I have question about stern tie downs. I understand the value in preventing the boat from flying off the front of the car in a collision. However, because my 16-foot canoe extends well beyond the rear of my car, a line extending from the stern of the boat to an attachment point under the bumper won’t keep the boat from sliding forward.
Well, it will eventually, but by the time the line catches, the bow of the canoe will likely have slammed into the hood of the car.
Or to people attach the stern tie down to another part of their boat (further forward, maybe?)
My boat is very secure just by attaching it to the rack. I can rock the whole car back and forth if I yank on the boat in any direction. When I am going on the freeway for any distance I also tie down the bow, the stern, and I tie the boat to the factory rails. The purpose of these last three is insurance in case the rack itself fails for some reason. I don’t want to kill anyone in the car behind me.
Keeping the boat from sliding forward wouldn’t be the purpose of the stern tie down. Well, it could be in some cases, but maybe not in yours. I’ve had a roof rack fail, heard of other roof racks failing, seen videos of racks failing. I use bow and stern tiedowns to secure my kayak/canoe against twisting forces along with all other types of forces acting on it such as acceleration or deceleration. They are not only a backup to rack failure, but they help to prevent rack failure.
For long drives at highway speeds I have, on occasion, tied to a thwart (the one behind the seat on a solo canoe), given a wrap around the rack, and tied to the rear bumper or receiver for the trailer hitch. The thought is that it would prevent the boat sliding forward in the event of an emergency stop or minor collision (as with an unexpected curb, snow bank, or traffic barrier). Though I’ve never had a case of the “tail wagging” (the stern shifting while the bow remains fixed), stern tie downs can’t hurt and have some value in protecting following vehicles in the unlikely event of rack failure or a strap breaking. I even know a fellow who ties both to a thwart and uses a separate triangulated line to attach to the stern loop. (He is a cautious fellow who loves to tie knots and does it quickly and well.) There are those who through an abundance of caution insist on religiously using stern tie downs every time and for even the shortest of drives. I would never fault them for this practice. Some use double straps as well in case of a cam lock or strap failure. Good for them, but I think that at some point one needs to have some faith and quit the redundancy bit.
But if one is going to use stern lines, attaching to an amidship thwart, though less convenient, is a more secure attachment.
And then I see professional outfitters carrying eight canoes on trailers on bouncy roads and highways using nothing but bungee cords, no bow or stern lines at all - and getting away with it.
But then we’re more careful than those pros…
Both bow and stern tiedown are required by most rack manufacturers for warranty coverage in the event of a rack failure. In addition they reduce the effect that the wind has in torquing the boat and stressing the rack and also the effect that pot holes and a rough road have in bouncing the boat. A stern tiedown may keep the boat on the car in the event of a rear end collision.
Good point about the warranty - I’ve not used either Yakama or Thules (mostly used Pannons bolted to a topper with 2X4 extensions) so was unaware of their warranty policies. Good info to know.
A bow line from the toggle or deck rigging that goes to the front of my vehicle.
A line from rear to rear of the rack, going from the rear of the rack around the front of the cockpit combing and then back to the rear of the rack. I use a tightening rope system (trucker knot) to pull on this line so that gives tension to the bow line as well.
and 4. are girth lines around the kayak, one in front of the cockpit and one behind the cockpit, also cinched down firmly.
This system works well at freeway speeds as well as driving long, rough roads and going up and down dry gulley’s to get my truck to and back from water. Never once has any kayak even shifted 1 inch in my years of using this system.
Here is a picture of 2 kayaks loaded on the rack I made, but with no lines tied yet. I don’t have a pic of the kayaks tied down, but with the above description and a look at the picture I think it’s easy to understand my meanings. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA by Steve Zihn, on Flickr
Mostly bow and stern lines keep your boat lined up with the line of travel.
The tie downs on the rack have plenty of friction and keep boats from moving forward.
I normally set my straps to prevent any forward or backwards motion. I run a bowline to see any movement of the boat. The times that I feel the need for a rear line I find somewhere on the boat to prevent forward movement. That could be a thwart, security loop or around the cockpit depending on what boat I have on the rack. I always use a security cable.
