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My 89 xj has really flimsy roof racks, they bend and completely bow with a light canoe up top, any recommendations? Can I just lay the canoe on the roof and ratchet strap it or is that a bad idea?. I already removed the flimsy peice of crap factory one and plugged all the hole,looks better anyways
They make foam gunwale supports. You put a set of four on your canoe to protect your roof. Put the supports as close to the ends of your roof as you can and tie it down.
If you ratchet strap it to your roof, you will warp and dent it (ask me how I know) and the canoe will bump around at speed cause the roof has a lot of give.
I would recommend you use the Yakima 1A towers and at least some 60" crossbars. I haul a 14' MadRiver and 2 10' Wilderness Gear touring kayaks at highway speed with no issues.
Check this thread out, the red XJ mid way down the page loaded with the canoe/kayak, is my fishing buddies but I have the same set up on my 90'.
X2 on the yakima racks. I had one on my 96 for hauling canoes, kayaks and bikes. They move the load out to the rain gutters where they can be supported.
i drive 120 miles with a 2 man kyack on my 89 xj with the flimsy rails. no problems at all.
go to local hardware store and get foam pipe insulation tubes. put them over the rails to keep from sliding and use rachet straps to hold it down. i connected the straps to the bumper
i tie mine down tight and it doesnt bounce and there is no need for me to buy an expensive mounting system. foam insulation tubes and straps, easy.
Lay it up there and ratchet it down. Nobody can tell me it can't be done. Oh yeah, those are two kayaks up there with it! (This was before me Jeep was lifted...don't laugh)
instead of buying the gunwale things just run to wally-world or what have you in castlegar and pick up a few foam pool noodles. slice halfway through lengthwise.
I've done it on an 87, but it's not really happy, and a real rack would be better. If you do carry on the factory rack, I'd advise not to cinch the canoe too tight. Hold it down with ropes at bow and stern to the bumpers/tow hooks or whatever, and use cinch straps or straps from thwarts to crossbars only to keep it from shifting. Try not to buckle the roof or pull the well nuts out.
I ratchet strapped mine front n back to the bumpers, and used another rachet over the top but it was used to keep the canoe centered on top. In the pic the middle rachet goes thru the windows... but I didn't like that and put it the way I explained.
I don't like using the roof rack for strength when tieing down. Like it was said above about the screw plugs pullin out, I just worry it is gonna let go at bad time.
But I drove for 2 hours at hiway speed the way it was above, than 30 minutes on some rough old loggin trails, washed out trails and such... not a problem there or back.
My 89 xj has really flimsy roof racks, they bend and completely bow with a light canoe up top, any recommendations? Can I just lay the canoe on the roof and ratchet strap it or is that a bad idea?. I already removed the flimsy peice of crap factory one and plugged all the hole,looks better anyways
If you haddened already remove your factory rails, I would suggest a pair of Mopar sport bars. Theyre hard to find but they work great and are cheaper then Yakima or Thule. Its been awhile, I dont even know if I can find a link. I'll try.
EDIT: Heres a link to buy them but I havent found a pic of them yet. They are flat bars, similar to Thule bars, that bolt to the factory XJ rails. http://www.justforjeeps.com/racasputba2.html
EDIT again: Never mind, I just noticed you have an 89, The Mopar bars only work on 91+. Oh well, maybe someone else that needs crossbars will search and find this.
Yakima makes towers that fit the factory tracks for both types of XJ racks, but they are still not as strong as the gutter mount style racks. The weak link is the factory tracks. I don't trust the factory stuff for a heavy load at all, not to mention the leaks that will be caused by the stress on the factory stuff.
I have a gutter mount rack with extensions and can carry 2 16" foot canoes on several trips every summer at leat 200+ miles on curvy mtn. roads and some nasty dirt/gravel roads. With the rack and the rachet straps the things don't budge.
The rack came with the Jeep from the PO but this link below will take you to the company website that makes/sells them. Cheaper than Thule or Yakima and much srtonger, more adaptablilty.
Another cheap way to get two canoes on is to use a regular width gutter mount rack, and attach a couple of two by fours to the bars with u-bolts. At the nether ends of the two by fours, put eye bolts which can serve both as tiedowns and limit stops. This arrangement is not very beautiful but it is very strong, and if dimensioned right it will carry two canoes in comfort for a long trip.
