[Big K]

I am leaving on a road trip tomorrow.. about 1600 miles roundtrip. On the way back, I am picking up a canoe my stepfather is giving me. It's a one-man, fiberglass, 12 footer. Per earlier advice I got on this site, I went to REI and bought the best solution they had for carrying it. Everything is pretty much set except one question that is really bugging me.

My wife got a new Land Rover last week, which we'll be using to haul the canoe home. We have the roof rack with crossbars and I am comfortable with how it will be mounted on top. The perplexing question is how to run the front tie-down rope across the front-middle of her hood without scratching her paint. I looked all over town yesterday and nobody seems to sell a solution for this. I bought the Yakima tie-down ropes, which came with a clear plastic tube that you're supposed to run the rope through and it is suppsed to protect your paint from rubbing.. doesn't seem like enough to me, especially for the front of the hood which will get hot. My wife and I worked on this last night and have come up with 2 options for protecting the paint where the rope goes around the front of the hood (about 8-10 inches in length total):

1. wrap the rope at the point where it touches the hood with a "microfiber" cloth (very soft, we use them for jobs like waxing)
2. wrap the rope with a chamios (real, not man-made), I found some really soft ones at Home Depot

I could use some help thinking through my logic on this. The trip will be about 12hrs/650 miles with the canoe. My concern about the microfiber is that, although it is very soft to the touch, it is still a fiber and may cause a "rub mark" if it was right on the font of the car vibrating all day. The chamois feels very soft and has a reputation for being very soft on paint but I don't know if it's any better than microfiber. Also, I don't know whether I should be concerned about having a chamois touching warm paint all day if it's been treated with cod oil during tanning (says so on the package).

Please help me with opinions on this.. I'd hate to make the wrong call and get home to a find abrasion on the new car.. wife would kill me for that.

Thanks!

 

[tedsti]

3M makes some clear tape that is meant for the hoods of cars to protect from rock dings. I don't know if the local auto parts stores carry it or not but it would be worth a look. You could just put down a couple of strips where the ropes will rub.

A friend of mine had the front of his Audi TT done professionally and you can hardly tell it is there.

 

[Finch Platte]

I am bla bla bla would kill me for that.

Thanks!

Go to a welding shop, & have them weld you a piece of 'L' shaped steel. Have them weld this under the car to the frame. Put a little groove in the top, and a hook just below it. (See crappy drawing). Tie the rope to the hook and run it thru the groove up to the canoe.

The weld will be underneath, so when they cut it off, you'll never know it was there.

No charge.

fp

 

[bitflogger]

I am leaving on a road trip tomorrow.. about 1600 miles roundtrip. On the way back, I am picking up a canoe my stepfather is giving me. It's a one-man, fiberglass, 12 footer. Per earlier advice I got on this site, I went to REI and bought the best solution they had for carrying it. Everything is pretty much set except one question that is really bugging me.

My wife got a new Land Rover last week, which we'll be using to haul the canoe home. We have the roof rack with crossbars and I am comfortable with how it will be mounted on top. The perplexing question is how to run the front tie-down rope across the front-middle of her hood without scratching her paint. I looked all over town yesterday and nobody seems to sell a solution for this. I bought the Yakima tie-down ropes, which came with a clear plastic tube that you're supposed to run the rope through and it is suppsed to protect your paint from rubbing.. doesn't seem like enough to me, especially for the front of the hood which will get hot. My wife and I worked on this last night and have come up with 2 options for protecting the paint where the rope goes around the front of the hood (about 8-10 inches in length total):

1. wrap the rope at the point where it touches the hood with a "microfiber" cloth (very soft, we use them for jobs like waxing)
2. wrap the rope with a chamios (real, not man-made), I found some really soft ones at Home Depot

I could use some help thinking through my logic on this. The trip will be about 12hrs/650 miles with the canoe. My concern about the microfiber is that, although it is very soft to the touch, it is still a fiber and may cause a "rub mark" if it was right on the font of the car vibrating all day. The chamois feels very soft and has a reputation for being very soft on paint but I don't know if it's any better than microfiber. Also, I don't know whether I should be concerned about having a chamois touching warm paint all day if it's been treated with cod oil during tanning (says so on the package).

Please help me with opinions on this.. I'd hate to make the wrong call and get home to a find abrasion on the new car.. wife would kill me for that.

