So for years on my old van I used two by fours with U bolts to attach to the side rails in order to carry two canoes. Cheap and very effective.
Now I have a new Chrysler Pacifica 2017 van. It has cross bars with side rails that are embedded in the vehicle's body so the U bolts won't work.
I don't want to pay hundreds of bucks to haul two canoes once in a while.
Have any of you used PVC piping to attach to cross bars to get the needed 78 or so inches of width? How did you attach PVC or other material to the cross bar?
Any help or ideas are much appreciated.

Here is what I did to extend my Thule rack. I just used some short cam straps to attach some 2x4s to the rack. I now also loop a cam strap around the factory rack and through the doors since I don't fully trust the factory mounting hardware of the roof rack.

I have a 2014 Town and Country. I was just thinking about how I'm going to get my canoe back. My nephew is taking it up on his truck. If he heads back early (taking his 2 yr old son. He may not like the trip and he will have to bring him home early) I'll need a way to get the canoe back.

If/when I figure something out. I'll let you know.

jmedlin: "Here is what I did to extend my Thule rack. I just used some short cam straps to attach some 2x4s to the rack. I now also loop a cam strap around the factory rack and through the doors since I don't fully trust the factory mounting hardware of the roof rack.


"

Of you get cross-eyed looking at that X?

I have a Taurus wagon that was our canoe vehicle for awhile. It has a roof rack with cross bars and to get the width for 2 canoes I used 2x4's and attached them to the cross bars with J bolts. I would think U bolts could work also.

I liked your cam strap idea. The 2x4 fits snugly against the crossbar so should be a good fit. Stopped at Lowe’s tonight and picked up four straps. Tomorrow will strap them on. Hope it works cause I need to haul two canoes this weekend. Thankfully only from Lake Vermilion near Tower to Mudro. No freeway, 55 per hour limit and about 50 mile drive. Good way to see how it works.
Thanks much for the idea!

This was on my '08 Chrysler, and I still use the same DIY PVC rack on my 2013 Chrysler T&C. Put the center cross piece of the PVC under the factory cross bars, then attach the PVC to the rack and rails with heavy duty zip ties........yeah, a little redneck, but it's worked for 4 trips to BW including a lot of interstate driving up to about 73mph.

When transporting just one canoe, your factory crossbars work great. Just buy a pool noodle and cut 4 pieces to pad the canoe on each contact point with the bars.

Here's a pic of the contraption, drilled some holes for some of the zip ties in order to limit side to side movement of PVC.