Ideal setup for hauling canoe?

[BradMav]

Looking to haul a couple of 12’ kayaks today and a canoe in the future… do you have a setup that you consider ideal for such tasks?

I see a lot of love for the Elevate rack system… but on its own for our tiny truck beds aren’t the cross bars only a few feet apart? For a longer boat it seems like you’d either have the boat centered on the crossbars, meaning it’s sticking way out beyond your tailgate… or you’d have it offset towards the front of your truck, but then you aren’t supporting the boat anywhere near its center of gravity… which seems far less than ideal.

I’ve seen some install the bed racks and a roof rack, total of 4 bars… but that seems like overkill, no?

Have any of you all found a perfect setup for this? I’m half-way considering buying bed racks and roof racks and splitting them with somebody that wants the same.

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[breal]

So back in the day, I built a modified sawhorse that would sit in my open truck bed and was cab height. I bought some foam canoe rooftop carrier blocks. I put the foam blocks on the canoe gunwale positioned near the front of the cab roof and the stern of the canoe on the sawhorse.
I'd strap the stern down to the hitch chain eyes and the bow down to the tow hooks.

My S10 prior to Maverick had a shell on the bed, so the front config was the same and I'd use a second pair of foam gunwale blocks at the stern and secure to the hitch eyes again.

On my Maverick, I have the Elevate rack (cab height on lowest setting) and have towed my canoe on it (sorry, no pictures - it was dark). I still use foam gunwale blocks on cab and secure to tow hooks in front. I use camstraps to secure canoe to Elevate crossbars and stern to hitch chain eyes.

Both my kayaks fit under my BakFlip MX hard fold tonneau.

Next month, I'll be hauling my canoe and kayaks from home down to our woods - I'll take pictures then.

 

[sbcollin]

I bought a pair of Thule ProBar crossbars, feet, and fitkits for the cab and a pair of universal Thule TracRac goalposts and used only one of each. Sold one of each to another Maverick owner through a post on this forum. The rear TracRac set was inexpensive and fits only pretty well The ProBars we’re not inexpensive but go on pretty fast and work great. Have carried three canoes (15 and 16’) comfortably

 

[BradMav]

On my Maverick, I have the Elevate rack (cab height on lowest setting) and have towed my canoe on it (sorry, no pictures - it was dark). I still use foam gunwale blocks on cab and secure to tow hooks in front. I use camstraps to secure canoe to Elevate crossbars and stern to hitch chain eyes.

Both my kayaks fit under my BakFlip MX hard fold tonneau.

@breal With that setup on the Maverick, I guess it's mainly the foam blocks and the rear crossbar that's supporting most of the weight of the canoe, does that sound about right? That's a simple solution, I like it. The Elevate should be fine on it's own for my kayaks, so i'd just need to add the blocks when hauling a canoe instead. My Kayaks I think are a bit larger than yours, I'm doubtful mine will both fit in the bed... yours look like 10' yaks?

I bought a pair of Thule ProBar crossbars, feet, and fitkits for the cab and a pair of universal Thule TracRac goalposts and used only one of each. Sold one of each to another Maverick owner through a post on this forum. The rear TracRac set was inexpensive and fits only pretty well The ProBars we’re not inexpensive but go on pretty fast and work great. Have carried three canoes (15 and 16’) comfortably

@sbcollin - I found your post in the regional forum after I posted this, I guess we had similar ideas about buying and splitting two pairs! That TracRac seems like a good product and quite a bit cheaper than the Elevate rack system that @breal and many others are rocking. Did you happen compare the two when you decided on the TracRac? I don't find many comparisons of the two out there.

 

[icegradner]

With that setup on the Maverick, I guess it's mainly the foam blocks and the rear crossbar that's supporting most of the weight of the canoe, does that sound about right? That's a simple solution, I like it. The Elevate should be fine on it's own for my kayaks, so i'd just need to add the blocks when hauling a canoe instead. My Kayaks I think are a bit larger than yours, I'm doubtful mine will both fit in the bed... yours look like 10' yaks?

