Re: [Paddlewise] Bars n' Boats (n' Audi Avant)

Jason Taylor wrote:
(SNIPPED PORTION COVERED TAKING FANCY THULE/YAKIMA RACKS OFF CAR FOR
SAFE KEEPING)

> An alternative has occured to me, however. A local surgeon totes his
> Current Designs Expedition around on top of his fairly new Saab. I've
> been struck by the fact that he has _no_ rack, preferring foam blocks and
> straps going through his doors. What amazes me is how quickly he can
> leave the take-out, seeming to pop the blocks on the roof and strap the
> boat down in roughly the same time it takes most of us to get a boat into
> saddles.

My 14 year old mini-van finally gave up the ghost and I am now a renter
of cars.  So, I am using those kayak blocks for the first time.

I bought just the block pads as I already had lots of webbing straps
around from the former setup for the mini-van.  The block pads I got
were the wider ones that are offered by Campmor, which are 18 inch wide
vs. 14 inch that come with the complete pads and tiedowns kit you can
buy.

The baptism of fire with them occured the other day.  Winds were running
around 40 mph and higher around here.  I tied two belly straps (i.e.
over the middle of the car) and through the doors.  (The portable pad
kits come with just one).  For the bumper tie-downs I used a single
webbing strap each at the bow and stern.

The whole thing howled because of the wind and driving speeds.  And
while crossing the George Washington Bridge on the lower level, the
40+mph winds funneled to higher strengths.  My rental subcompact car
rocked a bit and the boat shifted around a tiny bit; still it was all
pretty scary.

With white knuckles I pushed on to Campmor, which was enroute.  Bought
the nice bumper tie-down kit which basically triangulates the support at
the front and rear bumper (i.e. a teepee, 2 webbing straps setup for bow
and stern).  Opted not to use the little steel S hooks and replaced them
with carabiners that I hooked through whatever frame hooks I could find
under the front and rear bumpers.  The boat settled down nicely.

So the pads do work.  A couple of observations:

1. Do use carabiners with bumper tiedowns as open hooks can always work
their way loose.

2. Setting up the portable pads seems to take somewhat longer than
throwing a boat on an already setup roof rack but it may be just a
matter of practice.  You set the pads up first on the boat using shorter
webbing straps (you need snug down only a bit tight but not with a lot
of force).  Get the boat with its attached pads on the roof, which is a
lot easier on low roof rental cars than it ever was on my mini-van
because of less height lift.  Then you run one or more belly straps over
the boat and through the doors of the car (I have ridiculously long 20
foot straps for this, which I may cut down a bit, although you never
know when you might need extra length).  Then the front and back bumper
ties, which are absolutely needed with the portable pads as opposed to
the Thule and Yakima cradles and other accessories. (Some paddlers
mentioned in Paddlewise that they don't use bumper straps with their
Thules etc. but you would need these for the portable pads, period.)

3.  I have a reader of my newsletter who has created his own portable
pad setup and wrote it up for one issue.  He has the full tiedown kit
from Voyageur (which includes one belly strap, two straps for attaching
pads to boat, two bumper tiedown teepee straps and four bumper
S-hooks).  But instead of the official pads, he uses those gardening
kneeling pads found in Home Depot, Brookstone and other places.  He
places these on the roof of one of his two Lexus (he has a small tether
so they don't fall off.  He manages to carry two K-Lights regularly at
California highway speeds for hundreds of miles with no problem for the
boats nor the shiny roofs of his shiny expensive cars.  So, it is a nice
variation of the theme.


> And this is on a sedan _without_ roof rails. So I've been
> looking at those fancy no-slip blocks at Rutabaga and I've been thinking
> that two 10-12 foot straps from Campmor could each be looped under the
> rails and that the whole set-up would be easier (no doors to mess around
> with) and more stable (longer roof line) than the Doc's Saab. And I know
> that the blocks are quicker to get on and off the car than the Yakima
> DoubleCross system.

If you go for these blocks, you may want to get the wider ones as their
underneath slot is bigger and looks like will fit on the crossbars of
factory roof racks better than with the smaller 14 inch pads that have
smaller slots.  I see no reason why you could not use the belly straps
as you describe, i.e. around the rails of the factory roofrack.  But
again for added safety, do use the front bumper teepee straps to the bow
of your boat and similar setup at the boat's stern and rear bumper.

Oh, one added thought.  With belly straps running through doors or
around factory roof rack rails, you are going to get a lot more strap
howling at high driving speeds than you would ever get with the close in
ties on kayak saddles and similars.  The advise they give is to knot the
webbing straps in several places or to twist them a few turns.  This
does quiet them down significantly.  Since I am in rental cars with
varying widths, door configurations etc, I hesitate to put knots in the
webbing that may affect adjustment and just use the twists.  But if you
are using them in your own car either through doors or on to roofrack
rails, then you could experiment on where to place knots and leave them
in the webbing straps.

ralph diaz
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter
PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024
Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com
"Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------


***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not
to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission
Submissions:     paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net
Subscriptions:   paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************