With the season just beginning and seeing how windy it is in the cities today, it crossed my mind, how windy is too windy. Specifically with a MNII but really with any Kevlar. Has anybody had experience with gusts of wind damaging a canoe while driving?

Thanks

Living in NW Minnesota I travel in all sorts of wind, if not I wouldn’t get any where. I have solid racks on my car and truck. I use stop blocks on my bars and straps across the canoe. I have loops on the front and back of the car or truck to tie too. Some time I will tie a rope from the front rack, canoe thwart, and back rack. There is a great chance of the car falling off the canoe than the canoe falling off or getting damaged. Today we are having gust to 48 mph, which hasn’t been uncommon this year.
Carl

My 500 mile trip to the BWCA has seen all sorts of windy conditions in the last 40 plus years. I've never felt the need to pull over. I do use all Yakima equipment. The over the top straps are the work horse with the bow and stern attached ropes ( not to tight) helping with cross winds.

No concerns for me. I use two cross bars and a T- bar on my hitch. All three have side blocks. Straps on all the plus I do front and back tie down. I also do something I have never seen anyone else do. For my front and back tie down I actually use s section of strap or rope that goes over the top of the boat and through the front grab handles and attach my tie downs to that instead of attaching to just the grab handles. "THEORY" is I am pulling down on the whole boat instead of just pulling on the grab handles. Call me odd but hey I have been called much worse. To me a lot comes down to what is the spread between your contact points. The more boat you have just hanging out there with no contact underneath the more likely something could go wrong. I probably go overboard but my boat is important to me and more importantly I value the human life.

I honestly don't know how wind could damage a canoe. If a piece of flying debris hits it, sure. Or if it blows the canoe off the vehicle, obviously. But wind alone? Doesn't seem like a risk to me.

I love my Yakima rack with 78" bars. Perfect for hauling two canoes. Strapped down at both bars with tie-downs to my front hood loops. Nary a wiggle.

The key ingredient is the L-shaped gunwale brackets on the crossbars. Keelover Rooftop Canoe Mount I wouldn't carry a canoe on my vehicle without them. Pricey on the front end, but I will guarantee that you'll never wish for a better rack.

I drove most of the south to north distance of Wyoming in a brutal crosswind last year on the way to Quetico. The wind was bad enough to give the canoe a little shimmy in the gusts despite tight straps. I could use the sun roof to keep an eye on things and I stopped several time to check the straps, but had no issues. If my canoe survived that drive unscathed, I'm pretty sure it would take a tornado or hurricane to cause a problem.

I drive 1400 one way through the plains and have not had issues with winds up to 50mph. I've had hood straps break so I always carry extra. I get my canoe strapped so if I move it from either end the vehicle moves not the canoe. Be careful with ratchet straps, those can damage your canoe!

Get load stops!

Same here...no issues in 55-60 mph gusts other than having to stop and snug things up occasionally.

I initially had some significant shimmy with canoes on standard Outback roof racks regardless of how tight the straps around the center of the canoe are (and with caution not to overtighten!!) and then added front hood loops which kept it from getting too squirrelly in the wind, but even that would sometimes shift left and right depending on the direction of the wind.

I ended up getting some pipe insulation, cutting that down to about 6" lengths, and then placing four of those those over the gunwales and that added a lot more friction where the canoe rested on the crossbars. With that insulation compressed between the gunwales and crossbars it really prevented motion even with a strong crosswind.

Just cheap stuff like this pipe Insulation.

noodle: "I ended up getting some pipe insulation, cutting that down to about 6" lengths, and then placing four of those those over the gunwales and that added a lot more friction where the canoe rested on the crossbars. With that insulation compressed between the gunwales and crossbars it really prevented motion even with a strong crosswind."

Did noodle use his noodle to come up with a noodle? Couldn't help it... I also use a similar method. Added hood loops and use a pool noodle cut into short sections.

I use two ratchet straps on the front and find the right amount of tightness to use. Used only one strap long ago pulled to each side but the canoe would slide more. Two straps holds better.

Have one ratchet strap in back and then a cam buckle pull strap over the middle of the canoe and through the doors. Use four sections (about a foot long) of a pool noodle cut in half for contact on my truck roof.

