Help me! I want to get a truck rack for my Dodge Ram long bed, so I can haul my Penobscot 17 while towing the travel trailer. It’s a 4x4 and is pretty tall. I’ve seen some aluminum racks advertised for around $450 that had extensions so you could load the front of the canoe and then lift the back up and pivot it onto the rest of the rack. I haven’t seen a set in person, so I’m not sure how sturdy they are. I don’t want to mount Yakima/Thule style racks on the cab. I also want to be able to carry two canoes in the future.
Some of you must be in the same situation. What works for you?
I saw a Track Rack last week.
Very nice. I have a homemade rack.
Truck rack
I own one of the racks you saw advetised. http://www.canoegear.com/index.html
The rack is bombproof. I used mine to haul canoes and up to 5 kayaks. Highly recommend it!!
Thanks for the input.
I was going to build my own, but I’m remodeling my house right now so I just don’t have time. I’m going for the “Bomb Proof” rack! Thanks again.
Jeff
TracRac
works well. No problem carrying two canoes. The beauty of em are the disassembly. They can come off in about 3 minutes if you don’t want em on, or you can slide em towards the cab.
Sherpa
other options…
I’ve got a rack from Mirage truck systems on my truck, reviews on it aren’t the greatest, but it fit what i needed at the time; and I’ll be the first to admit it has it’s shortcomings (capacity, does ‘flex’ a little bit going down the road) but it hauls a 'yak just fine. And I can have the whole rack off my truck and in a bag on the back seat in
Truck racks with trailer
Hauling a canoe on a truck rack mounted solely on the truck bed places the center of the canoe over the center of the bed. You have to be carefull of how far back of your tailgate the canoe hangs. A box trailer may have interference problems with the rear of the canoe or a long kayak.
A folding trailer is low enough that interference is not an issue.
You wrote that you don’t want to mount a Yakima/thule racks on your cab, but the best way to get the canoe centered on the truck is to use a front rack on the cab and a rear rack mounted at the center stake pockets on the bed. That keeps the stern of the canoes just above the tailgate and the bows just above your windshield wipers. The spread in racks is good and you get solid tiedowns. Short spread roof mounted racks on trucks and short cars gives tiedown points that are too close to the center of the canoe and necessitate bow and stern tiedowns to keep the boats from flexing in sidewinds.
My 89 pickup has over 100,000 of accident free canoe hauling all over the NE and Canada using a Yakima rack over the cab and a homemade set of uprights supporting a Yakima bar on the bed. Mounting and dismounting time is around 5 minutes and it will haul three canoes and maybe 5 kayaks across without double decking. Nice part is being able to use all the Yakima accessories to haul all sorts of stuff up there without interfering with what ever is being towed.
Oak Orchard Canoe sells their made of steel upright systems to mount racks on pickups using bed mounts or trailer hitch mounts. Their constructor is an ironworker whose welds are structural and the racks work well for contractors carrying pipe and ladders. Have seen them with planks and plywood being used as elevated work platforms on constuction sites.
Bill
In the same boat
I have a Dodge 2500 extended cab long bed. I recently purchased a Kargo Master over cab truck rack for 50 dollar. read my other post… I had to sand and paint the thing but it’s a brute. tube steel, solid to no end looks cool too. Im looking for a solid and easy method to mount to bed rails right now but kargo master offers a quick mount with no drill which clamps to the rails and offers easy on and off… just waiting to see it in person. Right now Iv’e bolted it on …you do experience some wind noise however as a trade off but it’s not as bad as a strap singing in the wind it’s infrequent and sort of humm when it catches the wind right I guess not a real problem. I think the company says it will take some 800 lbs which handling lumber comes in handy I have two 17ft boats for long road trips this thing ought to be the ticket
Yakima
I’ve got a Yakima Outdoorsman 300 on my dakota 4x4. It is a little high for some but I don’t have a problem. I’ve placed 3 kayaks on it and no problems. Send me an email and i toss an image so you can judge the ht.
p
Kathy Has TracRac and Trailer
– Last Updated: May-25-04 12:43 PM EST –
TracRacks are not cheap. She paid like $600-700. The look nice and they are bombproof.
Here is her rig:
http://community.webshots.com/photo/74758509/74765239EvzCST
I am cheap. I have a camper shell and Yakima racks on my 96 Toyota Tacoma single cab 2WD truck, but if I did not need the shell anyway, I would just have a cheap lumber rack.
But then I don't have a $40,000 Silverado either.... Hers is lowered with 20" wheels and she wants it to look good.
Truck Rack
I also agonized over the perfect truck rack for my Dodge. Check out the picture. I made it for about $75. plus it has horizontal bars that accomadate two canoes and it weighs only 45 pounds and easily slides in and out. Its all screwed together and has been in use for two years. It seems I don’t know how to attach a picture. E-mail me stochmal@tlgservices.com and I’ll send it. It’s by far the best rack around and I am often complimented for it’s simplcity and good looks. Ben
Pick up truck racks
Read some of the reviews in the accessory section of this web site. I myself have a Trac Rac set up. I could not be more pleased after going through two previous sets; one home-made and the other JEMB/Mirage. I cannot say enough BAD things about the JEMB/Mirage system. I cannot say enough GOOD things about Trac Rac. The Trac Rac are not cheap but they are quality built. All the previous respondents to this discussion have pretty much stated this. You could do a lot worse.
Finally, a comment about Rackwarehouse.com. I believe they manufacture the JEMB/Mirage system. In my experience, they do NOT stand behind their product and their customer service in MY experience left a lot to be desired.
My only saving grace with their product was a fellow in Hawaii who bought the racks used from me. But he had read previous comments written by others and myself about these racks and understood their extreme limitations. He was only going to haul a couple of surf boards on them.
Good luck w/your project, which ever way you go.
p.net to the rescue…
…There are several racking systems advertised under “Buyer’s Guide-Accessories”, to the left on your screen, some of which are “easy-load”. I don’t know anything about them, but it might be useful to you.