When Midwest mountaineering went out of business, I picked up a four boat rack, and i'm just now trying to figure out how to secure it in my garage and get some of my boats onto it. They would mostly be canoes, but possibly a kayak every now and then.

The rack arms have one flat side and one shaped side with a slight V indentation, as you can see in the picture.

I've always stored my canoes on something relatively flat and upside down, as you can see by the red boat in the foreground.

I have a chipmunk problem in my garage, and I don't really want to give them a cozy hotel for the winter by storing the boats right side up. I think I can put the racks in either direction because the arms are securely anchored and will not budge.

So shall I install it with the flat side of the arm up as I am used to? The boats are all different lengths so the support is going to hit them at different places. And I don't think I should put the boat upside down and use the shaped side of the arms, right?

Just want to make sure i'm not missing something. Guessing that in the store they possibly stored the canoes right side up because they were indoors.

BWP, here is a photo of the racks I built for my canoes. Hope it gives you some guidance. I have since removed the plywood from the second shelf down and added longer cross pieces so I could store two canoes on that wall, but you can see how the racks are built and supported.

Thank you.

Ooooh, two canoes deep. I had not considered! I indeed flipped the supports I got from midwest upside down so as to have the flat side up.

Today, I will figure out spacing and put the second one in and we shall see how it works. I don't think I will be using the top one very often or it all, because I would literally need a ladder to get to it.