DIY trucktop canoe carrier ideas?

[JJDyn0mite]

My buddies and I will be finishing up our 6 hour canoes and we'll be launching them in a couple weeks down at our lake house, about 3 1/2 hrs away. I'm trying to figure out a secure way of hauling the 15+ foot canoe on my truck without spending more on the rack than I spent on the canoe.

Anyone have any ideas? I thought about sticking some pipe down the holes in the side of the truck bed with a cross bar on them and resting one end on the pipe and the other end on the truck cab secured with foam or whatnot.

All the ready made racks seem to start at about $200 which I don't want to spend on this right now.

Thanks for any ideas you may have.

JJ

[daddles]

Quite often, road building works or subdivisions are over land that's already had underground services laid. If these are just being ripped up, you'll often find lengths of polypipe lying around amongst the junk, ready for the cash strapped boatie to just take away. 1 1/2" or 2" polypipe would make quite usable rails for a canoe to rest on - provided you get it at the 'right price' of course.

Cheers
Richard

[J. Dillon]

Hi JJ,

What a coincidence, I just finished one for my new pick up truck. It's made of, of all things wood. I'll take some pictures and post them tomorrow.

I used some pressure treated lumber left over but actually bought two "plummers helpers" for the job. They cost me 3 bucks.

JD

[Wild Dingo]

Gidday JJ

Really youve got a variety of choices you could do as I initially did... Just whack them ontop of a box trailer tie em down and go!

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid61/p5cde3fbe98b4ac83d909ccafca686396/fc3c6831.jpg

Or get a boat with a trailer attached and make it multi skilled as I did with me little 12ft cat that I got cheep trailer included for the same price as a new trailer {best thing is you get a sail boat as a bonus!!} like so...

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid61/pd64959d48b6adf5b3a78db25d4b070aa/fc2f3bb8.jpg

When you want to go canoeing you simply rip the cat off take the box out and toss the canoes on tie em down and go! basic and easy multiskilled boat trailer!

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid64/p3ee0ec3db341f0ad7857608a265e5ea4/fc030b40.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid64/pe5370320998b788bb63907f80dde257d/fc030b44.jpg

Or... you could go the way our mate Oyster Mike did and make one like this... {note here knowing Mike as well as I do I dont believe he will have any problem with me posting these to help someone out}

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid64/pbcbd0636a5d91c2c52c1fb2d851e441e/fc031013.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid64/pfc565c4962bb53ef8980a57ee77c52d2/fc031011.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid64/p36c5d44d27de47c5164f676562e39151/fc03100d.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid64/p3031ce052555f601290c92295a63c719/fc03100c.jpg

Hope that helps or gives you some ideas mate! JD show us yer pics!!! {note here Id bung a wee smilie fella in but hey it took all me pic allowance to throw them up!! none left... sigh}

[imported_Steven Bauer]

I really like the rack Thad made for his truck:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid56/p5b721aa8aef5e8c213b8d4e67eb26f5b/fc77f162.jpg

If you look closely you can just see the copper sheet let into the curved top to protect the endgrain.

Steven

[J. Dillon]

Over all view
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid64/pb7bd19a27fe2c46e0e6cd4040ecf2532/fc02cef6.jpg

Fwd view. showing " plummers helpers" They are to keep the weight of the canoe off of the roof with no scratches. Notice the cleats on the cross piece. They keep the canoe via the gunwale in place from up- down and side movements.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid64/pd54079458f61123938bd26c9eec10c04/fc02cef4.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid64/pca3f3b25dfd212917a0724c712f56d57/fc02ce3e.jpg

This view shows the diagonal bracing aft.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid64/p9f91dc6498698542ffff3fa77c928578/fc02cef5.jpg

Here we see the fwd thrust stopper to help securing the works agains sudden brakeing.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid64/p3b44b13e0ee55cdc2016a0fab03fe896/fc02ce3d.jpg

In this view we see the handy rope for aiding troublesome jet skiers at launching ramps.
A feature not often seen.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid64/pdb09b523498db8ba7949428e35c2b0f6/fc02ce3c.jpg

The ends of the rack are inserted in the provided sockets in the bed. The wood is reinforced with 1/8 aluminumn secured in place with FHSS screws.