Thanks!

A properly made rack and tied boat needs no more than rope or straps holding it to the cross bars. You say it's a 12 foot boat, so you should have minimal overhang no matter what your bar spread is.

What stupidity has Ford applied to Land Rovers that they would need any special precautions to actually operate as a SUV? My friend is on his 3rd Range Rover and admits it has SFQ, but says Ford electronics are better and it carries his boats and roof box just fine.

Good luck.

 

[Big K]

State law

A properly made rack and tied boat needs no more than rope or straps holding it to the cross bars. You say it's a 12 foot boat, so you should have minimal overhang no matter what your bar spread is.

What stupidity has Ford applied to Land Rovers that they would need any special precautions to actually operate as a SUV? My friend is on his 3rd Range Rover and admits it has SFQ, but says Ford electronics are better and it carries his boats and roof box just fine.

Good luck.

If canoe hangs anywhere over windshield, front has to be tied.

 

[bitflogger]

If canoe hangs anywhere over windshield, front has to be tied.

And tied to the SUV's roof rack or a third party rack is not good enough? Are you afraid to scratch the rack on your SUV or something?

Good luck.

 

[formica]

It's a range rover, originally used in the mud pits and remote savannah in the deepest dark of Africa... and you are worried about a little rope burn?

 

[Cruzer75]

if you open the hood up and tie a piece of rope/webbing to one of the braces for the body and run it up around the hood (out the passenger or driver side) then tie the canoe to that you should be good.

Here is a product called "top ties" that you take out one of the fender bolts, and put this webbing w/grommet under the bolt and then replace the bolt.

http://www.snowshoecenter.com/shop/product.cfm?p=808
http://redrockstore.com/Catalog/index.php?crn=97&rn=773&action=show_detail

I have used these before and they do not harm the hood of a vehicle.

BTW both yakima and thule recommend front and rear tie downs while transporting boats on their carriers and i know that thule will not warranty a claim if you loose your boat and do not use tie downs (thule includes tie downs in both kayak and canoe carriers)

SS

 

[Big K]

Thanks for advice

regarding heritage of Land Rover, I am well aware of the lineage of the car.. it's our 4th LR.. issue is that the car is a week old and it's my wife's.. a scratched hood would not go over real well and she's likely to tell me to start strapping it to my M-roadster if I screw her car up.. she's not a soccer-mom, just takes good care of her stuff and needs the AWD for MN winters.

Regarding the roof rack, it's sturdy enough but state law requires that a rope be used in the front if the thing extends past the windshield (and it will).

After further research, I find no ready-made products for this job so we decided to run the part of the rope that will rest on the front-corner of the hood through a piece of 3/8" clear vinyl tubing, then wrap it in a microfiber towel. I'll check it along the way to see how it's doing.. hope this goes well.

 

[JohnnyTooBad]

With a car that's only a week old, the paint may not be fully cured yet. This is why they tell you not to wax a car for a couple of weeks after you buy it. (ask LR how long it takes for their paint to fully cure) If, by the time you will be carrying the yak, it's a month old or so, then I'd recommend the clear protective tape and a chamois around the rope. Maybe stick and pull the tape to a soft cotton shirt a few times before you stick ot to the hood, so that it can be removed easier.

Since it's a LR, you may be able to get a bolt-on solution similar to what FP drew for you. They make them for class 3 hitches, so there must be a way to bolt one on the front. But really, the tape and chamois is probably sufficient.

Make sure you tie it down tight so that it doesn't move side to side and rub the paint. If you use a flat strap, rather than round rope, be sure to twist it a couple of times so that it doesn't vibrate and flap in the wind.

 

[phil.]

I'd just tie the bow the boat to the front cross bar and the stern to the rear cross bar. I do this w/ a kayak instead of securing it to the vehicle bumpers. If you mount it up like this correctly, the only problem would be if the rack itself comes off the vehicle. If this happened, your vehicle is less likely to be damaged b/c you don't have the 12' canoe banging on the roof w/ no rack and then likely slipping down the side of the vehicle. I've ran it like this on my vehicles (2 diff vehicles, same rack, same tie down method), no problems, probably over 1k miles. 11.2' kayak. Not sure if it's a state law here but I doubt they would pull you over just for that.