Conference wahoo::fishing

    I built a rack that allowed me to toss the canoe up by myself -
    without demolishing the top of the car.  Most canoe/boat racks have
    just two rails, I made one with 4 rails.  That way I could lie the
    canoe perpendicular to the car, toss up one end of the canoe onto the
    side of the rack, then lift the other end of the canoe, push it up onto
    the rack (still perpendicular) and then rotate the canoe parallel with
    the car.  I also made it so the canoe fit snuggly between the two side
    rails, this helped keep it real secure. 
    
    Don Mac (who now just slides it up on the truck cap)

    What does it weigh? How long is it? How big are you?
    
    I have a moderate-sized canoe [16'] and I elevate it by lifting
    it from the rear, putting all its weight on the bow. As I tip it
    I bend over and walk under it until I am at the center bar, which
    I rest on the back of my neck and shoulders. Putting my hands on
    the sides, one about two feet further down the canoe than the other,
    I balance the canoe and then stand up and walk it over to the top
    of the car. I use foam blocks, which have been firmly attached to
    the boat. Using them, it is easy to slide the boat onto the car and then
    secure it. Once you master this technique you'll be surprised how
    much weight you can get up over your head --and how easy it is
    to do it in reverse. 
    
    But be careful when practicing this. Don't do it after a beer! 
    It does take practice and some strength.
    
    I don't know whether this bit of info will help. Sometime, when
    the canoe is on the car, stop by a place that sells them and
    get advice.  
    
    Ron

    Methods for single person canoe lifts are described/illustrated in
    most canoeing books. My Royalex Mad River Explorer weighs about
    95 lbs when rigged for white water. My technique differs from
    the previous reply in the way I get the canoe to my shoulders.
    I position myself at the center of the canoe with the bottom against
    my lower legs. Next I place one hand on the part of the center thwart
    closest to me and the other hand grips the far gunnel. Then I lift/roll
    the canoe with my knee and arms to my shoulders. I'd recommend that
    you look at illustrations in a canoing book or have someone show you
    how to do it. The method I've described is very fast and does not
    take a lot of strength (I'm a 40+ years old 140 lb wimp) but does 
    take a fair amount of agility and confidence.
    
    
    

    I've got a 17' Grumman...all I do is put on the styrofoam rubber car
    top carrier "blocks" on the canoe,with it laying next to my car.
    At the center of the canoe,I just pick it up to my hip,get a better
    grip,and then press it over my head,and put it on the top on the car. 
    It's simple,,and it takes 2 seconds...

    Hi,
    to answer note .2 I believe I too own a 17ft Grumman.  I weigh 165 lbs
    and I am 35 years old.  The weight of the canoe (approximately 65-70
    lbs) doesn't bother me, it is how bulky the canoe is and the idea of
    reaching over a car and trying to set it down.   I do have the
    styro-foam pads and maybe they will slide on the roof of the car which
    will make it easier.  I like the idea of the roof rack that has the
     4 cross braces - My wife's old station wagon has a roof rack
     with 4 cross braces built onto the car, and perhaps I can push the canoe 
    onto the car perpindicularly and then twist the canoe so that it aligns
    up with the car...   
     I will also check into a canoe store and see what gadgets and methods
    they have.  
    				thanks,
    			         -Larry 
                                 
    they have any special gadgets or methods for this.

    I have a 17' Coleman (70lb), and I "discovered" the same method(s)
    mentioned earlier: standing alongside the canoe and lifting it to
    your shoulder, then overhead. I have a Thule rack for the car, so
    I just drop the far gunnel of the canoe just inside the supports
    of the rack, and slide the canoe across until it is in place. I
    often use pieces of carpeting to facilitate this, it keeps the racks
    from getting scratched up too much. Be careful crossing the road
    with an upside-down canoe over your head!
    
    I find lifting the canoe is a breeze. I am 6'6", 245lb, and coach
    the Olympic weightlifting squad in my spare time!!! And I tried
    to tell Ben Johnson not to use those steroids, but he wanted
    to have muscles like me without having to work so hard...
    (Of course if you believe that, I have some land in Florida next
    to Disney World... in fact, Walt Disney was my, ah, uncle. Yeah,
    that's it, he was my uncle..!")
    
    Ed (subtract 6" and 60lb, and add some programmer flab...)

I used to load my 15', 65 pound canoe by myself also with the spongy pads.
I would grab it by the thwart, lift to my shoulder (the one on the side 
of the car you're going to load it from) and hoist it on the top of the car, 
and slide it very gently till it's on center.
Just one word of advice...watch out on windy days.  :^)
But seriously, I spun a 180 one day lifting the canoe when it was windy.
But then again, who takes a canoe on on windy days...well maybe one or two. :^)

Mike_L

    
    	Instead of starting a new note I will ask the same basic 
    question but only I have a truck? Last year I bought a small 
    4 wheel drive truck to get into those out of the way places.
    But it has no cap and I am not planing to purchase one. I
    would assume I need to build some kind of braket in the back 
    of the bed. Any I ideas? Also this truck does not have the 2x4 
    cut-out is the bed walls so it would have to set or bolt to the 
    floor.
    				thanks
    					Michael
    
    
    

    I use a single roof rack (2"x3") on the cab and set one end up on the 
    rack and one end on the tail gate (when the caps not on).  I have a 
    bedliner and tailgate protector so the tailgate top does not get ruined. 
                                                        
    This obviously catches alot of wind but works fine.  I strap
    (with motorcycle tie-downs) from each side of the thwart to the hooks 
    on the cab end of the bed.

    donmac

    
    
    	In the latest Bass Pro catalog, they had a thing that looked
    liked one of the old car jacks. You put it on the canoe, put the
    other end on to the back bumper, and swing the canoe around the
    side.  You can even drive with it on that way it's easy to take
    off!
    
