Fish-Hawk.Net

hey,

i've just purchased a 4wheeler and now im looking at building a rack so that it can carry my canoe on top.
there is not much online as far as examples. i've only gotten a few pics.
if anyone has some pictures of there setup that they would like to share with me it would be awesome.
i'd like to get some ideas as i start figuring out how i will build mine.

Here you go trouthunter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsDdrPI7u4g

There were some posts on this in the past with pics, including my setup, but they were lost in the crash and I can't find my old pics at all. I had a local welder make mine out of 1" square aluminum tubing. Steel posts were welded onto my bumpers for the front and rear support brackets and then two straight horizontal braces to join the two brackets. I had an extra bar welded across the rear bracket to support my old 1.5 hp outboard. The aluminum was more expensive than steel, but well worth it for the reduction in weight.

I've got some old hard drives that I can check for pics later. Good luck.

Cheers

Finally found those old pics. See what you think.

Nice setup Smitty looks like a really solid rack, having it well balanced is the key to an atv canoe/boat rack. In the process of building one for my current atv to transport my jon boat.

How do you find the weight distribution having the sportspal up there? A friend and I thought about doing it to his ATV, but decided against it because we thought that it would tip easily on some of the rougher trails.

Gotta remember the sportspals are really light. Our 14' pointed is 35lbs...

I have one buddy with a similar set up. He throws his tin boat up there and he makes it to all the same lakes we do without any issues. We are usually fishing Brookies when I'm with him so the trails aren't the greatest and I haven't seen him have any issues except maybe with some low branches.

I've gone past quite a few people with same kind of set up and seen all kinds of different vessels up there.

Congrats on the new quad by the way you're going to have a blast!

campnfish wrote:How do you find the weight distribution having the sportspal up there? A friend and I thought about doing it to his ATV, but decided against it because we thought that it would tip easily on some of the rougher trails.

My transom stern is 46 lb so it's not bad at all. Square stern is 39lb and pointed is only 34lb. I know the rack look kinda high in the pics but it's just over my head when on the quad. Plus compared to having a steel one the difference is huge as steel is 3 times as heavy, so it's not really a concern for me. I worry more about missing branches or leaning trees to make sure I clear them. If I had a steel rack it would be a different story on rough trails. It would also depend on the weight of your machine of course.

Cheers

thanks for the pics smitty.
i'll be building mine with steel tubing and weld it directly to my front and rear bumper.
this is gonna open up a whole bunch of other trout lakes i've been eyeing for years.
cant wait for spring

One more thing about mine. I just had the short 4" posts welded to the bumpers. With a 1/4" hole drilled in them and the uprights and braces everything is held together with pins and/or bolts so the whole rack comes off in 4 pieces in no time at all for storage at home or if I wanted to hide it in the bush. With the lightweight aluminum it's a piece of cake. Good luck with yours.

Cheers