Has anyone ever contemplated making their own graphite solo yoke? I get tired of clamping on 3# yokes on graphite canoes. It adds 10% of the canoes total weight to it. I know nothing of laminating carbon, but it would seem to me with a foam core and a light weight pad such as the Harmony style, one might keep the weight to possibly 1.25#.

I'd have to make sure I had head clearance with the seat. I may give it a shot this Spring. I'd also need some lighter weight hardware, not that clunky stuff that comes on the store bought yokes.

If you figure out a way,please let us know. Put me on your list as your first customer.

You can buy carbon tubes, including in rectangular cross sections. You might be able to rig something up without having to learn how to wrap it yourself.

Thanks, I'll check into that. I don't pick the canoe up till April. So I'll have to see what will work with it, but I could play around making 1 for the Voyager. It would make up for some of the weight I'm adding with the rudder system. I think I've got that project figured out. I made 4 small brackets to attach the pedal system directly to the foot brace rails. So I didn't have to drill any holes in the boat there.

Placidboatworks uses a fabric yoke. Weighs 7 or 8 oz i think. I just bought one. It is about 1/2 inch of padding attached to 2 straps. We will try it on wifes hornbeck too.

I think I remember seeing one listed on a manufacturer website, but don't remember whose (wasn't Placid though), so they are available I think.

Just curious- why wouldn't a cedar yoke work for you? I doubt it's weigh more than a lb for a small solo- and since the beam isn't that large- I don't think strength would be an issue- especially for only a 30lb canoe.

Never thought of the yoke for weight, made me check mine. 3 1/2 pounds for a Hidden River Solo Yoke mounted with Superior Codura x-thick pads. Kind of surprised me, but will leave it as is. It's comfortable, mounts stable. It would be quite a stretch to reduce it to a pound.

butthead

Swift makes a carbon yoke.

Savage River also lists one on their website, but no picture or additional information.

butthead: "Never thought of the yoke for weight, made me check mine. 3 1/2 pounds for a Hidden River Solo Yoke mounted with Superior Codura x-thick pads. Kind of surprised me, but will leave it as is. It's comfortable, mounts stable. It would be quite a stretch to reduce it to a pound.


butthead"

Yeah, I remember being surprised at the weight once before when it was discussed.

This one is listed at 4 lbs., so you reduced it a half pound! I bet you're practically skipping over the portages :).

Three to four pounds does seem relatively heavy when you're talking about a 28-30 lb. canoe.

Wick: "Placidboatworks uses a fabric yoke. Weighs 7 or 8 oz i think. I just bought one. It is about 1/2 inch of padding attached to 2 straps. We will try it on wifes hornbeck too. "

Let us know how it works for you. Seems like it would slide off shoulders too easily on portages that require a climb.

Will be sure and follow this thread with great enthusiasm to see what is turned up. I'm probably at least as weight obsessed as anyone on this board and would love to drop some weight from my solo yoke. Just the clamping hardware has significant weight and would seem to be an area ripe for weight savings. On the other hand the yoke still has to be fast and easy to mount and unmount and be comfortable. I personally would not be willing to trade off much, if any, functionality to save weight on this item.

Just learning what is on the market would be of some value, but actual reviews based on real world experience would be most valuable. Did I ever mention how much I enjoy this forum? It really is a great resource!

I ordered our graphite MNII with the carbon yoke a few years ago. This past September it failed during a Q trip. Serious game changer as it relates to ability, or at least eagerness to move around as planned! I'm no structural engineering type, but based on watching/reading/listening to a lot of F1 miscellaneous stuff, I'm thinking the type or direction of the load being applied in a canoe yoke situation is NOT one well suited to carbon fiber.

Btw, it was not the first time Wenonah had run in to this with the carbon yoke.

