I'm driving my truck from Nebraska to Ely in about five weeks and will be renting a canoe. I need some ideas on how to build a temporary canoe rack to get from VNO to our entry.

Should I build a support in the back of the bed to hold up that side and rest the front end on the roof with some pads or just drop the tailgate and strap it in the bed with some kind of flag? The bed is pretty short, I think only 5.5 ft.

Could try something like the following...

Royce: " "

That's what I would do also. You're not going that far with it.

Recent truck rack thread

In that recent truck rack thread, Pamonster uses a pair of foam pads on the truck cab that not only looks like it will give the bow of the canoe a stable place to ride, it should be about as aerodynamic as you could hope for.

Hood tie down straps are a quick easy anchor point.

Straps