is the factory rack on a forester (it has the crossbars secured by an allen wrench) sufficient to carry a family canoe. I could put an additional strap through the car itself if needed…
yep
It is a narrow rack but I have carried a minn2, an Echo, a vagabond, a Dagger reflection, and 2 ww kayaks on my 2000 with a factory rack at different times. Heck, once I mounted some 2x4’s to it and put a 12 foot aluminum boat on it and drove 450 miles. I say they are good to go.
It was
It was on my 1999 Forester. I carried, but not at the same time, an Osagian 17 foot aluminum canoe, and a Royalex Wenonah Solo Plus. I upgraded to a Yakima rack because I wanted to haul two solo canoes at the same time. The 60 inch cross bars were secured to the factory rails by Yakima grabber towers. Never had any problems with that set up; even in 60mph winds at 80mph traveling the interstate in South Dakota.
Just bought a 2010 Forester and got new Yakima Grabber towers because I broke the old ones.
Yep…we do but there
is a bit of a slidage problem as the factory bars dont have gunwale brackets. If you are inventive (I am not its too hot today) you can dream up a fitting that stops lateral slide.
For now we just cinch down tight (not so much as to dent the hull) bow and stern lines and go locally with that Forester.
Our new Forester came without factory rack and we added a Yakima rack.
We have two Foresters…2009 and 2001