Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska General Purpose Boat x NO TRAILER

Hum: Gheenoe's are very stable. Because they are a chopper gun boat they are very heavy. A 15' 6" Classic weighs 245 pounds depending on the guy spraying the mold. If you could manhandle the boat on top of a roof rack you would most likely exceed the manufacturers maximum weight for a roof load. A Gruman Sport boat weighs 110 pounds.

Bob, for heavier canoes, like my 260 lb 18ft x 60in freighters, I recommend steel truck rack only. Some full-size van style steel cargo racks have a slick roller bar system on the back and are equally good.

It comes down to technique and using your fking brain. Rather than hypothetical thinking out loud, speak from experience instead. The warn drill winch is what I recommend, to get the bow up on the back rack. Reposition the winch to forward bar to continue sliding.

The drill winch has free spool and reverse, so can be used for safe unloading and lowering of the canoe as well.

Mainer:
Please note I used the words "roof rack" and "roof load". Please also note that the ladder rack you show in the picture does not place any weight on the roof of the vehicle. The ladder rack transfers the road to the four corners of the box on the pickup.

I know what you typed. There are plenty of rugged steel roof racks for common 4wds like his Jeep, that can support the heavier loads and even the hundreds of lbs. of weight from two people sleeping in a rooftop tent.

This ARB roof rack on my old right hand drive hdj-81 landcruiser came off a rolled fzj80 landcruiser. Coupla bent bars and it was no worse for wear. I bought it for cheap. The ARBs are tough.

Again, speak from experience, rather than hypothetical bllsht .

Fascinating mainer, I had no idea that you could drive a winch with a dewalt. What model warne winch and dewalt drill.? Been looking at 1/2" drive 20v dewalt for a power lug wrench and for trailer jacks. Fill me in here, you freighter canoe sure is sweet. Mb

Nice rig.

ARB doesn’t make junk in my experience.

Bob,
I just leave an obsolete 18volt dewalt drill attached to the warn drill winch. DeWalt makes an adaptor so you can use the newer 20 volt batteries. I also use this set up to pull boat over wood piles and beaver dams to tall to jump. It will not pull a moose out of the water though, I hope warne makes a stronger one some day.

Thanks mainer I have a 20 volt brushless dewalt that has a 1/2' chuck sounds like all i need is the warn and a snatch block set up to handle it . Mb

These boats are a bit heavy for my intention.

Main: That is a good idea to use 3 racks to spread the load instead of concentrating it on 2 crossbars