Thanks for all the info. I will be looking into all your suggestions as with being retired all I have is time.
I liked the older style better with just the benches. Gave a lot more options and if you wanted a seat back you could just add something. I think the new molded designs appeal to new buyers until they actually start using it and find they are limited.
Weather is supposed to be nice tomorrow and I will be out messing around with the Guide doing something. Getting eager to get it wet.
I am impressed by your ingenuity. You have clearly made a usable solo canoe from what you had. It should work well for you. I would think you might want to put some lacing in from gunwale to gunwale over your “airbag”. It looks as though it could pop out in a capsize.
Peter
Thanks Peter. It has been fun trying out new ideas I haven’t found on line yet. I’m finding just about everything I think about has been tried and a whole lot of things I would never have thought about. Lots of information out there to pick and chose from and IMO not so much here but in general on the web there are some really not so great ideas. It is great to hear someone say I’m staying on track.
Today I added bow and stern loops and painter lines and found the yoga balls / peanut balls have that depressed area in the center and with my doubled straps that area in the center is a great place to coil and stow the lines, the balls act like a bungee I see people using. I ordered a couple little floats to put on the ends of the lines along with a loop. It should put the end right next to my seat for an easy grab if I need to toss a line.
As to the floats popping out I have learned to never say never. I have them tied in to the deck handles with the cords that close the surplus bags, so if they got out they would stay with the boat, but still popping out wouldn’t do me any good for flotation. They are really pulled down tight and the gap on both sides is much smaller than what they would fit thru. It would be possible for the cam buckle to get hit and they could get out so a second level of keeping them in place is something I will think about.
The seat back I made seems like it will work good for the Old Town seat and today I was thinking of making a similar one for the bench seat locking it on my foot bar and leaning it back into the new center thwart. I think it would look nice to have matching back rests when I have a passenger up front fishing with me. So yet another little project.
So far everything breaks down fast and I only need to add what I need for that day. I can already see where a few things like the seats I built as prototypes can be redone taking out a lot of weight. So I will likely do that once I get to try it all out.
Well it looks like I’m getting close to done with the canoe for now. I drilled the hull for grab loops and the conventional method is to knot them on the inside for a clean look. As far as I could figure to get a tight loop and a inside knot I would have had to start with the rope a good 2’ longer tie the knot and then work it up into the point and tighten it. I didn’t feel like wasting 4’ of rope doing both ends and letting it hang inside. I got to thinking what an outside knot would be like and I actually liked the feel of that better. Without the painters on there you can get a couple fingers in the loop and then the knot is just the right size to get a good grip on. I have read a large loop can get caught easy and also it could be dangerous to put your hand thru it and then be flipped causing you to be locked in. So for me the function outweighs the looks. I strung the two painter lines to my air bags for the picture and added a loop and a small red float. The lines are .5” x about 15’ and have a nice feel and the floats add just enough weight if I want to throw a line. They have a 600lb rating, so way overkill.
I also finished the front bench seat back and glued .5” neoprene to it. Both seat backs are somewhat a prototype as is the bench seat and if it looks like it works out ok maybe over our long winter I will see about making them a bit lighter and better looking. Or I might just go with them and forget about looks. I think the spacing is about as good as I can do with a 14’7” boat as both seats have good leg room and both could kneel and paddle with double bladed paddles.
Both seats seem really comfortable and I have my solo stern seat laid back a little more as that seat has the footrest. The bench seat when occupied will be a little more upright. It is pretty easy to carve a little out of the seat back if I find she wants more angle. The PFDs we have are not the kayak style and add an inch of padding to the seat position so we will see how that factors in.
Here is the canoe on the $35 dolly I bought as I couldn’t make one that nice for that price. It came with one cam strap and I have been playing with that and have found I will use two straps and feed them under each end of the strap on the dolly. I also figured out the way I have it on in the photo is backwards. The kickstand wants to be on the end I will be lifting to keep it from catching.
Now on to the DIY car rack and then hopefully the water will be just right for the maiden voyage. So far including new PFD and paddles, launch permits and lifetime fishing permit i’m around $350-$400 for the project. At least that’s what I’m telling her.
