@PaddleDog52 said:
Carpet and cable ties to hold it on. Figure circumference cut carpet tad short so it just doesn’t touch.
I’ve been wondering about zip ties as a carpet fastener as opposed to tape. Less messy to take off and replace when needed maybe. Don’t know about reliability; zip ties I used to attach fishing pole holders to a crate lasted for a while then all of them broke due to brittle plastic. But, easy to replace.
My car is not garaged.
Buy good quality cable ties they will last for years outside. Have them on boat, fences, heavy equipment. Some are well over 15 years old probably 20. Some on equipment are 30 years old. Tape is a mess and won’t last long. Foams will not last long either.
Decide if you want a plush carpet or something like a carpet tile. Not sure what would work best without seeing your application. Try to place ties where hull doesn’t drag on them if possible. Ties will disappear in plush carpet when pulled tie. Keep the locking part down towards roof and snip them excess off.
Buy UV stabilized black ties made in USA
I’d make two pieces for each bar. Circumference is 3-9/16. Cut rug 3-1/2" and try that. Nice straight cut is important. Rug guy could cut it for a few bucks from scraps. See what flexes nice when bent around bar.
Cable ties should work fine. Use a carpet with a bit of fluff and they will sink in and not even contact your gunwales as you slide your boat over the bars, as mentioned is the case when attaching the carpet with wire. Cable ties probably won’t make the carpet quite as tight to the bar as wire or stretched-and-wrapped tape, but increasing the number of ties would help with that. I may try that next time myself.
http://www.cabletieexpress.com/heavy-duty
Check tensile strength of what you buy. Put one every 8" I doubt carpet will move out could also use a one inch piece of double side 3m tape below each cable tie location.
Maybe I’m not picturing your situation correctly, but I don’t understand the problem with using the Yakima load stops. I’ve loaded my OT Tripper by sliding it on Yakima bars from the rear. The gunnels slide nicely on bare Yakima bars. I think I did have to loosen one stop and rotate it 90 deg so that it wouldn’t stick up and get caught on a thwart during the sliding process . Alternatively, one stop could be loosened and moved off to the side on the bar until the canoe is in place. Since the center of the canoe is wider than the spacing of the rear stops, I didn’t try to slide the canoe between the rear stops without either rotating or repositioning one. With one stop rotated the gunnels straddle that stop until the canoe is slid up and resting on both bars. Then even with a heavy canoe it is not too difficult for one person to lift the boat off of one bar at a time and hop it sideways over the stop.
I don’t understand why you want to pad them in the first place if you are “sliding” your canoe on from the rear as you say.
The yakima bars are made so you can slide the canoes on.
For many years that is exactly how I slide our canoes on and some have wood gunnels while others have vinyl and aluminum.
Any foam padding will tear apart.
Indoor outdoor/outdoor carpet would work, but you would have to tape it in several places since you don’t want to use a contact cement.
Jack L
@PaddlingPika said:
Maybe I’m not picturing your situation correctly, but I don’t understand the problem with using the Yakima load stops. I’ve loaded my OT Tripper by sliding it on Yakima bars from the rear. The gunnels slide nicely on bare Yakima bars. I think I did have to loosen one stop and rotate it 90 deg so that it wouldn’t stick up and get caught on a thwart during the sliding process .
Hmmm…maybe using load stops with the sliding method is easier than I imagine. It does require getting up on the roof (of an XTerra, in my case) once for every loading and unloading, though, to move or turn one rear load stop. I can’t judge if that would annoy me. 2 sets of load stops would cost $118.
@JackL said:
I don’t understand why you want to pad them in the first place if you are “sliding” your canoe on from the rear as you say.
The reason for padding the cross bars is to cushion the side-to-side movement I’ll get on the highway by not using load stops. I understand from previous posts that you do use load stops?
I have the Yakima load stops and have used them for years. I load and unload my boats primarily by myself by sliding the gunwales on from the back. I always loosen the middle, rear bracket and move it to the side, slide the canoe into place. Than lift the back of the canoe up and slide the bracket into place, and tighten. No pool noodles, no carpet, nothing else needed.
I thought these Yakima Universal SnapArounds could be used as a cheap gunwale bracket, then discover it’s an old idea with threads on this forum. At $11 a set, that’s much more reasonable than $59 for load stops or $109 for their KeelOver canoe brackets. I’d have money left over for a second set! They’re not padded, but maybe I could do that at home if needed.
I use Yakima gunnel brackets and load from the side. Piece of cake.
“Piece of cake”. With the right roof height and a light enough boat, and/or young enough joints and muscles, you bet it’s a piece of cake. But to dismiss the value of sliding a boat up using the rear cross bar suggests minimal or zero experience with other boat-loading situations. On that age thing, a few of my boats are a lot heavier than they were 12 years ago. Surely I can’t be weaker, so they have to be heavier, right?
For what it’s worth, I still can load all my boats from the side without loading aids, lifting them up over my head and onto the rack, but except when loading my Kevlar canoe, I’m smart enough to use a method that takes less than 1/100th as much effort. Anyone here who’s familiar with me knows that I regularly point out the silliness of doing things the hardest possible way.
@melenas said:
Opinions?
Hey melenas, just a couple comments. I’m a pretty big fan of clear tubing because for me I can use it either on the bars or small sections right on the tunnels of the canoe. I also like it because it provides some extra friction between boat and rack. But if you like to slide your boat up from the rear perhaps the friction could make it a bit more difficult.
My main comment is that it would be easy to go buy 1 foot each of 1 inch diameter, 1.25 and 1.5. Then you can do a test fit on your bars and see which is best. You may find that smaller diameters fit more snugly on the bars (presumably with the help of tape in your case). You can also check to see if the friction is a problem. It’s a pretty cheap way to check if this option works for you.
I have no clue about canoes and things discussed here any pictures?
@PaddleDog52 said:
I have no clue about canoes and things discussed here any pictures?
Pics show a short piece of one inch ID foam pipe insulation and one inch ID clear plastic tubing on a Thule bar…plus a short piece of clear plastic tubing being used as a gunnel protector.
The foam pipe insulation may get chewed up over time…but on other hand the thicker padding may help reduce the howl (noise) from the bars a bit.
@wildernesswebb said:
I have the Yakima load stops and have used them for years. I load and unload my boats primarily by myself by sliding the gunwales on from the back. I always loosen the middle, rear bracket and move it to the side, slide the canoe into place. Than lift the back of the canoe up and slide the bracket into place, and tighten. No pool noodles, no carpet, nothing else needed.
Exactly
@string said:
@wildernesswebb said:
I have the Yakima load stops and have used them for years. I load and unload my boats primarily by myself by sliding the gunwales on from the back. I always loosen the middle, rear bracket and move it to the side, slide the canoe into place. Than lift the back of the canoe up and slide the bracket into place, and tighten. No pool noodles, no carpet, nothing else needed.Exactly
OK, I’m convinced by the load stops now. I knew they were a great way to keep the canoe in one place but I was under the impression that it was incompatible with sliding the boat on from the rear. Well, it is, kind of, but you just got to move one of the stop out of the way and back.
I’ll get a set of the original expensive load stops for the canoe that lives on the car and I think I’ll try some Yakima Universal SnapArounds for the only occasional second boat.