The wrap around fabric yoke isn't compatible with my style. Most times the canoe goes from the water to my shoulders. I took my yoke apart and weighed the components: wood- 1#, the clamping mechanism for gunwales -11 oz., the rest would be the shoulder pads and hardware. (which I'm hoping to replace with the contoured 1 pc. foam pad which weighs next to nothing) Now the cedar suggestion has me thinking. I do have a 1" thick white cedar board left over from wood canvas canoe restorations. Maybe I'll cut a pc. out, thin it as much as I dare, and weigh it. I could glass both sides near the end where the slots would be. I looked at carbon 1"x 2" rectangles online. The .050" wall thickness weighs 0.14 # per foot, the 0.75 thickness .23 per foot. You'd need to put some wooden plugs in the end to strengthen it for the slotting. Then I would attach a 1/4" plywood base in the middle to attach my Harmony pad. At any rate a Spring project, my garage is so.o.o cold it takes the fun out of working there. I can't bring it in the living room. My wife has taken up Ebay selling and there's boxes everywhere. Did you know when your 70 most everything you own is " vintage and rare"?

Interesting to read of your carbon yoke failure. That would definitely put the hurt on carrying a tandem canoe. I have a new ridge rest pad here for seat padding. I think I'll glue some under the gunwale for a back-up 1 shoulder carry, no matter what direction I go on materials.

mjmkjun: "

Wick: "Placidboatworks uses a fabric yoke. Weighs 7 or 8 oz i think. I just bought one. It is about 1/2 inch of padding attached to 2 straps. We will try it on wifes hornbeck too. "

Let us know how it works for you. Seems like it would slide off shoulders too easily on portages that require a climb.
"

It also may restrict vision unless tilted back . . . ? since it does not elevate canoe off shoulders . . .

mjmkjun: "

Wick: "Placidboatworks uses a fabric yoke. Weighs 7 or 8 oz i think. I just bought one. It is about 1/2 inch of padding attached to 2 straps. We will try it on wifes hornbeck too. "

Let us know how it works for you. Seems like it would slide off shoulders too easily on portages that require a climb.
"

The pics are from the website, and do not show much detail. I was worried about the same thing you mentioned, but on the shoulder area, the material is a rougher sort of non-slip type material. That area has 1/2 to 3/4 thick foam under the non slip material to pad the shoulders. It is very heavily sewn on the edges. I was impressed more in person then i was from the pics.

When I asked about it at placidworks, i questioned if it would also work on my wifes hornbeck, since her factory removable yoke is heavy like everybody elses,,, to carry a 18 lb canoe. They said it was made to fit a tumblehome shape, but I will strap it around her hornbeck when i get time. The straps are adjustable length.

It comes in a "thwart type"bag that would really carry 2 of them if needed,,so I can get both of ours in 1 carry bag if we go that way.

I am interested in checking out the carbon yokes mentioned here also if this does not work for her, or me. Our original plan is no yoke at all, just carry on one shoulder. Our canoes are both under 20 lb.

voyager: "The wrap around fabric yoke isn't compatible with my style. Most times the canoe goes from the water to my shoulders.

yes, it needs "wrapped and strapped" everytime you use it. I do not think I will mind doing that. I will need the break/movement to warm up creaky bones and muscles when i get out of the sitting position, before taking off down a trail with a load.

Thanks for the clarification, Wick. If I have to run straps around a canoe at each portage it's a deal breaker. -1 for practicality.
I do like the cedar plank idea. I do wonder why cedar is not offered commercially since it's much lighter. Having a lighter yoke would be appreciated by most trippers.

Just a potential starting point for consideration, Kevlar Composite Products

butthead

I made a carbon over foam yoke a couple years ago. I sculpted the foam to (try to) fit my shoulders so I didn't have to use pads (extra weight). It turned out ok but wasn't all that comfortable on long carries just because I didn't get the contours right. I glued a 1/4" pad to it and it did fine on a 6 week trip.

It's a bit of work but not that bad. I used heavy 18oz carbon cloth so I didn't have to do so many layers. Also used bias woven cloth so it would follow the contours. I think it took 2 layers to get it as stiff as I wanted. I used regular XPS construction foam.

