Thinking about getting one (finally), and wondering how a 17 footer will fit up there? I was thinking I could strap it to the Surco rack, and put a spare Terzo bar near the front for a third strap...

Don't know what all the fancy named stuff is, but I've seen a redneck solution before. It's an upright that's temporarily mounted to the front bumper. It looks like a cartoonish "Y" where it's more like a "C" sideways and the craft rests in it. The one I looked at up close had a kind of c clamp that locked on the plate of the bumper by friction.

Don't know if that explains what I'm describing or not. Can't seem to find any pictures of what I'm referring to...

Phil,

How about these:

ORS Racks Direct

Weather Guard

Russell

Yup, I got a few.





And with one tandem and two solos,






My carrier is a long Thule cross bar on standard gutter mount up front with a long Thule bar mounted to factory rails in the back. This get the bars as far apart as possible giving the best stabilization to wind gusts and driving loads.

Not pictured is a Grass river Classic XL loaded up. This is an 18' 6" 22# solo race canoe, real sweet boat. With your racks as far apart as you can get do not even worry about the hull length, it is not of concern.

Two tandems side by side need pretty long bars but again with the bars far apart I can get them up there since you are strapping them near the stems.

And then of course there is strapping a 34' voyageur canoe on top. This was up at the Yukon 1000 race last summer.



Probably have a clearance issue with your camper ehh?

http://myweb.cableone.net/wmartz/Pictures/Kayak3.JPG
17foot 9 inches

Not a canoe but whatever...

Charlie that looks like 10lbs of sh!t in a 1lbs bag! lol nice work.

Is that a compliment? I can't tell...

This is a 12 foot Stand Up Paddle Board (Yoloyak).
Using Thule gutter mount rack with Dakine tie downs. The other side of the board is snowbaord racks that I use for fishing rods and paddle.