and often recommended to general loads, but not for kayaks. Kayaks are too easily damaged by over-tightening which is very easy to do with a ratchet strap due to its mechanical leverage.
Ropes are a fine alternative if you are skilled with knots and choose the right rope to use.
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Thanks, I never knew that
He says we don’t use ratchet straps,
they are the straps that buckle down and came with the carrier (I guess he means the Thule?)
I keep asking if we can’t customize the size / length because it seems to me it takes a long time to thread it all through and tie it down (20 -30 minutes?!)
He is the kind of person that must do everything himself but he never looks at how other people do things or talks to anyone that knows more.
So that’s where I come in 
He is not going to work as a team and delegate anything if he is the one driving. Actually he doesn’t like me (or anyone else driving)
We all know control freaks and it doesn’t really bother me but I keep thinking there must be a better way because it takes so long and some people are a little too detail oriented.
Still, I am the one that says “no, it’s too windy out here.” If we are being blown around and there are tractor trailers flipping over, I’m the one calling it to pull off the road.
Once we get the new rig mounted then I’ll have very specific questions.
I could start a thread about partner kayaking / road tripping because everyone has their role and it’s not always 50-50.
I use cam straps, not ratchet straps, because of the risk of overtightening a ratchet strap and damaging the boat. At the end of a paddle when tired or 1st thing in the morning it is an easy mistake to make.
IMO the ropes versus straps thing is a giant red herring. Either will hold something on the roof if used correctly. BOTH can create a catastrophic problem if there is only one of them holding down a critical portion of what is on the roof and it fails at 65 mph.
I use cam straps and double them at each point for longer trips. If I was a rope person I would STILL double them at each point for those trips. It is not about one being inherently superior to the other. It is about the risk level if any crucial section fails.
(And no I have never had a strap fail. But I would rather not find out what happens in case a 16+ ft long kayak starts trying to come off my roof at highway speeds.)
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Agree 100% with Celia. It’s really just personal preference. I use wide cam straps going over the hull to spread out the pressure (and I still damaged one boat by over tightening the straps) and rope (with trucker’s hitch) for bow lines because rope never howls in the wind, it’s easy to tie off the loose ends, it interferes with forward vision less than straps, and it’s super easy to adjust the tension. I also have the option of leaving the bow lines on the boat all the time to save a couple minutes during the loading process (biggest time waste for me is just finding the right bow lines for each boat).
You might enjoy learning to tie a trucker’s hitch. They work so well that your husband might have to admit that he likes them.
Just FYI, Thule offers a Quick Draw system that uses rope and a locking pulley for those looking for a fast/easy/secure system that doesn’t require knot-tying skills.
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You can buy cam straps (that’s the name for typical boat strap buckles) in different lengths from some companies. I have 6’, 9’, and 12’ straps. Every kayak strapping bundle I got had 12’ straps but they are often much longer than necessary.
Straps – Cascade River Gear, a WW supply company, and others offer these as well as straps that have a loop instead of a cam buckle, etc. This is whom I bought from. I think I also bought some from the SE, maybe had Nantahala in its name. Point is that you have more choices than the ubiquitous NRS (not that there’s anything wrong with them).
Just don’t go so short that there is no strap left for tying two half hitches to increase hold security, or not enough strap for wrapping around something more than the boat and cradles. The 12’ straps are good in this respect.
Polypropylene withstands UV light better than nylon does.
PS: My sympathies for your constant struggles in “partnering.”
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Mine are all from NRS. Different lengths and widths.
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I would not call my NRS straps ratchet straps. A ratchet strap uses a lever that tightens as it latches.
I use quarter inch braided nylon rope and taut line hitches for front and rear tiedowns. I check everything the first half hour and after rain but have never really needed to. The ropes are stored indoors with the boat so UV is not an issue; been using the same ones for thirty + years. To me their purpose is to avoid killing someone on the freeway with a flying kayak if there is some sort of catastrophic failure at the rack.
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Cambuckle
Ratchet Strap
Not recommended for kayaks.
Thule Bow and Stern Tiedown
I don’t recommend the open hook. These have the nasty habit of bouncing loose if you are driving on a rough road or hit a pothole. If they get caught by a tire they can break a boat, damage the rack, and possibly your car. I’ve used a heavy duty bench vise and bent the open hook into a loop and then used other secure fasteners like a carabiner or snap hook.
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noted
I find his knot skills inferior but I spent every summer at sailing camp, standing at a post with a rope in the hot sun. This weekend I learned the Underwriter’s Knot to rewire a lamp.
Thanks 
for all the great information everyone.
I will be applying it very soon.
I take screen shots and keep them in a folder in my iPhone and that way I can advise him from my designated care seat 
