TLDR: Roof rack crossbars over 2-boat trailer (and why comparisons)
When we first needed to carry a family four pack of canoes I built a trailer to haul two of them, carrying the other two atop roof racks the minivan.
I bought a ubiquitous 4’ x 8’ stake body trailer platform with a standard 3’ long tongue, but used a different design than most canoe trailers.
Since I only need to carry two canoes on the trailer I stacked the shortest two boats on crossbars vertically up the center, eliminating the need for a very long tongue. The canoes could be placed with the bows less than a foot from the vehicle without impinging the turning radius. Even jackknifing the trailer in a backup oops the bow couldn’t touch the van.
Rather than have a cargo box area where the bottom boat was centered I made narrow boxes along either side, 8’ long x 2’ high x 10” wide. All the long linear stuff that didn’t need to be kept dry (the side pockets had hinged lids, but not 100% waterproof) went in those boxes; paddles, tarp poles, water containers, etc. Serendipitously those open side pockets also proved to fit bicycles.
The vertical stack design worked very well for our 2-boat trailer needs, but when we bought a full sized van with 11 feet of rain gutter I stuck four Quick & Easy crossbars on it and off-set four canoes taper nestled, all gunwales down, all with gunwale stops, two belly lines each and bow/stern lines. With everything in/on one vehicle we had no need for a trailer, and blessed was the day I stopped unnecessarily towing a trailer. There were a lot of reasons I didn’t much like using a trailer.
Let me count the ways; backing up, making sure I had enough turn around room (didn’t always), not being able to use some gas pump orientations, merging onto crowded highways with 30 feet of van, trailer and hull overhang, checking trailer tires and bearings and lights, parking lots that were not amenable to towing trailers, extra axle tolls, tags and registration fees, car camping spots occupied largely by 30 feet of van and trailer, etc, etc. Eeesshhh.
There are more reasons I disliked towing a trailer just for two boats. A long, narrow, switch-backed dirt road found to be impassibly blocked springs to mind; I had to back out a half mile before I found a spot side enough to unhook the trailer and turn it around by hand and do an incremental 12 point turn with the van. It didn’t help that the mountain drop off on one side was scary steep, and that white knuckle episode made me forever queezy about towing a trailer up an unknown road, which was “let’s explore this put in” limiting.
guyfawkes041 wrote:
Why not put both canoes on the roof of your vehicle?
Safe, reliable, DIY extensions for roof racks are easily made at home in an hour or less, and are far, far less expensive than trailers.
Other than the very customized 4-crossbar Quick & Easies I have used manufactured racks for the last 30 years, either Yakima or (mostly) Thule. Pricey at first, but we have reused those racks in full (the same Thule racks fit two CR-V’s and a Leer truck cap), or in large part with new feet/towers, on five subsequent vehicles. With the long crossbars, out to the edges of the side view mirrors, I can rack two canoes, even two tandems if I put the gunwale stops inside the hull.
BTW, rack fit guides default to the shortest crossbars that will work; that’s a nope for carrying two canoes. I figure if the crossbars don’t extend past the side view mirrors it’s street-legal (?), and unlikely that I’ll clip a crossbar on a street sign or jogger’s noggin. I may clunk my own head on them getting out, but will learn eventually.
It’s hard to even guesstimate the canoe toting miles put on those racks, at least a couple or three thousand miles a year, with a few 5000 mile+ trips thrown in for good measure.
Call it at 70,000 rack miles at a low guess. Rack cost, with some accessories purchased new, maybe $400 at today’s prices. Someone check my math, but I think that’s 0.005 cents a mile. 70,000 miles towing a trailer or 70,000 miles self-contained, I’ll take roof racks with wide crossbars in a heartbeat.
If you foresee the need to eventually carry more than two canoes a trailer makes sense, otherwise roof racks are much easier (and less expensive)
Should you go the trailer route have a look at the BMO trailer page for ideas, their canoe trailers are the product of decades of continual design improvement (and note the length of the tongue needed to carry canoes side-by-side).
http://www.bluemountainoutfitters.net/trailers.htmlWere I to redesign a trailer I would use crossbars compatible with either Thule or Yakima; their manufactured accessories like gunwale stops, cradles, bike racks or even rocket boxes are common used, pricey as hell new and worth the design engineering that went into them.