Canoe hanging over front of truck - How?
 

I am in the process of changing from one kind of RV to another, and that
means that I need to figure out a new way to haul my 16 foot canoe. The
5th wheel that I am buying occupies most of the bed of the truck. The
best solution that I can figure out is to put the canoe over the cab of
the truck, hanging out past the front bumper.

Looking around on the web, it seems that the standard solution would be
to use a Canoe support, like a tall "T" Shape, that plugs into a 2 inch
trailer hich receiver. That would require me to buy the following: 1.
Front hitch for my truck. 2. "T" canoe support for hitch. 3. Canoe
rack for cab of truck. It all seems very complicated and expensive.

Alternatively, I could weld up my own rack that attaches to the front
bumper or tow hooks, and then either use a conventional roof rack for
the cab, or weld up a special rack for the front of the truck bed.

Anybody have any ideas or other options?

Richard

Richard Ferguson wrote:

I am in the process of changing from one kind of RV to another, and
that means that I need to figure out a new way to haul my 16 foot
canoe. The 5th wheel that I am buying occupies most of the bed of the
truck. The best solution that I can figure out is to put the canoe
over the cab of the truck, hanging out past the front bumper.

Looking around on the web, it seems that the standard solution would
be to use a Canoe support, like a tall "T" Shape, that plugs into a 2
inch trailer hich receiver. That would require me to buy the
following: 1. Front hitch for my truck. 2. "T" canoe support for
hitch. 3. Canoe rack for cab of truck. It all seems very complicated
and expensive.

Alternatively, I could weld up my own rack that attaches to the front
bumper or tow hooks, and then either use a conventional roof rack for
the cab, or weld up a special rack for the front of the truck bed.

Anybody have any ideas or other options?

Richard

I've seen several 5th-wheelers with the canoe (modest size) right on
top. Investigate the structural points of your 5th-wheel. Perhaps 1"
square aluminum tubing such as in many pickup caps & boat racks can be
added for strength.

Pete H

--
Either everyone has rights or some have privileges.
It's really that simple.
Walt Kelly

You need a 4 ft shorter canoe. I passed a rig last year that had 3 solo
canoes lashed straight up on the back of the camper. The owner had bolted a
bar to the top rear of the camper and placed pulleys on it. It looked like
he clipped a rope to the front of each boat and pulled them up. He had one
of those big rigs with the ladder up the back and the cargo pad on the roof.
looked like he could climb up, walk across the top and secure the bows and
then come down and complete the strapping. Really unique. If you stay with
your current boat it looks like you are stuck with the set-up you mentioned
or carting the whole boat up on the roof. The other thing that ran through
my mind was if you could replace a front or rear window with a cargo door.
Then you open the door and slide the boat inside down the center isle of the
camper. Only you know if this would be workable on your unit. I did know an
older gentleman that carried his full size Coleman canoe on the side of his
motorhome. Put him very near the max width on many roads (especially the way
he drove). But it did make loading very easy. He made a custom rack for the
side that was at a very comfortable height to just walk up and hang the boat
on the side.

"Richard Ferguson" wrote in message
...
I am in the process of changing from one kind of RV to another, and that
means that I need to figure out a new way to haul my 16 foot canoe. The
5th wheel that I am buying occupies most of the bed of the truck. The
best solution that I can figure out is to put the canoe over the cab of
the truck, hanging out past the front bumper.

Looking around on the web, it seems that the standard solution would be
to use a Canoe support, like a tall "T" Shape, that plugs into a 2 inch
trailer hich receiver. That would require me to buy the following: 1.
Front hitch for my truck. 2. "T" canoe support for hitch. 3. Canoe
rack for cab of truck. It all seems very complicated and expensive.

Alternatively, I could weld up my own rack that attaches to the front
bumper or tow hooks, and then either use a conventional roof rack for
the cab, or weld up a special rack for the front of the truck bed.

Anybody have any ideas or other options?

Richard

No Spam wrote:
You need a 4 ft shorter canoe. I passed a rig last year that had 3
solo
canoes lashed straight up on the back of the camper. The owner had
bolted a
bar to the top rear of the camper and placed pulleys on it. It looked
like
he clipped a rope to the front of each boat and pulled them up. He
had one
of those big rigs with the ladder up the back and the cargo pad on
the roof.
looked like he could climb up, walk across the top and secure the
bows and
then come down and complete the strapping. Really unique. If you stay
with
your current boat it looks like you are stuck with the set-up you
mentioned
or carting the whole boat up on the roof. The other thing that ran
through
my mind was if you could replace a front or rear window with a cargo
door.
Then you open the door and slide the boat inside down the center isle
of the
camper. Only you know if this would be workable on your unit. I did
know an
older gentleman that carried his full size Coleman canoe on the side
of his
motorhome. Put him very near the max width on many roads (especially
the way
he drove). But it did make loading very easy. He made a custom rack
for the
side that was at a very comfortable height to just walk up and hang
the boat
on the side.

