Roof racks for a truck

If you buy a whole set of new racks with saddles and tie-down straps for your truck, that will set you back $400 to $500! If my memory serves me correct, the saddles were $65 each! That means $130 just for one boat. I ended up welding up my set of racks for the front and back of the bed for $60!. I then added a pair of foam padding from go bananas that cost me almost as much as the racks themselves (i.e., $50). You can forego the padding from go bananas and buy some pipe insulation (the kind used to insulate hot water pipes) with pipe tape from Home Depot if you want to go even cheaper. The straps are not optional and will set you back about $15/pair. You’ll probably want to get a couple of pairs if you want to be able to strap your boat to your friends’ trucks on the pick-up or drop-off after or before your runs. Saddles are the best way to go over the long term but if you want to do it cheaply, racks with padding are fine. You just have to strap your oc-1 upside down. Of course, there’s always eBay.

Some dude makes the pipe racks for $125 each. I can’t remember the guys name and number though. I’ll ask around and post it here if I find the info.

Good luck!

Snarfblat

Fri, 12/26/2003 - 11:42am

one more comment. I always think a canoe is better off upside down, so there’s no need for saddles(except so everyone knows you paddle :wink: ). Being upside it won’t heat up as much from the sun and possibly cause damage. That is if the bottom is white and the top is not.

Fri, 12/26/2003 - 7:01pm

Here’s a little bit of advice I received from a friend. Fashion a hook on either side of your rack and attached a bungee cord to the center of the rack so that when you load the canoe onto your vehicle, you can temporarily strap the boat down with the bungee cord by pulling the cord over the canoe and around the hooks. This will buy you some time to get your tie-down straps and secure your boat with them. My friend developed this system after the wind blew his boat off of his racks after he placed it on his truck and was fumbling around with the tie-down straps. His boat sustained substantial damage when it struck the side mirror of the car parked next to his truck and from striking the ground. On windy days, he even set up a loop system for the front rack so that he could slide the front of the canoe through the loop and tie down the back with the bungee cord.

Sun, 12/28/2003 - 11:13pm

Yeah, you’re right. I heard of someone splitting the seams of their boat by overtightening the straps. Ouch!

Mon, 12/29/2003 - 10:27pm