TTurner
Fort Collins, CO USA
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Joined: 06/30/2003
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I have a BigFoot 9.6 and want to carry a 16 foot, 70lb canoe on top. I had an extra rail installed so I do have mounting points at both ends. I will experiment with various tie-down schemes but was hoping someone had an elegant solution, either purchased or home-made. I am a little concerned about the strength of the light-weight aluminium rack although it does appear to be securely attached.
Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.
Tom Turner
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CLIFF WHITE
San Pedro, CA. USA
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Joined: 07/02/2003
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Tom:
I just purchased a Bigfoot 10.6 with the intentions of carrying my 22' sea kayak somewhere on the roof. I had contacted Bigfoot themselves to see if they had any experiance with this need. They just said to talk to my dealer. All the dealers do is give you a funny look. Possibly you have been down this road. Anyway, my thought is to install some Yakima tracks on the drivers side of the AC, and use my kayak mounts from my SUV. The problem will be in securing the tracks to the fiberglass roof. No one seems to have a good idea.The other problem is getting the kayak up there. It should be a challange. Lance uses these tracks with inside support to give the owner a place to hold something, but Bigfoot seems to be in the dark. Like you, I'm hopeing someone has already attempted this.
fxhldgr
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TTurner
Fort Collins, CO USA
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Cliff,
Thanks for the response. We (my wife and I) were able to get the canoe on top without much difficulty. We leaned the canoe on end by the ladder and I climbed on top and pulled while my wife pushed. It slid easily up and over on the rear rack with no scratches to the canoe or camper. You do have to guard against it sliding off the side of the camper but rack guards or something similar should prevent this.
I haven't determined how I plan to tie it down yet but I don't think it will be a problem except for the strength of the aluminum racks (although the dealer indicated he has a few clients that have hauled canoes on the racks with no problem). I would prefer something more substantial like a Yakima rack but we will see.
I will let you know what we do and hopefully will have no "This Happened To Me" story about what doesn't work.
Thanks.
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ladywolfe
Was in San Diego, CA, Now Woodland WA
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Joined: 11/30/2002
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Call the Northern Lite manufacturer in Canada. We have a canoe and bought a rack from them. We have a Northern Lite and they are similar to the Bigffoot. Good luck.
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RoadAway
Renton, WA USA
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Joined: 01/21/2003
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How much did your canoe rack cost from Northern Lite? Have you used it yet? How did it work? How difficult is it to get up on the roof? How did you mount the rack on roof, and are you confident of it being solid and not causing a leak in your roof?
We have a 2003 NL 10.2 and we have a canoe. How long did it take to get the rack from NL?
Thanks for taking time to answer our questions.
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ladywolfe
Was in San Diego, CA, Now Woodland WA
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We have not put the rack on yet but we were assured that if mounted properly it would not leak. We got our rack at blade chev. in WA when we got our camper. The factory will put them on if you order them that way. They are designed for the NL. The brackets curve to fit the camper. I believe the rack was only a few hundred.This rack will also accomodate a boat or maybe 2 kayaks. If you need help the NL owner's name is Mac and he is very nice.
Our camper is also a NL 10-2. If you have any more ques. just feel free to ask.
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crossbowme
South China, Maine
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Joined: 10/18/2002
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Be carefull about your overall height. Around here many bridges, over pass , etc are 12' and some are less than that. I cleaned out an A/C last winter because of height.
Another thing to be concerned about are the rail fasteners themselves. The pressure on one sq foot on a roof at 70 mph is very high. Make sure they will hold that force. Most are just screwed in, not bolted.
OFTEN I have seen here in Maine (and I mean often), canoes, coolers, bikes and more laying trashed by the road (or actually coming at me) because they're tiedown on the roof didn't hold!
LADYWOLFE - let us know how your canoe rack works please. I've thought about one for my NL but didn't know NL sold them. Thanks.
2003 GMC 3500 Crew Cab SLT 4X4
Duramax Diesel/Allison Transmission
Torklift Tiedown System
2001 10-2000 CD Northern Lite
3.5 KW Generator
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All4fun
Calgary, Alberta
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Joined: 11/12/2002
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I've been wondering how to do this as well.
I like Cliffs idea of installing tracks for use with a standard car rack. I'd want to be sure that I could get enough clearance over the roof vents and skylite though.
Questions on installation of said tracks....I'm no structural engineer but I just installed two 75W solar panels on my BF9.6 by screwing directly to the roof (3 screws/bracket, 6/panel) in combination with a silicone bead the entire length of the bracket and they seem rock solid. This was how the Solar shop advised to install and there still on there even after some 85MPH speeds passing traffic.
Roof rack tracks from an SUV or mini van I think are usually mounted with four screws per track, that in combination with a bead of silicone the entire length of the track...or if you are sure you will never want to take it off, construction adhesive...would make a solid mount.
I used sheet metal screws that come with the rubber gasket under the head for the solar panels, not sure how they'd work with roof rack tracks. BE CAREFUL not to overtighten! Once the screw hole is stripped you'll have to look at alternative methods of installation.
They also sell rubber expanding plugs for solar panel installation which I was told by a dealer will work on the BF....though I find many dealers have no clue what they are talking about in regards to fiberglass campers....or any other campers for that matter. Would be worth investigating.
Good Luck!
JD
'07 GMC Sierra 2500HD CC SLT 4x4 w/Duramax
'05 24FB Thor Fury
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luvtokayak
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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Joined: 07/03/2003
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I too would like a roof system but in the meantime my 13' River Runner just slides right inside ('84 9.5 Bigfoot) It sits on an angle with with one end over the cab and the other on the floor just inside the door.It's not tied down in any way and never causes a problem (other than having to remove it to be able to move around in the camper) and I go on very rough roads.Good luck finding a solution.
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ladywolfe
Was in San Diego, CA, Now Woodland WA
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The canoe rack is two solid bars welded to curved pieces that fit on the curved corners of the camper. These curved pieces are bolted on the camper. Click on this link and you can barely see a rack on a NL. It is the on the one against the wall.
http://www.northern-lite.com/construction.shtml
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