loading the canoe on the roof rack?

yankee

Curious about Wooden Canoes
We have a 16 foot, 80 pound Old Town wood canvas canoe
and have not figured the best way, easiest to load it on top of our 92 BMW sedan with Yakama roof racks. We are in our early 70's. Any ideas or suggestions sure would be appreciated. Thanks, Bill
 
I use Yakima racks with the "Boatloader" option. With this I can load a 17' Chestnut cruiser 4on top of a Ford Explorer, which is much taller than I am.
 
This may be stating the obvious but I find that a trailer is the easiest way for me to handle a heavy canoe. Good luck,

Benson
 
As Benson mentions, trailers are easier. However, the canoe will get much root dirt and dust on dry days and slimed with crud on rainy days. Consider a cover if you do trailer your canoe.
 
the boat loader is an extension bar that slides in one or the other of the main bars. That way you can put one end of teh canoe up on the extension and then lift the other end to the regular bar and slide it over. i've use it on a tall SUV and it worked great.
 
Late-comer to the conversation here, but for years my mother (a tiny woman) has loaded small boats of all kinds (canoes, kayaks, and rowing sculls) onto her station wagons using towels or bathmats. The modern, rubber-backed bathmats are perfect for this - the rubber against the car keeps the mat from sliding around, and the boat slides across the top of the mat. Drape one over the end of the car's roof and/or trunk corner, or where ever the boat would come in contact with the car, and just slide the boat up onto the rack. It can be flipped over to sit upside if needed. This may not be the slickest way but it's cheap and doable, even for those of us who are vertically challenged. I still use this method to load my heavy sea kayak onto my rack.
 
Have you considered hoists mounted on the ceiling of your garage for storage? Click the image to see a larger view.
It works for me -- one canoe is 80 lbs. one is 60 lbs. I load them myself altho I am short and weak. Easy loading and unloading.
Of course, at any paddling adventure I have fellow members of the WCHA Three Rivers Chapter to help me to load and unload. Making up for strength and height, we work well together to lift any of my canoes onto my carrier rack.
Also -- I love it that the lightweight Nussmuk can sneak in under there. Lots of room for 3 canoes in my little garage.
IMG_8978.jpg
 
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A BMW is not a tall vehicle. I load onto the second tier of a canoe trailer (about the same height) by walking along side and transfering from my shoulders to the rack
by placing the the inboard rail on the racks and sliding the canoe inboard while lifting off my shoulders.
 
Agreed- BMW sedans are not tall cars.
If you can lift the canoe for portaging,
CCM.jpg
you should be able to load it on your racks.
I use Abenakirgn's technique to load my canoes. The Prospector at 85lbs is a beast ( Pal and Bob's much easier) but once lifted, it is easily loaded- this becomes even easier if you do it with an assistant and each take an end

Good luck!
Bruce
 
Agreed Al, in cases where you are lifting alone, though that has little bearing on whether onto a BMW or another vehicle.
With someone lifting bow and someone on stern, even without yoke or carry thwart, it is a pretty easy lift onto racks on BMW.

Cheers!

Bruce
 
Hi, Glen and non perspiratum est to be sure with the trailer you are using. So who made it ? It is simple and seemingly capable of taking two boats. I would want to move the axle forward so it would not have a long decked boat sitting on the deck . It looks lightly sprung too with tires that seem to be a little small in diameter . Look forward to hearing from you.
Dave DeVivo
 
The trailer is a Trailex SUT-250-M2, which I bought assembled and very lightly used. HERE is the manufacturer's page with additional pictures, accessories and assembly instructions.

It has vertical posts for carrying four kayaks on their sides, which I removed so that I could carry one canoe in the center of the horizontal crossbars. It can carry two canoes up to 17' in length. The canoe shown is a 15' reproduction Morris by Rollin Thurlow. The axle housing and front crossbar can be positioned forward or back on the tongue bar. The 8" tires can be upgraded to 12", which I might consider if I ever pull it long distances.

The trailer is lightly sprung and the whole aluminum thing weights only about 145 lbs., so it's easy to wheel around empty and lift to reposition even with the one canoe on it. I often need to do that because I am the world's worst trailer backer-upper. Thinking of installing a back-up camera above my van doors.

I've been using full size conversion vans to carry canoes on top for 40 years—as many as five canoes at once—but I no longer can confidently and safely lift canoes heavier than 60 pounds alone, which is how I almost always paddle, so the trailer is the practical solution.

I do recommend a trailer with horizontal crossbars like mine to carry wood (or any) canoes upside down on the gunwales, rather than the more common kind of trailer with longitudinal bunks used to carry small powerboats and jet skis rightside up. Carrying a relatively heavy wood canoe rightside up on a bouncy trailer risks stressing or cracking the planks and ribs, in my opinion, to say nothing of catching water in rain.
 
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