The whole assembly can be removed from the truck by taking out 6 Lag bolts and two screws.

Unassembled I have three cross pieces and two longintudinal members with the diagonal braces shown previously. Except for the removabable portion the rest is glued and screwed.

Not shown is a hinged member on the middle cross piece that swings up after the canoe is on the rack. It takes and transfers some of the weigh of the canoe so that all cross membes are sharing the load. They also are designed to keep down side movement of the canoe as well as the fwd cleats .

Should I paint it to match the truck color ?

JD

[Wild Dingo]

Nah mate just paint the truck to match the rack!! tongue.gif :D

ooh meant to add... mighty fine lookin rack there mate... but didnt want me fraudian side to slip out again ;)

[ 06-03-2003, 09:23 AM: Message edited by: Wild Dingo ]

[John A. Campbell]

Steven Bauer, would it be possible to see some more photos of the canoe rack Thad built?.....I really like what I see in the one photo and am thinking about buying a new Ford F150 w/8 foot bed in a dark maroon color and I believe Thad's rack in Honduran mahogany would really look sharp.

[Paul Scheuer]

Nice racks above. Nice trucks too. I'll keep those in mind when I want to build a real rack, if I ever get another truck.

When I really wanted to get my boat on the road, I went with plain ol' two by's, and a roof rack on the cab. My "temporary" rig went about ten years, (with a few mods). The rear gallows was a simple frame with plywood gussets, with a few strategic eye bolts, and cleats. The cool part was that the gallows was bolted to an "H" shaped frame in the bottom of the bed, and folded down for normal trucking with the removal of the half-inch bolts and wingnuts.

People asked me about the relative movement of the bed versus the cab, but I never had any problems. I'll see if I can find a picture.

[N. Scheuer]

I can vouch for the sound performance of brother Paul's rack. That was back in his plain-jane pick-up days, before he went upscale with a Tahoe.

That rack Steve posted photos of above is a real work of art.

Reminds me of a former "industrial blue" Chevy pick-up I used to have that had scraped and dented chrome strips along one side. I replaced all of the strips on cab and box with 1/2" x 1-1/2" oiled teak; then replaced the hood ornament with an oiled teak cleat. The cleat, not straight, but sort of tapered at the base to lie nicely on the hood, was useful for securing the painter of a camnoe loaded atop my pickup cap. Lots of mechanics doing work on that truck liked that cleat a lot.

Moby Nick

[imported_Steven Bauer]

Sorry John, that was the only picture I took of Thad's rack back in March. If Thad doesn't have any pictures of it we'll have to wait 'til the next time he comes up to Maine.

Steven

[Steve Lansdowne]

Not too fancy, but here's what I have. There are rollers mounted on 2 x 4's that bolt to the top of the rack when I want to load the boat. The rest of the time it is a lumber rack. Most small pickups don't have "stake holes" in the sides, but the Mazda/Ford Ranger does. I use these. The boat is balanced such that I don't need any support over the cab. http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid34/p01acb8cf9b61de7242edcfe05c5e1a67/fd382bb5.jpg

[NormMessinger]

WOWEEEE! All that fancy smancy stuff yaall call boat racks. You should see mine. Two 2x4's and four 2 by's cut to fit in the rack holes in the pickup bed The poles are hinged to the 2x4 cross piece so they fold up when not in use. That's it. Security on the road depends on tieing the boats to the cleats in the bed.

After the above, I'd be embarassed to show a picture of it and now, dangit, I'm going to have to see if I can take inspiration from what I've seen here. Trouble is the hangar is so full of boats I hardly have room for an airpland and if I start filling it with non collaspable works of art....