"Richard Ferguson" wrote in
message
...
I am in the process of changing from one kind of RV to another, and
that
means that I need to figure out a new way to haul my 16 foot canoe.
The
5th wheel that I am buying occupies most of the bed of the truck.
The
best solution that I can figure out is to put the canoe over the
cab of
the truck, hanging out past the front bumper.

Looking around on the web, it seems that the standard solution
would be
to use a Canoe support, like a tall "T" Shape, that plugs into a 2
inch
trailer hich receiver. That would require me to buy the following:
1.
Front hitch for my truck. 2. "T" canoe support for hitch. 3.
Canoe
rack for cab of truck. It all seems very complicated and
expensive.

Alternatively, I could weld up my own rack that attaches to the
front
bumper or tow hooks, and then either use a conventional roof rack
for
the cab, or weld up a special rack for the front of the truck bed.

Anybody have any ideas or other options?

Richard


I am using an older Folbot. Just fold it up and put in bed of pickup,
or inside trailer. My old Super is really more of a decked canoe, than
a kayak. Large open cockpit, 700lb load. double. for sailing, paddling,
motoring.

Now I don't know what kind of boating you do with canoe, so may not
work for you, but they are seaworthy, and ok as long as your not
banking into rocks etc. Though the new hyperlon hull is tuff, and there
is a full line of folding boats. TnT

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 16:38:55 GMT, Richard Ferguson
vaguely proposed a theory
.......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

Do you want to load the canoe while you have the camper connected?

I am in the process of changing from one kind of RV to another, and that
means that I need to figure out a new way to haul my 16 foot canoe. The
5th wheel that I am buying occupies most of the bed of the truck. The
best solution that I can figure out is to put the canoe over the cab of
the truck, hanging out past the front bumper.

I am not so concerned about loading it, as I am about hauling it. In
other words, if there was a really clever system that would let me carry
my canoe, but I could not take the canoe off or put it on unless the 5th
wheel was detached from the truck, that would probably be OK. With a
5th wheel, you usually drive to a campsite, detach it, and then go off
in the truck to do what you want to do, such as driving to the launch
point. I guess the logical conclusion is that it would be preferred to
mount the canoe to the truck rather than to the 5th wheel, more convenient.

But did you have something specific in mind?

The picture below shows a somewhat typical 5th wheel. Any boat mounted
on the truck would need to be at least a couple of feet away from the
5th wheel to allow for turning, etc., so it would stick out past the
front of the truck.

http://www.nhog.org/forsale/floydpic...h%20Wheel1.JPG

I got a variety of ideas from the RV people. The most attractive one so
far has been to mount a removable support post on the front bumper,
passenger side, and then have a pipe rack on the front of the truck bed.
The front post is described as an upside down letter 'h'.

Richard


OldNick wrote:
On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 16:38:55 GMT, Richard Ferguson
vaguely proposed a theory
......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

Do you want to load the canoe while you have the camper connected?


I am in the process of changing from one kind of RV to another, and that
means that I need to figure out a new way to haul my 16 foot canoe. The
5th wheel that I am buying occupies most of the bed of the truck. The
best solution that I can figure out is to put the canoe over the cab of
the truck, hanging out past the front bumper.

For my truck racks, I got some 1" conduit and a bender, and made my own
custom racks. Hard to describe, but a bit of trial and error, and double up
the tubing to fit right into the stake pockets. I had to square off the
ends a bit, with vice-grips. It makes a pretty good friction fit, but
never hurts to tie things down to the frame!

This would work for your "cab" end, and I'll bet you could put something
similar together for the front fenders or bumper - just need to fasten on
some pipe "sockets" and bend your tubing to fit. A triangle set-up would be
plenty stable.

For my tailgate end, I made a lower single-pipe rack, about 6" above the
gate, which is easily removable. Throw it into the bed and forget about it,
it comes in handy as a "hook" for pulling stuff out.

You could even get off-the-shelf hardware to bolt, rather than tie, your
boat to the racks.

Sal's Dad



Looking around on the web, it seems that the standard solution would be to
use a Canoe support, like a tall "T" Shape, that plugs into a 2 inch
trailer hich receiver. That would require me to buy the following: 1.
Front hitch for my truck. 2. "T" canoe support for hitch. 3. Canoe rack
for cab of truck. It all seems very complicated and expensive.

Alternatively, I could weld up my own rack that attaches to the front
bumper or tow hooks, and then either use a conventional roof rack for the
cab, or weld up a special rack for the front of the truck bed.

Anybody have any ideas or other options?

Richard