So I'm considering buying a canoe, and I'm either going to use my wife's Honda Fit or my 2010 mazda 3i sedan. I'm not sure if there's a way to do it with the 3 or not, so I figured I'd see if you guys had any luck hauling stuff like this on your fit. I'm looking at one that's 16' long and 84~ pounds.

Something like this...
Mad River Adventure 16 Canoe at REI.com


So anyway, does anyone have a pretty decent roof rack system, or know of one that would work on well? The car in question is an 08 Sport with an automatic transmission. I was hoping Honda sold one, but I couldn't find one as a genuine honda accessory (although I'm sure they could exist and I just don't know where to look?)

Is towing as out of the question as my google searches have lead me to believe...?

I'd really appreciate any help you can give!

 

Try finding Thule or Yakima Roof Rack. I think the one in the picture below is Yakima.

 

Yes i would go with thule. There kind of pricey though for ethier one. I want one as well but don't have the cash as of now

 

Does anyone here have personal experience with one, info on how invasive an installation it is?

 

My wife and I have a Yakima rack with two J-Hooks that we use to haul our 16' tandem Prijon Cruiser II kayak which weighs about 82 lbs . . . the racks are rated up to 150 lbs. I use two come-along's (ratchet and strap, you can find at Walmart) to secure the kayak to the racks. In addition to the come-along's, I use nylon ropes with hooks and ratcheting pulleys (sold by Yakima) on each end of the kayak and hook them to the Fit's tow hooks (one under the rear bumper and the loop that you screw into the front bumper). You can use regular nylon or climbing rope for this and use a tautline or truckers knot nstead of the mechanical pulleysto tighten the boat down.

A normal trip for us is about 20-80 miles, but we've traveled over 100 miles without any issues. Just make sure that the boat is well balanced on the racks and try to place the j-hooks closer to the "feet" (outside of the car) rather than dead center. There's a very small amount of bouncing that you'll notice if you look at the boat, but no vibration or or movement felt within the car. You'll probably get worse gas mileage than normal due to the added wind resistance, but it's not really a dramatic drop. We've had this setup since we bought the car in January '08 and we probably take the kayak out maybe 3-4 times per month between March-November. Prior to this, we had a Hyundai Accent and a ZR2 Chevy Blazer for which we did the same thing.

Be prepared for stares though, our boat's bright red and almost as long if not longer than the car itself. You won't get tailgated as often, which is a great benefit.

 

lol @ the stares


Do the straps on the tow hooks (which I'm certain must have to wrap over the bumper) cause any kind of rubbing of the paint? I would think it would wear it a little over time.

What's the yakima installation like... do you have to drill into the car for the bolts or something?

 

The come-along straps have hooks on either end. They wrap around the boat and hook directly to the racks themselves, they don't touch the car. The ropes connect the ends of the boat (from the carry-handles) to the tow loops on the back and front of the car. My particular ropes have very soft plastic sleeves that slide along the length of the rope and go in between the rope and the car to prevent rubbing. The area where rubbing might occur is only along ~2-3" of the rope, so you can tie a soft rag or something in there to prevent the paint from getting scratched.

The racks are pretty easy to install, but they will require that you ride around with them on for a little while, then readjust them to make sure they're good and tight. The racks sit on Q-Towers that are made specifically for the vehicle. The Q-towers are metal but have soft rubber soles that rest on the roofline of the car. The towers are secured with "Q-clips" which grab the top inside door jam. These have soft rubber where they touch the paint, so no scratches. You might think that this would cause the rain seal to be broken or that it won't secure the racks down. I can assure you that with 3 vehicles, we've never had any leaking, and the racks have always been clamped down really tight. Here is a link to Yakima's website which explains the Q-Towers.

Okay, figured it out. The first pic shows just the come-along straps hooked in. The second pic shows the whole setup with straps and ropes.

 

awesome dude, thanks for all the tips and info!

 

fuuuuuuuck yeah. And if where it clips onto the car doesn't even mess up the paint or require denting or drilling, i'm sold. that's cool.