jmat1980

Anyone strap a canoe to a JK with the soft top up?

I bought the Mad River Adventure 14 tonight, I got it home fine, but the top was down. Id like to take it on some trips (4 to 10 hrs) and for those I would likely have the top up...

I am not buying a rack, too expensive, too much of a pain to move the top up and down and switch out the hard top...

Just wondering if i'd be ok with it on the soft top directly with some ratchet tie downs and foam or towel to protect the top fabric...

Thanks

jmat1980

anyone????

dustdriver

Racks are expensive, but not as expensive as a new soft top. The thing about carrying directly on the soft top is that if you get a piece of gravel up there, or even just the vibration of going down the road, the wind, etc. can quickly erode a hole in the fabric. And, dude, that would suck.

That being said, if you are going to go for it, you'll want to focus on two things: 1) minimizing the amount of movement of the canoe, and 2) distributing the weight of the canoe over as large a surface area as possible.

I'd suggest getting two, 72" closed-cell foam sleeping pads, rolling them up lengthwise (one for each gunwale) until they are about 10" wide, using duct tape to keep them from unravelling, then fold these in half lengthwise and use this like a "gunwale scabbard" to cover the gunwales. That way you won't be constantly repositioning them as the load shifts, and can place the canoe where it seems to make the most sense. You'll be able to cut the foam to fit, and won't be out that much $$$.

Check out Northwest River Supply and get a couple 1" cambuckle straps in about a 12 ft. length, one for the front, one for the back. These little straps are used in whitewater boating all the time- they are super tough, very strong, more versatile than a ratchet strap, less bulky than a ratchet strap, and can be quickly and easily adjusted and tightened to fine-tune the load. I ran the front strap directly behind the grill around the bumper frame, and the back straight down to the rear bumper tow hook/receiver hitch.

Just remember to keep everything tight, with as little vibration as possible. If you can move it by hand when parked, it will be amplified 10-fold when you hit the wind going down the highway. Check the load often for any wear or shifting.

Hope that helps. I have my canoe on a Yakima rack on a hard top right now, but will probably do the soft top thing eventually as well.

PigsEye

Here are my thoughts on what I'm going to try. First, I'm going to see if a pick up bed extender from Harbor Freight will fit around my tire and be tall enough to extend above the roof line. If not, I'll go for the more expensive Yakima Dry Dock. For the front, simple foam blocks. If the foam blocks don't work, I'll add a light bar.

v8er

I bought a couple metal bars from Home Depot, cut holes in them and bolt them to the sport bar through the holes that the door surrounds screw into. This only works when the soft top is off or when I use a Bikini strapped to the sport bar.



Including plastic spay coating I spent about $20.

p.s. I love my Mad River 14

BlackX3

i do something similar to that with my kayak but like you said you need to keep the roof down, i dont know if its any differnt im assuming not but i just use a few ratchet straps and strap it to the roll bars and put a little foam or rolled up towel on the windshield part

dustdriver

Reviving this thread since spring is here and I finally got around to to the canoe project again. Taking the canoe out next week and wanted a way to carry it with the soft top that will also allow raising and lowering the top.


Hard top, soft top, or no top, there is an album here:
http://my.project-jk.com/showgallery.php?cat=2355

Have fun out there!

TxCop07

I like the front rack how much was it? Is it easy to take on and off?

dustdriver

The front was about $200. It's a good product, but the oval shape of the front horizontal bar isn't compatible with the Yakima gunwale brackets, so I am going to end up replacing the horizontal top bars (front piece and back) with 1" round tubing (or standard Yakima bars) to be able to fit Yakima gunwale brackets to keep the canoe from shifting around.



On a recent offroad trip with the canoe on there I had a chance to really put it to the test, and found that the back rack (the T-bar part) will tend to slip in the bicycle mounts because the canoe itself moves around too much- the Yakima gunwale brackets may fix that problem, but if it doesn't, I'll be welding the T-bar to the bike rack to lock it in position.

1" conduit bars, with Yakima gunwale brackets coming up next...

Someone with competent fab skills could probably make the front upright sections much cheaper and then you could bolt or weld on your own horizontal bar.

TxCop07

Can you take the front bracket off easily? When not carrying the canoe.