Tonight I fiddled around with the kayak dolly again trying to get it strapped on tight and after watching a few videos and finding a page where they explained the best way. I tried using two cam straps with hooks on the end. Hooking them to the cart just outside the hull protector foam things. The best place for balance was directly below the new bench seat and that just happened to be the place where the hull is most susceptible to oil can and where I have been slowly coaxing the hog out. I got looking around the garage and found some fairly firm foam insulation scraps that could be cut to fit tight under that seat and push on the inside of the hull. The seat is bolted down so I cut the block to about 8”x10”x24” and unbolted the seat slipped in the foam and tightened it back down holding the hull just perfect. The blocks weigh next to nothing and can stay in all the time. When I put the cart under now and strap it nothing moves.
I would say when I load up the bow of the boat with fishing gear, paddles cooler etc the effort to lift the stern will be just a few pounds and I should be able to roll it just about any distance I need to. I actually think I could leave the dolly on from home to put in on the car top.
Here is the foam block i’m using to hold the hull shape. I can’t think of anything simpler.
As I have been reading on the Old Town Guide 147 this hull oil canning seem like a common complaint. Maybe this will help someone else looking for a solution. The foam is strong enough to do the job but flexible enough if it took a hit from below it would give a little. 
Tonight I found the time to try out the DIY loader for my DIY rack.
All in all it went pretty good. I got the boat on top of the car without damaging the car, the boat or myself. I attached the ladders to the rack with a pin and then rolled the canoe along side the car and flipped it over leaning on the ladders. I want to be able to leave the wheels on but I had them in the wrong location and they were getting in the way of the ladder climbing so I took them off for the first test. I have the steps spaced at 12” and that worked but smaller steps will work better and tomorrow I will put one in between so the steps will be 6”. I alternated ends lifting the gunwales up to the next step. Once I hit the top I stood between the ladders and pushed it up and slide it across the rack.
It came off even easier as gravity was helping.
With two people it would be pretty easy to just lift it on but it would be really easy doing the ladder with two people. The whole process took just a few minutes and I was only lifting a small fraction of the weight at a time.
I will post more when I make changes. 
Very creative. I like it
April 21, Is spring ever going to get here?
Are you from Michigan by chance? Was 19F up here the other night.
No we are close to Erie Pa up on lake Erie. About 30 miles south of the lake now where the water shed flows south instead of north Into the great lakes.
We live real close to French Creek where I hope to be paddling a lot if the weather ever gets nice.
There is a snow belt I90 and south that includes us. Lake effect a lot and we have had winters with 200" of snowfall. Erie has won the snowfall contest for the states a few years and we normally get double what they do.
Ya 19F is to dang cold for April.
Today the companion boat showed up a week early. She liked the OT Trip 10 Deluxe. It is called a fishing kayak but to me is quite similar to the OT Vapor 10 with a few exceptions I thought were improvements. It has a sealed water tight hatch in the stern that adds a nice amount of capsize buoyancy along with dry storage. It has foam in the bow for flotation. It comes with bungee lacing on the bow deck and that made a great place to store a coiled painter. It had an anchor trolley down the side I already removed along with the 5# anchor. It has a couple rod holders mounted into the hull behind the seat and they wont get used by her but won’t hurt anything. Behind the seat there is a nice little area and I took a 1 gallon protein powder can and made a tether from it to one of the anchor lugs. The can will stay behind the seat as a place to put keys and phone and small stuff to stay dry and out of the way. The paddle holder/rest works pretty good and I ran a paddle tether up to the deck and attached it to the rings. One common complaint about these boats is the seat gets hard quick. I have some closed cell foam and I think I will cut her a seat pad to go around the bottle holder.
Other than that we are ready to go ASAP in the two OT boats.
