hauling canoe on pickup truck

[grousehunter]

What is the cheapest way to haul a canoe on a pick-up truck. As of now I am thinking of getting the hitch holder and using styrafoam blocks on the pick up cab.

Does anyone have any reccomendations for the hitch canoe carrier and will this work with the blocks on the cab or do you need to also buy the bar for across the cab? Thanks,

Blake

[river rat316]

I see no reason why you couldn't use one of the foam blocks on the cab.

[hondarider550]

I built a rack that fits on the back of my truck to make sure that the canoe does not bend into the top of the cab. I tried the foam blocks but you still have to tye the canoe down pretty tight and it is enough to dent the top of you cab.

I just took aluminum tubing and made a simple framework that fit into my stake holders of my box. Very light and works great...

If you want pictures I can take a few but right now it is off of the truck of course. I can take the pics as it is sitting with the canoe on top of it if you want...

Just let me know...

[Redlantern]

Regular cab, extended cab or quad cab? Type of canoe. Is it aluminum with a severe upturn in the bow or is it a rather straight kevlar canoe? I use ladder racks for a truck with a topper. The ladder racks fit outside of the topper. Otherwise my canoes bow would gouge into the roof of the cab. That's for a crewcab. A regular cab should be fine, depending on the length of the canoe and type.

[grousehunter]

Its a crew cab. I found one that I can extend the length of the bed or give it the height to be on the cab. Its called extend-a-truck. I think I will need some kind of bar for when I put it on top. Its a 14' wenonah fisherman(royalex).

[grousehunter]

hondarider...I would be interested in seeing how you built that. No rush though since I will most likely buy the extend a truck hitch attatchment for now. thanks,

Blake

[Flatlander]

I bought a Yakima T-bar thingy a few years back. It slides into the 2" receiver and has a couple straps that cinch tight to the bumper. I put a 78" bar on it, so I could haul 2 boats. I would have put Yakima towers on the cab, but apparantly the engineers at Nissan don't paddle. Neither Yakima or Thule have come up with a tower that fits a Titan. So, on the cab I have 2, 8" treated 6"x6"s with a 1" hole drilled through for the front bar. Between the wood and truck roof, I have little chunks of neoprene to minimize scratching. I open the back doors,run a strap over both sides of the bar, then cinch it down inside. In over a dozen trips over 200 miles, I've never had a problem with 2 boats on top.

[311Hemi]

Here is what we built for my buddies F150. We cut the 2x4's to the correct size to fit down the steak holes in the rear sides of the bed. Up front he basically took a 2x4 and added one 2x2 on each side.....then put some small rubber spacers on the 2x2's that fit down in the channels that run front to back on each side of the roof. The rubber spacers are basically the scratch preventives you would put on the bottoms of stools/chairs to prevent them from scratching floors. Worked great and was cheap and easy to build. Just tied down the front to the two tow hooks with two pieces of rope.

[Finns]

I built the same style for my pickup. Where the canoe rests on the wood or on the cab I put foam pipe insulation (the kind that has a split down the length) on the gunwales for cushioning.