I didn't worry about aesthetics and trying to get a smooth finish. That would have been a lot more time and work. I just sanded it smooth enough so there were no rough edges and painted it white so that if I dumped in a rapid and it would be easier to spot floating in the water.

It was about 1.5 pounds. Could have been lighter but it wasn't a super lightweight boat and I couldn't have it fail during the 6 week trip.

You can see some pictures of it towards the bottom of this page: http://www.canoetripping.net/forums/forum/general-paddling-discussions/diy/38693-composite-bloodvein-build/page7

Alan

If you're looking for a super-light piece of CF to act as your weight bearing piece I'd look no further than your local hockey rink and find a free stick with a broken blade and use the remaining shaft as a yolk. The sticks are SUPER light, plenty tough for your purpose and have a great finish on them that is sure to be comfortable to hold when needed.

Only think you'd need to do is work out connection points. I'd recommend using a system that I like with small cupboard hinges and cotter pull pins. (I've been meaning to put a picture on here for a while of what I use but haven't gotten around to it.) I attach 1/2 of each of the hinges to my boat and then line up the yolk so the attachment is perfect. Then knock out the original pins and replace them with a cotter hairpin that's tip is rounded down with a grinder for easy threading in and out. Tip: Tie the pins to the yolk so they're never missing or sinking.

Hinges

Cotter Hairpin

I just weighed my yoke and found that it weighs 1 lb. 12 oz. The yoke itself is made of ash that is 5/8" thick. The clamps are also made of ash and the pads are high density foam with cedar backing.

When I bought my Magic, there was no portage yoke, so I made my own from stuff I had in the shop. The wood is oak, so strong, but probably heavier than ash. I bought the hardware and the fabric. It weighs 37 ounces and the boat weighs 37 lbs. I'm surprised that some of these yokes weigh 4 lbs! I guess a solo yoke is much narrower than a tandem, and can be made lighter because it doesn't need to span as much distance.

mjmkjun: "
I do like the cedar plank idea. I do wonder why cedar is not offered commercially since it's much lighter. Having a lighter yoke would be appreciated by most trippers. "

My guess is because cedar is way to weak for your average yoke.

On most tandem canoes, the yoke serves as a structural thwart. Cedar would be a bad choice here- especially since yokes often get banged, tripped on, and maybe even sat on.

I suggested it as a good alternative for an ultra light solo though since it's only purpose is for carrying and then is removed, I think that would work well.

Also- solos have a less-wide beam, which lessens the torque on the center of the yoke due to leverage.

A real quick (probably incorrect) engineering attempt :)

A static load:

24" beam 30 lb canoe puts 15 ft-lbs torque on the center of the yoke. (Or is it 15 ft-lbs from each side -so 30 in the middle???)

A 36" beam 60 lb canoe puts 45 ft-lbs torque. (Or is it 90??). Either way a tandem puts 3x the torque on.

But for a solo I think cedar is probably perfect.

Some great brain storming here. So many paths to pursue. Now if only one of you engineer types would come up with a unique, simple, relatively light gunwale clamp system. I don't like the hinge idea because I can't change the yoke position. My yoke doubles as a back rest while canoeing and sometimes I change the balance point of my canoe depending on what I have positioned where. Perhaps something spring loaded.

Russ, I've looked at this before too as a way to drop maybe 2 lbs. nothing has materialized yet, but I do have some ideas involving wood/foam/carbon composite. My current yoke is ash, with DIY pads, and works well. I initially thought about cutting triangles out of the yoke in a "truss"pattern before skinning the whole thing with carbon fiber. However, I think the more robust way to integrate pad mounts and clamp mounts would be a custom built foam-core job like Alan mentioned.

As far as spring loaded clamps, here is the best solution I could come up with: it is adjustable and very fast:
Spring creek clamp mod.

