I was driving up highway 4 south of Aurora on the fishing opener and saw an aluminum canoe fly straight up off a car ahead of me and crash in the south bound lane.  Luckily passing cars were able to avoid the debris.   I’m sure most people here know how to tie a canoe to a car, but some novices might take note.  The canoe had been tied with heavy-duty orange cargo straps to the SUV’s car top carrier, but was not tied with ropes to the bow or stern.  The wind had enough force to actually rip the car top carrier right off the vehicle.  Live and learn.

starwatcher

Yikes indeed!  Some factory roof racks are cosmetic.  Some are good for lashing your skis to, but not much more.

In addition to ensuring the canoe is connected to the actual frame of the car there is also the concern of opposing forces.  If your bow/stern ropes are running more parallel than intersecting then those forces are pushing the canoe towards to hood or the trunk.

Having girdle straps that are fore & aft of the widest point of the canoe and tight to the contours of the canoe will also keep it from sliding.

I'm never happy about a canoe that's not tied to the frame of the car.  Once I've car-topped my canoe I grab and shake, right & left, forward & back.  Do this from the mid-point & ends.  If I can pull the canoe off the car it's not safe.  If the car's a rockin' I'm ready for the road.

Open fields & lakes can whip up gusts.  Watch the trees & grass & crops & waves for winds.

Occasionally stick a hand out the window & measure how far the canoe has shifted.

One of the problems is it can be difficult on some vehicles to find a convenient place to tie a bow/stern line to the car frame.  What I have done on the front of two vehicles now is get a short (18") piece of wire covered with a plastic coating, get a doo-dad that allows me to turn it into a loop, and I attach to the frame in the engine compartment.  I have enough clearance in the seem of the hood, that when I want, I can extend the end of the loop through the seem between the hood and the fender.  To tie down the bow, I just tie the bow lines to that loop.  (Under normal conditions, the loop just sits inside the engine compartment, out of the way of anything.)

Interesting thread....I'm curious if there's any difference between putting the tie-downs over the canoe, or looping them over the thwarts, before strapping the canoe down. I always loop them over the thwarts, but I'm willing to change.

carmike1 wrote on May 29^th, 2012 at 2:54am:


Not sure if that's good enough; the outfitters CCC  that I use tie it over the canoe and the thwarts.  That's the way I learned and I've always done it. Also, I don't like to take chances and tie all sides, front and back to the frame; and I like preacher's advice; to make sure it's secure enough to rock the car.