I am new to canoeing. I want to transport one 14 foot canoe on my 2007 Toyota Tacoma 4 door Access Cab 4x4 short six foot bed pickup. I have narrowed the naked cab roof top rack to either the Yakima Q-Tower Single Crossbar Half Pack which includes Y0135 set of 2 Q towers, 1 set of Q clips & 1 crossbar or the Thule 480 Traverse Half Pack Roof Rack System includes two Thule 480 Traverse Feet, #1511 Traverse Fit Kit clips and single 58” load bar. Both products were selected based on the specific make, model and year of my vehicle.
One of these crossbar systems will be installed on the naked cab roof of my pickup to support the front end of the canoe in an inverted position and a hitch mounted 48” wide adjustable upright “T Bar” Ladder/Canoe -Rack-Extender will be used to support the back end of the canoe.
My question is has anyone used either the Yakima or Thule Systems in conjunction with an upright hitch mounted “T Bar” extender and what pros and cons did you experience in the quality of these products, their ease of mounting and capabilities of safely and securely transporting a canoe ?
For that specific vehicle
I recommend the Thule mount. The way it is designed and the shape of the Tacoma’s door, the Thule mount will be more secure than the Yakima one.
I generally prefer Yakima products over Thule, but based on certain vehicle fits, Thule sometime is the better option.
You should have no issue with your single bar and T-bar upright configuration. It’s a common set up.
yup
I had the exact setup you mentioned, but just made changes due to the purchase of a new truck. I still use the Yakima hitch mount, but instead of buying new clips for the QTowers to go over the cab…I junked them and bought the Yakima Sportsman 300 rack (single set) to go right behind the cab of the truck. I wish I did this in the begining…now when I get another truck in the future the setup will stay the same, and you don’t get any interior noise like you do with the QTowers mounted on the roof (which can sometimes be quite loud).
rack experience
Did three trips to Florida from Michigan with the Thule set up on our pickup with zero issues. We had a cap on the bed but didn’t want to drill into it to mount feet and the Thule hitch mounted T bar thingie worked just fine. Without the boats it wobbled a bit going down the road but with the boats on was really solid. I think anything hitch mounted wobbles a little no matter how tight the fit since there is a lot of vibration back there. The Thule over cab feet and clips were very rigid and no problem.
Yakima sportsman
I’m wary of how much the hitch mounted racks wobble, so I prefer to have a rack on the bed. I’d use a Sportsman and a pair of q-towers for over the cab.
How did you get the Outdoorsman to work?
In my experience, the Outdoorsman (you called it the Sportsman) rack will not work on the 2005 and later Tacoma’s because of the integrated bed rails. What modification did you make to the mounting hardware for a secure fit?
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The Yakima hitch mount, I think they may call it the dry dock? …doesn’t move a bit on either of the two trucks I’ve used mine on. A good size bolt goes through the hitch and threads into the upright making it surprisingly rigid. It also comes with two web straps and when you secure them on each side there’s zero movement. It’s a really nice design.