Oregon law requires that loads extending 3' beyond the rear bumper be marked with a RED flag. I haven't seen a lot of these flags on kayaks. I use a red rag attached to a bungie cord. The bungie also ties down my rudder and keeps it from flying sidways in the highway winds. Moreover, the flag warns gas station attendants and anyone else walking behind the truck to duck their head. Finally, I can't see the rear of the boat from the driver's seat, but I can see the flag. This keeps me from backing the stern into retaining walls and light poles when parking. As for a rack: My boat sits on two 5' high density foam (pipe insulation) rails running bow to stern on 2x4's set on edge and cross braced with more 2x4's. The cross braces form lugs that brace against the cross beams on the ladder rack atop my pick-up canopy. The foam grips the hull and provides plenty of cushoning. I found insulation for 2" pipe, not the skimpy stuff for 3/4" dia. pipe. The hull is secured to the rack by nylon "Deluge" web straps with bronze cinch buckles. The straps run over the hull, under the cross beam on the ladder rack, back over the hull, under the cross beam on the other side and then through the cinch buckle. The tag end of the strap (about 4') is pulled tight on the cinch buckle, run under the cross beam on the ladder rack and secured to the strap with a well-formed half hitch. The ladder rack is welded, one-piece aircraft aluminum and secured to the canopy at three points with a total of 6 large bolts (300# rated load capacity). Hundreds of miles on this set-up at free-way speeds and more, cross-winds, bumpy roads, hard corners, and sudden stops, the boat hasn't shifted a millimeter in any direction. > On Wed, 22 Apr 1998, Kirk Olsen wrote: > >>Could you explain to me why you use lines to the back of the vehicle? I > >>almost always use 2 lines to the front of the car, but don't bother with any > >>lines to the back. > > fast stops... what will keep your boat from flying forward in a quick > stop?? Think about it. . . tying a line from the bow of the boat to the front bumper keeps the boat from moving forward on the rack. Tying a line to the stern/bumper keeps the boat from moving backward. But tying fore and aft *MIGHT* keep the boat on the roof if/when the cheezy (sic) gutter clamps fail. ------------------------------------------------------- George Bergeron, Secretary OSWEGO HERITAGE COUNCIL P.O. Box 1041, Lake Oswego, Oregon 97034 Web Site: http://www.europa.com/~heritage/welcome.html Email: heritage_at_europa.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Apr 22 1998 - 13:50:15 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:29:56 PDT