If you drive in the West in mountains and canyons, you can encounter very strong cross winds without warning . Several times I have had my boats buffeted and shift on the racks even when they can go several hundred miles on Freeways without needing to tighten the tie downs, I use rear tie downs on anything longer than 10 feet.
Several years ago I was at an intersection in Ft. Colins Colorado and saw a car carrying a long canoe or kayak. The car had to stop abruptly to avoid collliding with another vehicle, and the boat and part of the rack continued through the intersection like a V1 buzz bomb and violently smashed and partially inserted into the passenger compartment of another vehicle. So if you are going on trips at high speed, use both front and back tie downs to avoid injuring others.
There are a lot of wind forces on a kayak/canoe which are transferred to the rack. It won’t necessarily fail during a hard stop but has happen when driving. Someone was killed by a kayak and rack not far from where I live, a few years back. The report wasn’t necessarily clear, but my impression was that braking wasn’t involved.
HDDAVIES: Please post a link with info about “someone killed by kayak and rack.” I’d like to know more about that and I couldn’t find it with my internet search.
My kayak extends 4’ past my rear bumper. I don’t use a rear tie down because it does very little and is not needed. A rear tie down won’t stop my kayak from moving forward until the kayak has moved 6 or 8 feet forward, but the bow line would stop it from ever sliding that far. A single line will not provide stability in side winds unless the kayak has twisted a couple of feet, by which point you are already in trouble. A two-line, inverted “V” tie down will offer stability in side winds, and I do use that on the front tie down.
Much depends on the saddles, the roof rack, and the vehicle. If the bars are very close together, or the saddles don’t offer side support, I suppose additional tie downs at bow and stern will help keep the boat from twisting on the rack. Then there needs to be a solid tie down point or points, which many vehicles just don’t have. If you have decent saddles, good belly lines, a good front tie down and enough space between the bars, never-mind that rear tie-down. It’s redundant.
I don’t know the weather conditions. Was there a side wind? The rack came loose from the vehicle and the kayak with it. It would seem to me that having both a bow and stern line would keep the rack and kayak(s) with the original vehicle until it could perform a controlled stop. I think that having no stern line would allow/cause the kayak and rack to swing to one side while trying to stop in this situation. Is this situation likely? Not really. I tie my stern line around the kayak through the deck lines (sea kayak) so it goes closer to straight down. I have heard of other instances where racks (multiple) have come off of vehicles, but those were just personal comments and I don’t believe other vehicles were involved. You can’t eliminate all failure possibilities…
Besides the warranty issue, a stern tiedown will reduce the chance of the kayak coming loose in a rear end collision and probably more importantly, when combined with the front tiedown, reduce the possibility of damage to your car in the event of a roof rack failure. Anything that keeps the kayak more secure helps and reduces strain on the rack system. And how much trouble is it to use a stern tiedown anyway?
I see lots of kayaks go through here which aren’t attached securely. This is a tourist area. I try to pass those cars so that the kayak doesn’t try to kill me. I suspect that anyone who can’t secure a kayak may not know good bars/cradles from bad…
I have a homemade rack on a sedan. The rear bar mounts rearward of the trunk and the other bar mounts to the roof just behind the drivers seat. There is seven feet between the bars so I’ve never tied my 12’ kayak to the bumpers. It’s always loaded upside down so passing air creates downward pressure. Factory roof racks were designed for luggage, not ladders or kayaks. The laws in most states require loads extending more than three feet out the front or four feet out the back of vehicle’s to be flagged. That’s measured from the furthest point forward and backward. If your load blocks your view of overhead traffic loghts you can bet there’s a law against that too.
On trick that works perfectly is simply to run a line from the stern of the kayak to the front end of a car, and a line from the bow of that kayak to the rear bumper of the car. It takes more line, but rope is a lot cheaper then new kayak carriers.
If the rear of the kayak is held to the front of the car it can’t slip backwards. And the front of the kayak is held to the rear of the car it can’t slip forwards. You get NO shifting fore and aft at all. 2 girth lines hold down the hulls, and you are good for any road conditions you’ll find.
