Camry as canoe carrier

If you have the money.....

Thule also makes some very nice rain gutter mount cartop carriers.

Yakima has one system that uses a roller and an end stop that allows one person to slide the canoe into place without ever bearing the full weight of the boat themselves. (the Hully Roller) None of the Yakima or Thule products are inexpensive.

Using the foam pads and strap system will work, it just takes longer and you have to be extra careful when mounting it so that you don't have your canoe come loose going down the highway, as well as being more careful not to damage your roof. The good rack systems are probably more secure, and might let you carry a longer canoe if need be. How long is the one that you are planning to carry?

Pat

Get a real roof rack before you trash your roof and loose your canoe, you realy cant secure it well or quickly without one, unless you only drive under 20mph. You might even get ticketed.

I have a couple of canoes, the biggest 16'. Are the Thule and Yakimas strong enough to hold a canoe on the highway with only the straps to the rack, or does the hold down part have to come from somewhere else, like the bumpers?

I've seen that locks are available. Do these lock the rack to the roof or the carried items to the rack? I'd really like to find a rack that would permenently through-bolt to the roof of the car to the roof crossmembers.

I have a 94 Camry, and I bought the removeable Yakima racks for carrying our 2 small kayaks (~40 lbs each). The bars rest on pads directly on the roof, but seem to spread the load well....the attachments are close to the front, and close to the sides, so there isn't much weight placed on the center, weaker portion of the roof.

The attachments hook into the lip between the car door and roof....optional locks keep the connectors relatively secure, assuming the car door is locked, too ! Might deter a casual thief, but not a pro who really wants the racks....

When loaded, it looks dorky but everything seems pretty secure with the 'yaks strapped to the rack, motoring down the highway ! Much easier just to throw 'em in the back of my Tundra w/ a Bed Rug liner , but sometimes you want to do that "start here-end there" trip.

As another poster said....the bars, towers, racks, connectors, etc for your make and model of car aren't cheap, but the "system" seems well built ! I spent more for the Yak Rack than I did for the kayaks !

HTH

Dean...

Butzmark wrote:

These are good -

cost $265AUS for my 91 Camry... a lot, but I can carry a ladder without tying to the bumpers (which is almost impossible anyway). Lots of people use them for canoes here, along with Rhino or Thule. No one carries stuff on the roof without racks.