Yakima trailer for canoe?

I’ve had a Yakima Rack and Roll trailer for a couple seasons to haul my kayaks. It has performed wonderfully. I now have a canoe and was wondering if anyone has experience using this trailer to haul a canoe and if so what advice you have regarding tie downs.

No one has replied so here goes
You should use a pair of bare cross bars to support your canoe, gunwales-down, just as you would on a roof rack. Everything else is the same as with a roof rack too. Gunwale brackets will be the most expedient way to keep the canoe from slipping back and forth on the cross bars, which is generally caused by cross winds and traffic turbulence when the boat is on a roof rack, and will probably occur on a trailer too. As an alternative, you can wrap an extra pair of ropes around the canoe from opposite directions at each cross-bar location (for each cross bar, tie one rope to the bar just outside the left bar support, wrap around the canoe and tie again at the same location. Then do the same on the opposite side. A more complicated method is needed for two canoes or if the bar supports are inboard of the gunwales, in which case gunwale brackets are easier). A set of ropes going from a thwart to the trailer, one resisting forward motion and the other resisting backward motion, is a good idea, though if you use gunwale brackets or the two additional pairs of ropes described above, the need for this forward/backward control is less.

Very helpful
Thanks for the excellent reply. I will definitely try the rope idea first.

Minor clarification:
“Bare cross bars” doesn’t mean they can’t be padded with carpet or something. It just means that you use cross bars instead of kayak carriers.

I have a Mo
trailer with bare round Yakima Cross Bars.



Pipe insulation helps immensely to avoid slip and slide. Duct tape it in a few places. Sure it will wear out but you can get a year out of it.



I do that instead of gunwale brackets since when I am transporting six canoes I cant afford that many brackets ( I own eight and would need 16 more.)



Crappy nubby carpet works well too.