For any of you following along on the canoe lifter I made a few changes. I removed the top 2 blocks. I also tried leaving the canoe dolly attached and attached right on center. To roll it around there it is as easy as rolling a shopping cart at Wal-Mart if the ground is fairly level. When I flip it onto the ramps it needs to be lifted about 4” to hang on the first blocks. I did this by standing between the ramps with my back facing the car. I did that because my driveway is sharp stones and there is no need to rock the gunwales into the stones. The second lift can be done the same way. for the third lift I did it one end at a time. I also noticed that the wheels got in my way for the forth lift so I took them off. The rest of the lifts were easy with the upper blocks gone I just lifted away from the ramps a little and raised it up placing the lower gunwale on the first block. At that point it was high enough it was easy to just go the rest of the way up and on the rack.
I then tied it down and went for a test drive. It handled 60MPH and I really couldn’t notice it up there. I think with a side wind and the little car I would feel it though. I doubt I will ever get past 45MPH where I plan on going.
After I had the canoe on top and before I tightened the belly straps I should have laid one ramp on each side of the canoe on the rack. Then putting the strap on would hold the canoe and the ramps for transport.
Taking it off went very smooth and I put the wheels back on when half way down.
So that’s the process on a shoe string budget for a rack and loader for a 80 lb canoe with a retired 65 year old guy that doesn’t want to throw out his back.
Keeping the thread current on all things Bud related today I built the roof rack extensions so we can haul both the canoe and her rec kayak. I actually made it wide enough to hold two canoes as a neighbor has been looking for someone to float our river here with and he has a pickup that could haul two canoes and if I can carry two also we can simplify needing a livery service. I’m also going to have to figure out a way to widen her rack I’m putting on her brand new KIA Sportage we bought last week. She already said no 2x4 racks on the new car and I ordered cross bars for her rail system that will work for one or the other but not both. So I will be doing something similar to this that goes on and off easily.
The extensions I show below I loaded the rec kayak on just to test the idea and as you can see I have extra room for the Guide 147. I drilled the same holes in the extensions to pin the ladders to help get the canoe on and off. it is about a 5 minute switch over adding these on or off.
I think it is going to work ok.
How are these attached to your standard bars?
I made the bars across shown black painted from PT 2x4 and attached to some smaller blocks that are screwed into the roof at the factory mounting points. The extension bars are also PT 2x4 and I drilled holes thru them with counter bores so the washer and hex head don’t stick up. I reach under the black cross bars and put 4 nuts and washers on and tighten from the top. Its pretty quick to do and really solid once on. If there is a weak link it would likely be the KIA mounts in the roof. They are 6mm and seemed strong when I put them on.
I bought a tie down kit off Amazon and it came with two straps for under the hood where you take two bolts out and sandwich the straps in and they stay folded under when not in use. It also came with two hard foam rods sewn into a tube with straps that you close the lift gate on for rear tie downs. Well I used them once and for the life of me I can’t find them and we are going out tomorrow so I made something that’s better. Better at least that I wont misplace it quite so easy. when I find the other ones we can use those for the other car.
Thought I would post a couple photos as this is a simple DIY project and you can save a few bucks. I used some 2” PVC as that’s what I had and some .25 strong line as I also had it around. Drilled 2 holes doubled the line and tied a knot that’s inside the PVC. 1.5” or 1” PVC would be fine. This is big enough when I hang it from a nail in the garage I will see it.
Well I had the reconfigured OT Guide 147 to use as a solo out for the first time two days ago. We took the Rec. OT Trip 10 kayak also. It was her first outing with the kayak as well with the added flotation.
We went to nearby Woodcock Creek Lake a dam near where we live and it is a good size lake and that day was perfect for testing the boats with wind. The water was a little choppy and there was a good wind coming from the west over the dam. We launched and went along the south edge of the lake into the wind. Previously she had borrowed a variety of cheap sit in rec kayaks and noticed anything but soft paddling would result in them spinning out on her. She was really impressed with both the stability improvement and the tracking and she commented on how she couldn’t over paddle the tracking but it also wasn’t hard to turn when she wanted to. So a winner on that front even with the wind.
