Car topping 2 canoes????????????

[Rupert W Byng]

I need to deliver 1 Freedom 15 and 1 Freedom 17 which will be over 600 miles if I do one at a time. Has anyone tried two at a time?
I thought bottom to bottom with padding and not drive too fast. Any suggestions? Safety is my main concern.

Rupert Byng

[Scot T]

Hello Rupert,

A friend of mine has two canoes (not sure of the length but one is longer than the other, 15' - 16', something like that??) that he transports on the top of his mini van. He places them on the roof rack on their sides and bottom to bottom. With one of those blue foam camping pads between them, ample padding else where.and lots of tie downs. This seems to work fine for him. I've seen him do this for years with zero mishaps...but then, how fast can those 1960's VW Hippie vans go anyways??. Sorry I have no photos but maybe you can get the idea from my jumbled explination.

[JNewman]

I have transported two canoes on top of a car lots of times tripping. Driving driving up to 400-500km each way. The best way is to use racks with wider bars these can be wood bolted to the regular bars, WATCH YOUR HEAD GETTING OUT OF THE CAR. Most of the time we did not have wider racks and simply tied one canoe to the racks offset to one side then set the other canoe on with one gunnel on the racks and the other side leaning up against the canoe that is already tied down. Tie the second canoe down over the middle then tie bow and stern on both canoes to the front and rear of the car preferally to the corners of the car. Grab the canoes and give them a shake this should shake the car.

[JNewman]

Make sure you tie the first canoe on in the middle before you put on the second.

[Rob from Hamilton]

I car top two canoes all the time. I load my 17' Redbird on first, as normal, and strap it on. Then I load the smaller one on top of it, bottom up as normal, with padding front and rear ends, and in the middle to keep it steady. I put the normal ties around this and then to the rack, pretty well like I did the first one, but with longer straps. (I use good straps) I've done about 1000 miles like this and never had a problem.
The only thing I make sure of is to take the weight off, or most of the weight off the roof rack, with the firm foam blocks, just so I don't breal my littel roof rack. I have a Windstar.
Good luck!
Rob

[Rob from Hamilton]

I just forgot to mention that I also make sure there is a strap on the front too. I sometimes use one on the back, but rarely. Never had an incident in 25 years. Use good straps!

[stonehollow]

No problem! This is a Yakima. I use two ratcheting straps for addional assurance.