Chuck, First of all I'm glad no one was seriously injured your recent mishap. The old Toyota may be another story! >From your initial description it did not sound like a severe impact so I was surprised to hear the roof racks separated from the car roof (dare we mention any names?). That fact alone should give some folks a clue as to the potential dangers of not using front and rear tie-downs. I was going to say that the size and construction material of the boat could determine if tie-downs should be used but, that would be irrelevant if the roof racks fail! Personally, I always use two 1" straps to attach the boat to the rack and 2 more, front and rear, hooked to the bumpers. I have a glass boat and part of my rationale for using 4 straps is to distribute the forces (stresses) over more points on the boat. Your story reinforces my thinking that bow and stern tie-downs are absolutely necessary. Ron Dunnington *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Apr 22 2002 - 09:39:15 PDT
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