Should work, I do that to move big ladders. I use j-racks for my Kayak though, not long enough to need roof support.

Sure it's behind the tailgate, but once I put on a hitch mounted bike rack, nobodies getting anywhere near it anyway.

 

[BradMav]

@icegradner - Nice... how long is that kayak?

 

[icegradner]

@icegradner - Nice... how long is that kayak?

11 feet.

 

[tom_tucker]

I bet I could haul a canoe with my $200 cab roof rack and a bed extender in the upright vertical position. So less than $300 total. The other posts look more ideal, but thought I'd add that option.

 

[AUTiger83]

Ive hauled a lot of kayaks in/on several different trucks. The easy, cheap, convenient, fast, and firmly secured solution is to load them in the truck bed with a truck bed extender in your receiver.

Make sure you have red flags on the end, and your state doesn't have a law that severely limits the distance past the tailgate.

Warning, they will swing out pretty far when you turn, so be spatially aware and cautious.

Here's an example of the truck bed extender. Great for hauling lumber, too.

https://a.co/d/fctShof

It's also great in the vertical orientation for giving extra support to items carried on top of the tonneau cover (like ladders and lightweight lumber) or on a bed rack or roof bars.

 

[BradMav]

It's also great in the vertical orientation for giving extra support to items carried on top of the tonneau cover (like ladders and lightweight lumber) or on a bed rack or roof bars.

Ah great point, I actually already have one of those... but I only used it as a bed extender in the past so I never even considered the vertical orientation!

 

[SLJ]

Yakima roof rack with different towers then we used on the Sport will go on the Maverick this Spring. Box rack would put them too far back and would interfere with my towing our camper.

 

[breal]

@breal My Kayaks I think are a bit larger than yours, I'm doubtful mine will both fit in the bed... yours look like 10' yaks?

The Loon is 11' and Aruba is 10'.

 

[lonewoof]

So back in the day, I built a modified sawhorse that would sit in my open truck bed and was cab height. I bought some foam canoe rooftop carrier blocks. I put the foam blocks on the canoe gunwale positioned near the front of the cab roof and the stern of the canoe on the sawhorse.
I'd strap the stern down to the hitch chain eyes and the bow down to the tow hooks.

My S10 prior to Maverick had a shell on the bed, so the front config was the same and I'd use a second pair of foam gunwale blocks at the stern and secure to the hitch eyes again.

On my Maverick, I have the Elevate rack (cab height on lowest setting) and have towed my canoe on it (sorry, no pictures - it was dark). I still use foam gunwale blocks on cab and secure to tow hooks in front. I use camstraps to secure canoe to Elevate crossbars and stern to hitch chain eyes.

Both my kayaks fit under my BakFlip MX hard fold tonneau.

Next month, I'll be hauling my canoe and kayaks from home down to our woods - I'll take pictures then.

I like this setup and will be attempting the same this coming weekend. How do you strap the two kayaks down so they don't slide out when you accelerate or turn? Did you try this on the freeway? What speeds did you get to?

 

[breal]

So back in the day, I built a modified sawhorse that would sit in my open truck bed and was cab height. I bought some foam canoe rooftop carrier blocks. I put the foam blocks on the canoe gunwale positioned near the front of the cab roof and the stern of the canoe on the sawhorse.
I'd strap the stern down to the hitch chain eyes and the bow down to the tow hooks.

My S10 prior to Maverick had a shell on the bed, so the front config was the same and I'd use a second pair of foam gunwale blocks at the stern and secure to the hitch eyes again.

On my Maverick, I have the Elevate rack (cab height on lowest setting) and have towed my canoe on it (sorry, no pictures - it was dark). I still use foam gunwale blocks on cab and secure to tow hooks in front. I use camstraps to secure canoe to Elevate crossbars and stern to hitch chain eyes.

Both my kayaks fit under my BakFlip MX hard fold tonneau.

Next month, I'll be hauling my canoe and kayaks from home down to our woods - I'll take pictures then.

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