Date: 24 Jul 2000 19:35:53 -0400 From: Thomas Cormen <thcnopsamipuedes.cs.dartmouth.edu> Subject: Canoe on top of 9-5 wagon
I've had a 9-5 wagon for a little over half a year, and it's getting to be time to think about taking our canoe out for a paddle. The 9-5 replaced a Subaru Outback; I had the Thule rack and canoe attachment for the Outback, and everything was fine. The same rack and canoe attachments fit the 9-5 wagon, but there's a problem. When I put the canoe on top, it's upside down, with two straps around its middle, one strap per crossbar. So far, so good. But I also like to fasten the front and rear of the canoe to attachment points underneath the vehicle. Most cars have such attachment points front and rear. The 9-5 wagon has a nice towing hook in the middle of the rear, but what it has in the front is awfully strange. About a foot or so behind the front of the vehicle is a rubber plug that you pull out, and you screw in what is essentially a big eye hook, with a stem several inches long. That provides a towing point if you're being towed from the front. However, the owner's manual warns that you shouldn't drive with this eye hook installed, and I can see why...it points forward and down, and it hangs a few inches below the chassis. If it were to catch on something...and it would be likely to wherever I'm putting the canoe in...it would be mighty bad news. Now, I cannot be the first person on this planet to want to use a 9-5 wagon to carry a canoe. I could simply not lash down the front, but that makes me a bit nervous. I'm not as worried about the canoe yawing side to side as I drive down the highway as I am worried about it lifting in the front from the wind it catches beneath. Has anyone out there had to deal with this problem? How did you? --THC ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tom Cormen Voice: (603) 646-2417 Associate Professor Fax: (603) 646-1672 Dept. of Computer Science Email: thcnopsamartmouth.edu Dartmouth College URL: http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~thc/ 6211 Sudikoff Laboratory Hanover, NH 03755-3510 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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