It really pains me to purchase Thule
products, as they have insane markups, for a few pieces of simple tubing, steel
brackets, molded plastic parts and straps, although they don’t have much
competition – Yakima racks are the only so-called competition, but it’s really
more of a duopoly, since they both have insane markups. I have half a mind to design my own roof rack
accessories and sell them, there’s ridiculous margins in it, and they are
simple parts to manufacture. Not only
that, the few and far between distributors in Canada seem to think marking up
the already high US cost an additional 50% for US MSRPis deserved, just because
Canadians are used to paying higher retail prices fr everything without any
real reason for it.
Despite my griping, I did purchase a Thule
579XT kit off of eBay in the US for a somewhat decent price of around $80 last
year. Most people transporting canoes
seem to use those foam blocks that sit on your roof and dual tiedowns on the
front and the back to secure the canoe, but it just seems a little weird to me
to not secure the canoe itself to the roof.
As well, you have to put the blocks in the right places, they scratch
your roof, and if they are positioned not quite right and slide of pop out of
position, you all of a sudden have a canoe that isn’t really secured all that
well.
I already had a Thule
rack, so I found the 579XT and liked the design of it, over other more
conventional canoe racks. The 579XT is
an accessory kit, which means you already have to have the base rack mounted to
your car, and it’s just the bits and pieces to securing the canoe. The kit comes with four dual shot plastic
molded brackets with a softer grip surface on top where it contacts the canoe
gunwales. The brackets also have wingnut
type knobs to prevent the brackets from sliding around and underneath each
bracket there is a notch intended for you to route the straps through. It comes with two of the standard tiedown
straps which also have silicone protectors around the buckles. I must admit is a nice touch and a good
feature to have as you need to throw the buckle over the canoe to reach it from
the other side when securing it. There
is one catch though, the protectors have to be slid down around the buckle for
it to protect your canoe, they slide up the strap in order for you to reach the
strap release lever.
Along with the brackets and the straps,
the 579XT comes with two hooks, ropes and two nylon straps with loop ends
intended for wrapping around the carry handles on the canoe before hooking the
loops with the rope (phew), one on each end.
I personally don’t use all of that, and just hook the front carry handle
directly with the hooks on the ratchet buckle, one on each side which reduces
the side to side movement of the canoe in high crosswinds. The two straps on the middle section, looping
under the bar on each side allow you to easily tighten the straps very securely
and not have to worry about the canoe sliding, foam pads getting loose, etc. Another thing with this rack system that is a
good bonus is that the canoe rides up at least 6 inches higher than using foam
blocks. It also depends on the canoe
design itself, some canoes will hang down in front of your windshield quite a
bit and obscure a significant amount of your view, some to the point where I
wonder if it’s legal to drive the vehicle, but my canoe and rack system with
the 579XT doesn’t obstruct my view at all.
I’d recommend the 579XT as a canoe carrier,
if you already own a Thule rack. I have
a dual system on my car that has a single kayak cradle in the middle and the
canoe carrier on the sides. Sometimes I
install a Thule Peloton bike rack to one of the sides of the kayak rack as
well. It makes for a strange looking
rack but it’s multifunctional.
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