You know when someone is on vacation based on the canoe strapped to the roof of their car and enough gear in the trunk or back seat that the driver can’t look back:) Transporting a canoe is an art, and there are proper ways to ensure your precious boat doesn’t turn into a plane. Or roadkill, for that matter. Let’s dive into how to strap a canoe to the top of your vehicle properly, and it’s crucial as many people do it wrong. Especially someone that may be new to canoeing.
Spread the Love
Disclosure: Posts may contain affiliate links. Purchases made through our links result in a small commission to us at no charge to you. We only recommend products that meet our brand standards based on testing and first hand use by our authors.
What is the Best Vehicle to Carry a Canoe?
Right off the bat, this is the easy part, so let’s get through it right away. The vehicle DOES NOT matter, it really doesn’t! Unless your roof is all glass, then you have a problem. But you can always take up tennis or golf 😂
Most modern cars have an exorbitant amount of glass as a roof. In this case, talk to your dealer about mounting a factory roof rack system or you can look at something like the aftermarket Rhino rack. If a canoe roof rack does not sit well with you, there are alternatives to roof racks like canoe trailers for which you’ll need a trailer hitch.
If you don’t believe me that the vehicle doesn’t matter, sit in the parking lot of any outfitter that rents canoes. You’ll see everything from the small car to a pickup truck pull up. The shop folks come out, toss a canoe on the roof of your vehicle and strap it down in minutes.
The best way to transport a canoe is with a rack systems. This is the easiest way as it holds the canoe off the vehicle’s roof and prevents damage to the roof. You may want to take extra care and pad the racks themselves with pool noodles or foam pads to protect the canoe. However, roof racks are not a requirement by any means. You can still transport a canoe without a roof-mounted system. Let’s take a look at how.
Required Gear to Transport a Canoe
Canoe Blocks to Protect Your Vehicle
First up, transporting a canoe without a roof rack, will require you to purchase some canoe blocks, like the NRS Foam Canoe Block. Foam blocks have cutouts that slip onto the gunwales of the canoe. The canoe is then flipped upside down and placed gently and directly, centred onto the roof of a vehicle. The canoe carrier blocks provide a cushion between the canoe and the roof, protecting both.
My vehicle of choice to traveling with a canoe is the Jeep Wrangler, which has a plastic roof. It also lacks roof racks, yet transporting a canoe has NEVER been an issue, thanks to these foam canoe blocks. You’ll need 4 in total to secure the canoe to a roof.
An alternative to foam blocks are pool noodles, if you’re looking for something a little more budget-friendly.
Protect your vehicle with the NRS canoe foam block! Simply pop the foam block onto the canoe gunwales, place the canoe on the roof, tie it down and you're good to go!
Cross Straps to Secure Your Canoe
Now that we’ve figured out how to get the canoe on the roof, it’s time to strap it down in a proper way. For this, we use ratchet straps like the Pelican’s cam locking straps, which are a prime example of a suitable cross strap.
Secure your canoe, kayak or board with this 15 foot x 1 inch wide, corrosion-resistant tie-down strap, which handles loads up to 500 lbs / 227 kg.
Without them, you better know your knots, as you’ll be tying down a canoe with rope, which is infinitely more complicated. Applying the cam strap is easy – just follow these simple steps:
- With the car doors open, toss the tie down strap over the front of the canoe and feed it back into the car.
- Inside the vehicle, feed the strap into the cam. Pull the running end of the strap tight, which will be held tight thanks to the cam. It’s similar to a ratchet strap but simpler as it lacks a ratchet mechanism. The excess is tied off, so it’s out of the way.
- Repeat the above steps for the back of the canoe. You now have 2 solid good straps holding down your canoe.
Rags to Dampen Noise
The rags will dampen the sound, but if you tie them correctly, it will eliminate it. See the picture below for exactly how I tie mine. All it does is prevent the straps from being able to vibrate rapidly, and it works very well!
If it’s raining, you’ll find water coming into your car. While not excessive, it’s enough to get you wet and uncomfortable. To help catch the rain, tie the rags inside the vehicle, close to where the straps come in.
Simple math says to carry a minimum of 4 rags for sound. Eight, if it’s raining that day.
Don’t Forget to Use Bow and Stern V-Straps!
We’ve all seen plenty of canoes transported with just the two cross straps mentioned above. While this works, it’s not a the best way to transport a canoe on the highway or at greater speeds. The security of bow and stern tie-downs is a step I would never skip. For this, we use canoe v-straps to secure the canoe to the car.
How To Use a Canoe V-Strap
- Canoe tie down points are found on the handle, where the bottom of the V will attach (see below).
- The two ends of the stern straps attach to the vehicle. In the front of the car, it’s the front tow hook or wherever you can find a solid point to attach. I slip mine between the front bumper and can pick up a hole in the frame on both sides of the Jeep. Same goes for the back of your vehicle, I typically use the safety chain attachment points of the hitch receiver.
- Tighten the cam buckle. The excess strapping can be tied up and out of the way. Don’t skip this important step, as the straps will fly around and keep whacking your car if you don’t tie off the slack.
V-straps seem to be harder to come across than the cam locking straps in the previous section. If you find some at a sporting goods store, grab yourself a pair while you can.
Can I Tie Down a Cedar Strip Canoe Using V-Straps?
Relax, cedar strip canoes are much stronger than you think! We were fortunate enough to finally buy a cedar strip recently without blowing out the bank. We managed to purchase a beautiful vintage Peterborough Canoe. The photo at the very top of this post was when we picked it up. You’ll see it many times in the blog, maybe even a restoration of it one day.
The main problem with cedar strips is sometimes finding an attachment point. Many have a simple metal ring attachment at the bow or stern of the canoe. Mine, in particular, doesn’t – it has a hole instead. It also doesn’t have a suitable handle to attach a v-strap to. A simple and secure way is to feed a rope with a loop through the hole and tie a knot on both sides. These knots essentially sandwich the hole and provide a loop to attach your v-straps (see below).
So, How Fast Can You Drive with a Canoe on the Roof?
Always leaning towards the cautious end of things, I tend to get up to 90 km/h an hour, and if all looks good and solid, I’ll go faster from there. Even the old cedar strip canoe got up to 110 km/h when passing a truck, but that’s as far as I was willing to go that day until the canoe and I got to know each other a little better:)
If you check online forums, as this question comes up a lot, you’ll find countless people writing about going 70 or even 80 mp/h. The math on 80 mp/h is 128 km/h, which exceeds our legal speed limits. In other words, the canoe does not slow you down, but your strapping methods will!
Transporting a canoe (or having anything else strapped to a car) is serious business. You’ll need to make your judgment calls when it comes to highway speed. Regardless of the speed, do yourself a favour and check all your tie-down straps every time you pull over. If anything works itself loose, you’ll be happy you did!
Transporting a Canoe – This is it, Folks!
Whether it’s short distance or longer distances, transporting a canoe is serious. But it doesn’t have to be scary or difficult. You become empowered once you realize how easy it is to tie down a canoe (which is a boat) to almost any car. Knowing you can paddle any waterbody you can drive to is no less than a pathway to freedom in the wilderness.
Comment below if you ever lost a canoe or forgot to tighten the straps?
Thank you for reading my post. Please consider sharing if you found this how to transport a canoe post helpful.
Bookmark this post on Pinterest for future reference!
