Will post on the gear forum but what to choose?

Butch

In my experience, it depends upon your vehicle and what is the factory option.

My Toyota Sienna has great factory cross bars. The Honda's factory crossbar option for the CRV is not very good. I use Yakima towers and Jetstream bars on that vehicle.

Yakima and Thule are both great.

If you do go after market you can reuse the crossbars and any attachments, such as canoe brackets or kayak saddles, from one vehicle to the next. You just need new mounting hardware for the next vehicle.

I have had Yakima cross bars on three different vehicles now.

In the near future, I will put the cross bars on their fourth vehicle.

A lot of factory bars are not wide enough for wider canoes, so it kinda depends on what you're going to carry on it.

dogwoodgirl: "A lot of factory bars are not wide enough for wider canoes, so it kinda depends on what you're going to carry on it."

+1.

We've owned several Subaru models. Our 2011 Outback carries our Northwind 17 nicely, but doesn't let me leave the portage pads in place while transporting. Our 2004 Outback carried our Old Town Columbia with pads in place. Our Bajas (we've owned three) had factory bars that were useless for any canoe we've ever owned. We now have a Honda CRV with Thule after-market towers and crossbars that are plenty wide for most canoes and have clearance for portage pads...

TZ

Most recent Volvo wagons come with roof rails installed. The bars they sell to fit the rails are actually Thule cross bars. The bars are only wide enough for one canoe (46 in.). My Magic and Northstar fit fine. My Bell Northwind was a tight fit. Had to mount the canoe brackets facing out to fit inside the boat.

p.s. One could readily replace the 46 in. bars with a longer Thule bar to fit you needs.

I bought the 78" Thule crossbars (at Canoecopia) to carry two canoes on my Outback, which is there standard. Got to watch not banging your head on them.

I've always used the car rails and cross bars - RAV4 and now Outback.

I'll take factory bars.

Used them with very good results.

So much good here. OP here. The issue is I have a 2021 Honda Odyssey and finding compatible towers isn’t going well on their app. Must be possible to put the 78” bars on. I hope.

I also have a set of yakama bars and will seek towers to put on the other car. I’m three kids into where I was when my wife and I honeymoonened and frequented the Q regularly

Butch

I have always gone with Yakima stuff ever since the vehicles I have owned no longer came with rain gutters. On those vehicles I used Quik-n-Easy racks which were very easy to switch between multiple vehicles over many years.

Yakima is what I bought after Quik-n-Easy and I just stuck with it. My dad always used Thule. Probably no real difference between them. I have been able to continue using Yakima attachments on newer towers/brackets, which I try to buy on the used market or wait for Yakima 20% off sales.

I use Thule square bars with saddles. I've never had to buy anything new because these items are widely available on Craigslist for very good prices. Reason: people get a new car and their old Thule parts don't fit. Often you can buy a complete setup and resell whatever parts you don't need.

golanibutch: "So much good here. OP here. The issue is I have a 2021 Honda Odyssey and finding compatible towers isn’t going well on their app.
Butch"

Which app?

I would go directly to Thule or Yakima website.

I had my Yakima round bars on the dealer installed rails of a 2017 Odyssey. I used the rail grabbers.

I also found some Yakima equipment on craigslist that I have made good use of.

This photo also shows a Vintage* X-Cargo Snail Shell on the ultimate road tripping machine:



* Vintage snail shell found at a garage sale for $5 over 10 years ago. Gets used once or twice a year. Bugs washed off and goes back in storage. I wonder if a hipster would be willing to pay $400? It would be a deal compared to what brand new snail shells go for.

I recently had to go through this... None of the aerodynamic bars from Thule or Yakima are wide enough to accommodate two canoes for my Prius V. I could have built a Yakima round bar setup for my car, but then I was unable to locate one of the feet kits for my car @ REI or elsewhere in the channel. It didn't seem like Thule makes the long rectangular bars any longer, but honestly I gave up.

I went with an Inno rack setup, with 200cm (79") bars as well as a 50" set of bars for when I'm just moving one canoe. The long bars worked great driving 7+ hours on interstate and county highway speeds, the boats didn't move once.
Inno uses rectangular bars, and are 100% compatible with Thule items for rectangular bars.