    	Anglin' Ad

    
    RE:.10  I'm looking for such a device but don't have a current BPS
    catalog.  Can someone look up the part # and price for me?  If it's not
    there, anyone know where I might get one?  I tried the local canoe shop
    and they looked at me like I was from another planet.
    
    The weight of the canoe is not what's at issue - it's the awkwardness
    (the coleman has a metal pole running down the keel that makes it very
    topheavy when it's upside down).  Any helpful suggestions would be
    appreciated but I think I'd like to try the back bumper jack-like
    thing.
    
    Many thanks,
    -SSS-

	SSS, what do you have for a vehicle to carry the canoe ?

	I have a 16' Coleman scanoe, and it is heavy to carry overhead,
	but I've been able to load/unload it alone on my Sentra no problem
	using Thule racks on the car (the basic black racks that people 
	use with attachments for skis and bikes).

	I'd basically drag the canoe right side up to the car and line it	
	up about 1/2 way along the side of the car.  Then I'd lift the front
	of the canoe and place it onto the rear rack on the car while the
	other end of the canoe was still on the ground.  From there it was 
	just a matter of sliding the canoe towards the front of the car and 
	onto the front rack, no problem.   

	I once saw a guy with the same canoe with wheels (looked like old
	lawn mower wheels) on the back of it, so when the canoe was turned
	over, he just had to pull from the front and the back wheeled along.

	Ken

    
    I'm trying to load a 17 footer on:
    
    1) A Plymouth Grand Voyager
    2) A Buick Century
    3) A Digital Taurus
    
    It's the Voyager that's giving me trouble.  It has a roof rack but the
    rack is too low and too short and as a result, I am scratching
    the rear and front of the roof.  I haven't tried the Buick yet but
    expect it to be easier.  The Taurus is my lease car and naturally I
    treat it better than if I owned it so I wouldn't even consider an act
    that might put the tiniest scratch on its roof ;-)  It's shaped a lot
    like the Buick.
    
    I've looked at Thule racks and the cost would be more than this bumper
    mounted device especially since I already have a hitch on the Buick and
    those foam blocks that most folks use.
    
    -SSS-

    Wow!  I didn't know we made the Taurus.  I thought it was a Ford, 
    but then, Ken is on the B.O.D of Ford.
    
    No wonder this companies having tough times selling computers, we're 
    expending all of our resources building cars, watches, T.V.'s, stereos,
    etc., etc.,...
    
    I just couldn't resist.  :')
    
    Tight Lines...
    
    Al

	In my opinion, I wouldn't waste my time with the foam blocks
	only because it seems like it's such a hassle of lining things
	up, getting the pads right, and the problem of getting it on the car.
	I'd rather spend the time on the water.  I did consider the foam
	block because it was an inexpensive option, but went right for
	the racks...

	Thule is expensive, ridiculous really, but they hold up.  A cheaper
	way to go, which a friend did with his jon-boat, is to make your
	own racks with a 2x4s and the support/side brackets.  Worked fine.

	A guy here at work has the standard-came-with-the-car low lying 
	racks on his blazer and put Thule-type racks on it for his canoe.

	Ken

How much do the colemans weigh?  I've never tried carrying one solo, but 
if you can get it up onto your shoulders, sliding it onto a rack would be 
easy.

If you can carry it on your shoulders, I'd recommend a standard rack over the 
car-top-carrier you mentioned - less hardware to deal with - plus the rack 
can be used for other things.

The rack on my toy 4x4 is probably at least as high as a caravan's would be.

My 17' MRC weighs about 72lbs.  I carry it solo all of the time.  I find it 
much easier to carry and load it by myself - rather than wrestling with the 
canoe *and* another person.  

The coleman's aluminum cross thwart will be a pain - literally - I have one 
on my Sears glass canoe - the sculptured ash portage yoke on the explorer makes 
portaging much more comfortable.

Carrying a canoe on your shoulders is pretty easy once you get the hang of 
getting it up there and balancing it.

If you have 2 people those foam pads ok. If you put them on the canoe in the 
right spots before you toss it on the vehicle, it's not too much of a pain,
you just lower the canoe onto the top - tough to do when solo.  With a rack
you just lower the bow and slide it on.

    RE:-.1
    
    Is it in the Sears boating catalog?  I could pick one up after work and
    probably have the loader by the end of next week.
    
    -SSS-

    send mail to VINO::ALLEN, he had one of these jobs for sale awhile back
    -don

    RE. .18
    
    	Last I saw it was in the BOATING speciality catalog.  You may want
    	to call the nearest store to see if they stock them.  If you need
    	a catalog number, I think I've got a catalog at home I could.
    
    	Moe

    I'm not completely sure, but I *think* I saw that kind of item in one
    of the L.L. Bean catalogs last year, too.
    
    Ed
    

    When I had a 17' Coleman canoe, I thought it was a bit of work
    getting it on top of a car by myself, but I managed to get fairly 
    good at it with practice.
    
    Then I sold it and bought a Crawdad XT, which weighs 150lb. Yikes!
    
    I've somehow managed to develop a method of getting this awkward craft
    in and out of my basement (through a bulkhead with steps), around the
    house, and finally on top of the car. Whew! I don't recommend anyone
    else try to do it, it's just that I *had* to, out of desperation. It
    was that or miss out on about half of my fishing. One windy day a gust
    caught the boat just as I was about to position it on the rear rack,
    blew it off balance, resulting in most of the weight of the boat
    landing on my head! I nearly broke my neck!
    
    It got a bit easier when I finally decided that it really wasn't 
    important to put it on top of the car upside down. If it rains, just 
    take out the drain plug...
    
    Canoes are starting to look good again...
    
    Ed