At 10:16 27-11-98 -0500, Bob Denton <BDenton_at_aquagulf.com> wrote: > > >I think we have a good experience base here on the list. Has anyone EVER >experienced strap failure? All of life's activities are fraught with risk. I >always wear a seat belt, but I don't use two. I inspect my straps before >each use and I tie them in such a way that if the buckle fails, the straps >won't loosen up. i know of a national instructor who lost a canoe going 45 mph through the mountains. he said it was pretty scarey!! had someone been oncoming, they would have been impaled!! > >As for from and rear straps, I don't feel the need to use them on my current >vehicle, since I have lots of space between bars, and I tie the boats off >center with more boat off the rear bars. If I were going on a full day's >drive I might use front and rear straps, but the inconvenience outweighs the >risk. > >Were my racks not as secure, I might reconsider. > >cya but you really aren't connecting your boat to your car, you are connecting your boat to your rack, and while your rack _may_ be connected solidly to your car, they do loosen, or could come off, or somehow the rack may fail... i strap my boats to the rack, and then run a cursory strap from the boat to the car anyway, usually front & rear, takes less than 2 minutes, so i don't consider it an "inconvenience" at all... would be more inconvenient to loose the boat!! --- on a similar vein, imagine a bright yellow VW beetle, now imagine a bright red 18 foot long canoe, on top!! my wife and i drove it 350 miles across the state, on windy, windey roads, and never had a real problem, except the rack sliding backwards on the very curved roof line!! her first trip overnight from a canoe. when i pulled out a bottle of wine the second night out, and proposed to her, she was astounded... and said yes... last month made 6 years for us... mark #------canoeist[at]netbox[dot]com-------------------------------------- mark zen o, o__ o_/| o_. po box 474 </ [\/ [\_| [\_\ ft. lupton, co 80621-0474 (`-/-------/----') (`----|-------\-') #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~ http://www.diac.com/~zen/paddler [index of Paddling websites I manage] Rocky Mtn Sea Kayak Club, Colorado River Flows, Poudre Paddlers The Colorado Paddlers' Resource, Rocky Mtn Canoe Club Trip Page #-Fortune: "In a world without fences, who needs 'Gates'" -- Scott McNealy, CEO Sun Microsystems "In a world without walls, who needs 'Windows'" -- Dave Livigni *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:32:53 PDT