I may borrow your idea Kevin. I've got some duct tape on there now, but it would be sweet to have the clamps open and ready. I just roughed out a 1" thick cedar yoke to see what it would save me weight wise. If I use the existing clamps for the gunwales and a Harmony foam pad it weighs 1# 12 oz. I just might take the lazy way out, after all that's a savings of 1# 5 oz. off of my old set up. ( every pound counts on that 9 miler) I did buy myself a ZRE, so with mine, and Marcie's as a spare, I'll only be carrying 20.3 oz. of paddles. I'll have the summer to put the cedar to the test. It has a proclivity to split and I'm worried about near the ends where it's slotted. May have to wrap a FG wrap there.

Wick: "Placidboatworks uses a fabric yoke. Weighs 7 or 8 oz i think. I just bought one. It is about 1/2 inch of padding attached to 2 straps. We will try it on wifes hornbeck too. "

Good luck. Its a PITA to secure. And it left not enough clearance to avoid headbanging.

You have to essentially turn the boat over a couple of times to make sure it does not slide

I use a standard heavy detachable yoke on my Placid RapidFire now.

Its a good idea but poorly executed. It needs more rise to avoid the pain of your head on the seat. I tried adding foam blocks to the boat to add height and all that did was to add complexitvity.. If the foam were incorporated into the entire sleeve that would help.. I had trouble with the additional foam that I put over the gunwales rolling in on itself.

But I wish you more pleasure with wrap and strap than I had.

I think the cedar yoke is a good Idea to save some weight for a solo boat since the gunnels are closer together than the traditional ash used on most tandems. A thought on strengthening the cedar from splitting would be to cut it into strips then laminate it back together with epoxy. Could even throw in some basswood, with a strip or two of Cherry or Walnut to give it some character.

I've got a prototype cooking right now
in this thread. I still have to mount the clamps and pads, but it's looking like it might come in under 1.5 lbs. My previous ash yoke was 4+ lbs, so it will be a substantial difference.

This is what I am using now. It has a wide grip to accommodate triangular strips on the sloped bottom of the gunnel. I do not think this was necessary and it adds weight. It has the height to solve what yellowcanoe describes as headbanging and I can see past the thwart. If I were doing it over I would not use the wide grip and triangular strips. The risers are boxes made out of 1/8” bass wood filled with Styrofoam. Sense the pads are glued directly to the top of the riser boxes there is no need for a thick board on the back of them so that is 1/8” bass wood also. The middle (narrow) part of the cross board is reinforced with a strip of fiberglass. The weight could be reduced by narrowing the grip which would eliminate the blocks that the cam operated clamp rocks on. CamLock yoke
My yoke is a good improvement over anything commercially available but Muddyfeet’s project rocks.

Looking great Muddyfeet! Well thought out, as is everything you make. My carbon yoke project has been cancelled. My new canoe has itty bitty carbon rails, and I can see no good way of attaching a yoke to them. At 24# it is a joy to portage, but I'm concerned that it may be to fragile for the Pigeon R. It has a very sharp entry. I purchased a clamp to the seat tubes yoke from Piragis , that will have to do. The Blackwater is better in the wind than the Voyager but can still be a pain in some conditions. And I do miss the added freeboard of the Voy. even in moderate waves. At this point it looks like the Voy. is going on the challenge, with a rudder. I'll use my cedar yoke. What's your EP for May 20th? Marcie and I are starting at LIS north May 23rd

Swift Canoes have a clamp on carbon yoke they sell. Call them and give them some dimensions and they will make one for you. it fits their carbon gunnels.

voyager: ". What's your EP for May 20th? Marcie and I are starting at LIS north May 23rd"

I'll be going in moose river N on the 21st with my brother in law. Maybe loop up through lacroix and geebee. Not sure yet. Should be liquid water and few bugs!

Magicpaddler- that cam mechanism is pretty cool.

muddyfeet: "

voyager: ". What's your EP for May 20th? Marcie and I are starting at LIS north May 23rd"

Magicpaddler- that cam mechanism is pretty cool. "

It was easier than I thought. I took a picture of a small one printed the picture enlarged to the size I wanted and pasted to the board. Then just cut it out with a jig saw and sanded to the lines. Drilled the hole and used a hacksaw to cut the slot.