My experience with the canoe not as good. Heading straight into the wind was fine until the wind switched a little and I was light in the bow and it wanted to turn me and the correction strokes I could tell were doing more to fight the wind than propel me. Even with turning the bow seat around and moving it forward about 8” I was still heavy in the stern. Not much but enough. I feel my seat location would be perfect with a camping load in the bow or a large dog even. Any passenger on the new mid seat I’m sure would do the trick as well. We pulled into a sheltered cove and the canoe was a breeze to paddle and I asked her to judge how level I was and she said bow up a couple inches maybe 3. I moved up to the front seat location that is now just in front of center and that brought the bow down and the stern up a couple inches and I took it back out in the wind and it tracked pretty well.
I know a lot of people paddle a tandem by sitting in the bow seat backwards and some say they add some ballast to the other end like a 5 gallon jug of water. I was off the hopes I could get by without the ballast in moving the seat a little but I think I might need more than a little. I’m 6’ and go around 240 so likely the extra weight is a factor over a lighter person.
I’m not ready to give up on the tandem conversion to a solo yet and I’m strongly thinking a seat location just behind center would be best and that would leave me cargo space in front and behind my seat so I could always trim the boat with the load I’m hauling. It would however take away my option for a second person at least paddling when configured like that. Although with everything done I could switch back and forth from solo to tandem in a half and hour if something changed and I needed a tandem.
So right now that will be a plan. Here is the best photo showing the weight distribution now. I have another light weight bench that holds a stadium seat back seat I will try it turned around and with the center thwart removed. I think I should be ok with removing it as the bench does the same thing.
By the way the stability of the Guide 147 is great it never felt the least tippy.
Version 2.0 We will see how this works? My guess from playing around the other day it will be better.
Right now the seat is 9” off the floor and the seat back is 18” behind the center of the length of the canoe. So my leg weight will be to the front and the rest of me right behind center.
I removed the center thwart but added 2 new ones that define the cockpit area. The cooler fit nice into the front 18” area and should be nice for keeping fish cold or food and drinks or both if I put a tub inside it to divide it, depending on the day it is easy to access there as well. There is a 24” area behind the seat for camping gear etc.
This mod is a true solo and I hope levels the canoe and helps with the wind by keeping more of the bow in the water.
I’m guessing but it feels a good 10-15 pounds lighter for loading. Way lighter than the blow molded plastic seats that came with it. I’m glad I got to try the formfitting seats IMO they were not that comfortable and were sweaty.
One thing for sure I need is a longer double ended paddle, or an extender for the one I have.
Update. Yesterday I got to try out the solo setup for the first time it was a beautiful day very warm and some nice wind at times. We put in to French Creek and took a leisurely 10-12 miles down stream in around 4.5 hours. I had stuff in the cooler mostly water for our group and the cooler and contents was about 15lbs. With me seated the boat was dead level and tracked better than any of the rec kayaks we were with. Amazingly the OT Trip 10 we got her also tracked exceptionally well compared to the other rec boats we were with when it came to wind. In my case it was night and day to the first outing we had where my trim was stern heavy.
The creek was up pretty good and there were a couple spots where some of the bigger people were getting hung up and I actually drew less water than the kayaks so that was nice to know. At one stretch there was a shallow area where everyone had to drag their boat about 50 yards and I followed @daggermat advice and made an aluminum poling pole from a telescoping tent pole I had and I attached a golf ball to the end with epoxy that I drilled a 15/16” hole in to slip over the pole. It collapses to around 4’ and was in my paddle bag so luckily I had it in the canoe. When everyone else got out on the beach rocks to walk thru the spot I thought what the heck and I got out the pole. It worked pretty well and I was surprised my balance was pretty good and the canoe moved along great. So thanks for the tip. Don’t think I’m ready for whitewater poling yet but you never know. I will attach a picture of my pole with a golf ball handle.
The best part was being on the water on a beautiful day and looking up and seeing two bald eagles that circled us for a long time. We also saw a number of Great Blue Heron and numerous other bird. Fish were jumping quite a bit also.
When we pulled out I drug the canoe up a mud bank and put the dolly under it to the amazement of a couple young guys. When I got to the car I attached the ladder ramps and those two guys and a few others stopped and watched as I inched the canoe up and onto the car. At that point I heard several comments on needing to build something like that. We were loaded and gone in less than half the time of the other canoes that were getting wrestled up by two people instead of one.
Can’t wait for the next trip.
