Thanks Maximadude
Your review was very helpful.
I used t o do that
too to protect the front of the hood, but a I found a better, faster method.
I put a 3 inch piece of pipe insulation around the cam buckles that just touch the front of the hood on the web straps that go from the bowof my canoe to my vehicles two hooks. Then I just tie off the excess webbing. This saves a few minutes and is more gentle to the hood.
Bruce
Great idea, gonna try it
There is absolutely no need for…
…front and rear tiedowns when you have a good rack system or unless you have no faith in your tie downs.
Now lets hear it from all the purists !!!
Cheers,
JackL
PS: If it will make you happy I’ll put a bumper sticker on my tailgate like the big gravel dump trucks have reading “Keep back 100 feet- not responsible for damage down by my flying kayaks”
Sure
We all know that anything made by Yakima or Thule is completely immune to mechanical failure…
Bow/stern lines are some of those things you don’t realize the importance of until it’s too late.
Racking Prijon Calabria
I --as you know–own a Prijon Calabria and saw this posting as I was looking for a pot’l means for racking a fiberglass kayak without damaging the fiberglass (straps on flat crossbars might crack gelcoat), should I ever buy a fbglss model. Anyhow, I have a pickup truck with two flat crossbars and uprights–one in front of my bed, one behind–and I lift the Calabria onto it and place upside down (I agree with posters that suggested upside down mounting, although the handles can sometimes rattle on my roof). My cross pieces are flat, I have no saddles, but I do have two eye screws (for two kayaks) coming out at a 90 degree agle so that I can secure the tie cord around the eye screws, and that keeps my kayak from shifting, and thus I need not tie down quite so firmly (I tie it to the point where I just barely see the plastic deform). Hard to describe, but basically I avoid tieing all the way across the kayak directly from one side of vehicle to the other, and instead can ties from one side of the vehicle , around the kayak to a midpoint that is close to tha kayak hull (the eyelet coming out of the cross bar which holds the kayak), thus keeping the kayak snug, and THEN the tie cord continues onto the other side of the car (in my case, a truck). I use Wal-Mart ratchet cords, not the cheap ones, but not the fancy ones that don;t work well. Now if I could just get my Calabria to track straight, in the water, I’d be cool (separate issue- I might post, my rudder is on backorder).