Krusty wrote:
You don't really need the up-rights on the ends of the proposed rear rack extension, you just need the rack sticking out a few inches to attach the cross-over strap. The strap itself will prevent lateral movement of the canoe. Load from the back, slide the boat forward until it's snug against the front stop-blocks (on the outside), then attach the cross-over straps.
Or, if you're sold on the idea of uprights at the end of the extension you could have the attachment point for the cross-over strap at the top off your uprights.
I've used the 2 X 4 thing. Worked fine, but as my architect friend used to say I'm more into function then form.
I think you are onto a good idea here, when you say "The strap itself will prevent lateral movement of the canoe". How about this?:
- BEFORE lifting the canoe at all, I should first LOOSELY install the rear toothed tiedown strap onto the rear crossbar, with the strap "routed" correctly for final retainment of the canoe and the toothed buckle roughly where you want it to end up, but loose enough that the canoe bow can later (see below) be slipped inside the loosely buckled strap
- Place the canoe on the C-Tug Sandtrakz cart UPSIDEDOWN, with the Sandtrakz located well towards the stern, but still forward enough to be supporting the port and starboard gunwales at a wide enough point away from the stern that the canoe won't tip sideways
- Position the canoe in line with the axis of the car, but with the bow just behind the rear bumper
- Lift the bow of the canoe, and walk down to a point just forward of the canoe's balance point, so the bow is now 6 feet above the pavement and the stern is supported, on both rearward gunwales, by the Sandtrakz. That means I am lifting only roughly half of the 42.6 lb canoe weight = 21.3 lb, and the canoe is not trying to tip sideways as the Sandtrakz is holding it via both port and starboard rearward gunwales
- Move forward until the bow of the canoe is`above and SLIGHTLY PAST the rear crossbar and its very loose tiedown strap
- Let the bow drop down onto the rear crossbar. The canoe is now reasonably "stable", since the sternward gunwales are supported on both port and starboard by the Sandtrakz, and the bowward gunwales are supported by the crossbar
- Now tighten the strap toothed buckle only enough that I can still slide the canoe forward through it, but it won't allow the canoe to slide sideways off the crossbar later in the process when I need to lift it slightly to trap it on the Portage blocks
- Finish sliding the canoe forward until it is at the right position longitudinally (this is when the "w" in the "Wenonah" lettering on the side is just short of the front crossbar)
- Lift the bow slightly so the canoe can be moved forward just slightly to clear the front Portage blocks (because as the canoe moves forward, its cross-sectional width increase until it will no longer pass between the Portage blocks - it must be lifted slightly to "hop over" the Portage blocks so that the blocks can now "trap" the canoe gunwales by being "inboard" of the gunwales on each of port and starboard gunwales (NOTE: The car roof and rack are too narrow to deploy the Portage blocks OUTboard of the gunwales!

). The loose tiedown strap SHOULD enable all this forward sliding and slight "hop up" while preventing the canoe from sliding sideways right off the car roof. (But I need to test this idea obviously)
- Keep sliding the canoe forward until the sternward end of the canoe will no longer pass by the Portage blocks, lift the stern to hop over the Portage blocks, and then drop the canoe gunwales back down onto the rear crossbar so that the rear Portage blocks now trap the gunwales too. Again the loose tiedown strap SHOULD enable all this forward sliding and slight "hop up" while preventing the canoe from sliding sideways right off the car roof
- now fine tune the position of the canoe longitudinally so that both front an d rear Portage block to gunwale interfaces are correct
- Tighten the previously loosely installed tiedown strap to proper tension for transport
- Install the FRONT tiedown strap and tighten to proper tension for transport
- Add the 3rd strap that positively prevents the canoe from trying to slide forward or rearward by locking a thwart to a crossbar
- Stow the Sandtrakz (It goes in the car trunk easily even withOUT removing the 2 wheels, which are removable without tools in about 2 seconds each)
The above MIGHT work. Gotta try it to see . . .
Jim G