Re: [Paddlewise] Car topping -- bow/stern tie-down

At 06:31 AM 5/23/2003 -0400, jwd_at_acm.org wrote:
>


SNIP

>So, to be more specific, how do people here in PaddleWise tie down their
>boats bow and stern when car-topping them on newer autos?  I'm really
>interested in A) how to do it conveniently, and B) how to do it in a
>manner that doesn't wind up putting excessive sideways force on the
>boats that will tend to pull them away from the saddles.


I faced this problem several years ago when I had to replace my 
minivan.  When I drive anywhere (except down to the end of my street for a 
local paddle), I tie my boats to both the racks and then use front and rear 
tie-downs.  Well, my new '97 Grand Caravan didn't have a way to do 
that.  In the past I had used the  vehicle-to-ship tie-down loops you 
described, so I thought the easiest way to go was to duplicate those.

In the rear it was relatively straight forward.  I don't have any welding 
abilities so I wound up doing the following:

I got two pieces of aluminum angle, about 1.5"x1.5"x8 or so inches long.  I 
drilled holes so I could take the nuts off the rear bumper mount bolts, 
slip on these angles and reinstall the nuts.  The angles where then mounted 
vertical and extended about 1.5" below the bumper.  I had to notch the 
plastic bumper to accomplish this.  Near the bottom of the angles I 
installed eyes.  I use tie-down lines I made myself and the ends have snap 
hooks, so now I was all set in the rear.

In the front I had to get more creative.  My front bumper really curves and 
then there are not any really good attach points underneath.  The answer 
came in my grill area.  I found that there were holes in the frame in the 
grill openings where I could install eyes.  When I installed the eyes, I 
used "fender" washers, which are oversized washers that helped distribute 
the load over a greater area since the frame is not that beefy in this 
area.  Again, my bow tie-down lines have snap hooks so I'm all set.

In use, I run the bow and stern tie-down lines through the brackets on my 
boats that attach the carry toggles.  When the boats are on my van, the 
stern toggles are aft of the rear of the vehicle and the tie-down line goes 
straight from vehicle attach point to kayak attach point without a 
problem.  In the bow this is not true.  The bow toggles on my boats sit a 
little aft of the front of the van so when the bow lines are taut, the line 
rubs the front of the van.  I solved this problem by slippingcushions over 
the lines in the areas where they rub the van.  I happend to get the 
cylindrical cushions from a weight-lifting bench that was being discarded, 
but other solutions would work as well.

This set-up has worked well for the past 6 years and thousands of 
miles.  When I replace this van, I'll probably take the same approach on 
the replacement vehicle.  If you'd like to see photos of this set-up, 
contact me back channel and I take a few digi shots this weekend (between 
rain showers :-( ).

Bill Leonhardt
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