Anyone have advice for mounting portage pads on the yoke, in terms of the size of the gap?

Also... Perfectly parallel? Or slightly angled?

Cheers!

I doubt there is a one size fits all for this. My personal preference is to angle slightly and have them wide enough to be a little outside my traps where it is more level. I find it more painful to have them directly on my trap muscles. These are high quality thick foam block pads. Sling pads will be more comfortable being parallel. If they are clamp on then you should simply try different positions to find what is most comfortable to you.

My preference is sling pads, parallel , positioned on outer shoulder so it does not pinch my neck.

I have block-type pads. I align the outer edge of the pads with the outer edges of my shoulders (more or less). The front of the pads are angled slightly outward so that the upper arms also support the weight.

With sling-type pads, the angle doesn't matter because they are much shorter than block-type pads.

I like to stand in front of a mirror and then position them. The angle of your shoulders may be surprising. I like to have a wide area of contact on my shoulders.

My pads have a single bolt and a wingnut. Before I installed the bolts I put the canoe on my shoulders with the bare yolk and had a helper tilt the boat and place the pads between the yoke and my shoulders. We moved them around until I was comfortable and marked the yoke. I averaged the distances as they were not exactly the same. I marked a slot that extended 1/2 inched both sides of the mark for the bolt. Drilled and cleaned the slot with a chisel.

The adjustability works for multiple users( I always like it when someone offers to carry my canoe) and even different clothing in the different seasons.

I always have adjustable pads.Easy to change positions if somebody else is carrying the canoe.

You want them to sit mostly on your shoulder joint. It's when they sit on your muscle area that the pain will start the fastest. Problem I've found is when you position commercial pads/slings that far out, the canoe wants to slip off either shoulder. I've started making my own that have good curvature to hug (and grip) my shoulders. The more surface area that the pad is distributed onto, the better.

I agree with BeaV's assessment of pad positioning, and I made a comment with an illustration in a previous thread:

Link to previous thread

Thanks for all the input!

Will be doing some tinkering in the offseason, and this is on the list.

Happy Holidays all - thinking of liquid water...