When I pull on the sides of the canoe and the truck moves, then it is tight enough. Have not had any problems with this set up in the last 15 years.

Once drove over the Blatnik Bridge with about 40-45 mph winds and the whole truck swayed but not the canoe. Told my wife that if we went over to stay with the canoe, they don't sink. She didn't think that was funny. It was!

A few years back we got hit by strong straight line winds while driving on Highway 61 on the North Shore of Lake Superior. My Wenonah Spirit II was on top of my van when it hit. It happened suddenly and trees started falling along the road. The wind was blasting off the lake and there was a building near by so I headed toward that to get less wind. During a strong gust there was a loud bang and the canoe shifted about a foot and a half to the right. The bang was a tree branch that impacted the canoe, then gravel picked up by the wind was peppering the vehicle. When I finally could get out of the van, there was a 3 foot crack in the side of the canoe and one of the tie down straps did not break but it "delaminated" for lack of a better term into many individual strands. The canoe stayed on the roof and I simply tighten the straps a drove home. Fiberglass patching made to canoe useful again, however the Van needed to be repainted where the wind got to it, and the windshield which held but was very dinged up. $13,000 damage to the van but we felt lucky to be in one piece, all the trees missed us. That was one tough canoe.

Using many of the same tie-down methods described here, I've had pretty good luck with carrying my canoe on top of the vehicle, regardless of wind. Sometimes we are shown right after departure that we are not secured well enough for the wind but that is then quickly remedied.

Only one time can I recall persistant wind issues: It was on my "newish" 2007 Ford Escape that we were carrying a canoe with those rooftop foam blocks and just could not get it tight enough to resist the wind--frequently stopping to re-secure the load and pulling the straps tighter and tighter to the point where we even kinked in the vehicle's roof! I don't use those foam blocks anymore.

One other time I was not careful about where I placed a tie-down rope and left it touching the exhaust pipe. A few miles down the road, when the exhaust pipe got hot, it melted through the rope and the canoe broke loose. The canoe was not damaged but it did a number on my car's hood when it slid forward. Of course that was not the wind's fault--just poor execution of the tie-down process.

I remember using a cheap adjustable clamp-on roof rack on my VW micro bus in 1970. I was carrying my first boat, a 70# aluminum Sears canoe. I also remember the first trip north on the expressway with a strong crosswind, watching the canoe shift back and forth sideways on the rack wondering how long it would stay on the roof.

Within a few years I switched to a Quik-n-Easy rack which clamped securely to the rain gutters. Quick-n-Easy gunnel clamps secured the canoe to the rack. By this time I had learned a few knots so the boat was also secured on the racks and by stem and stern to the van’s bumpers. Around 1980 I switched to a Yakima rack and straps, and continue to use this brand to this day.

I was lucky in the early days to never lose a canoe off the cheap rack and once I went with Yakima no more problems.

Two tie downs over the top. Two front and back.

I like to put a bungee strap on one of the tie downs front, and back.

Helps take up any slack that might develop.

50 plus years of hauling canoes no trouble.

I have an aluminum canoe and use ratchet straps. No issues.

Thanks for the tips and stories!

This is the Yakima rack setup with the load stops that was mentioned. I use 2 ropes and a few square knots to tie the boat down. Works great, this all is I’ve done for years lots trips. When traveling to my local lakes I only tie down the front.

I had a new spirit 2 on top of my truck when a severe storm hit. I didn't have the front strapped down to well when a down burst hit and ripped the canoe right off the truck taking the bars with it. Canoe flew though the air into the ditch and was cut in half. Thankfully no one was hurt. We put it in the back of the tuck and I rode home holding it down. Back then spring creek could fix anything. We called them up and said it would be $200 to fix it so we did. Sold it a few years later. It never did glide strait after that.

Just did a 1400 mile round trip with my canoe on a Yakima rack with some high winds. No issues.

Bentpushrod: "Just did a 1400 mile round trip with my canoe on a Yakima rack with some high winds. No issues. "

A 1400 mile round trip in that antique?! You, sir, are a madman. And I mean that as a compliment, just to be clear.