What I like about going off the front and back of the car for the bow and stern lines with my canoes is that first it is an different structure that I’m attaching to other than the rack. If something were to happen to the rack it could all go flying together. secondly when on the car and driving you have no visual and having a line you can see in front and with your mirror in the back will tell you if anything is going on.
For my typical local river trip I don’t use them going to launch as it is a block away and I go under 20mph. The return trip I used them as we hit highway speeds.
I don’t like the noodle idea as they will be too compressive IMO and your straps tension will be limited to the compression of the foam.
Not really. The roll cage padding did nicely for my friend a high end canoe builder. He transported coast to coast with an eight boat canoe trailer
That foam
doesn’t compress much in the canoe application. No idea in the roll your car over app
I was thinking that it would be better to fasten the straps around the side rails (front to back rails) instead of to the cross rails, in case the mechanism (towers?) that attaches the cross rails to the side rails fails. (Not talking about the bow and stern lines.)
That depends. It’s best to keep the straps as close to the hull as possible, and as vertical as you can. This makes it much less likely that the boat will squirm and move around.
Good points, and the bow line in front of the windshield would be a good reminder that I have them on top and to watch my vertical clearances. I’m worried I won’t have enough bow length to clear the crew cab of my mid-size pick up though. Since they’re 12’ kayaks, if I center them on the Yakima rack, the bow might only come to the middle of the cab and the angle would be too steep to make the curve at the windshield. I don’t have the rack installed for a few more weeks, so I can’t experiment with that placement until then.
I guess foam varies - I’ve had noodles disintegrate due to UV, but some high-quality pipe insulation has lasted for years on my rack system. Luck of the draw, I guess…
there was a difference in the quality and how long pool noodles lasted- the ones at walmart outlasted the ones bought at family dollar. When I strap I like to go vertical and close to the boat as well and I run the strap around both the rail and crossbar (near their junction).
When I had a car with factory side rails (the saddles mounted on load Yakima bars supported by door frame brackets) I always wrapped & tied the residual strapping to the side rails as an extra measure. I miss having that “backup” on my current bare roof.
