Canoe
looking for some home made canoe rack ideas for my popup?
Forum Discussion
To give you an idea of how many PUP roofs are made, look at this How It's Made video. Roof construction is around the 3:25 time stamp.
The above video is for Fleetwood/Colemans but I suspect quite a few others follow similar practices.
As for the front and rear leading edges being "soft", my first PUP's roof was solid construction for the main horizontal area and plywood front, rear and side wall. But the nice curved transition between the horizontal roof and the front and rear side wall was backed by nothing more than a stiff plastic. It was the only support at that transition point for the aluminum skin. With the current PUP, I don't have a good view of what is up under there for that transition.
There's not a way that I can think of that would guarantee that you hit a solid cross member when drilling in. My electronic stud finder cannot differentiate through the plywood ceiling, and there's no nails for a magnetic stud finder to key off of. Just hitting the outside edge where the top mates up with the side walls would be my suggestion. I'm just adverse to putting any new holes in my roof.
Canoes have been carried for decades on the roof of PUPs with the foam blocks and tie down straps. Use more than four blocks if you have a particularly heavy canoe. Avoid any weight and pressure on the front front and rear curved transition places as you've noted why. If I had one, I wouldn't hesitate to do it this way, so long as it straddles my A/C just fine. I would use ratchet straps to the frame across the sides as well as one on the front and rear of the canoe to A-frame and rear bumper respectively.
The above video is for Fleetwood/Colemans but I suspect quite a few others follow similar practices.
As for the front and rear leading edges being "soft", my first PUP's roof was solid construction for the main horizontal area and plywood front, rear and side wall. But the nice curved transition between the horizontal roof and the front and rear side wall was backed by nothing more than a stiff plastic. It was the only support at that transition point for the aluminum skin. With the current PUP, I don't have a good view of what is up under there for that transition.
There's not a way that I can think of that would guarantee that you hit a solid cross member when drilling in. My electronic stud finder cannot differentiate through the plywood ceiling, and there's no nails for a magnetic stud finder to key off of. Just hitting the outside edge where the top mates up with the side walls would be my suggestion. I'm just adverse to putting any new holes in my roof.
Canoes have been carried for decades on the roof of PUPs with the foam blocks and tie down straps. Use more than four blocks if you have a particularly heavy canoe. Avoid any weight and pressure on the front front and rear curved transition places as you've noted why. If I had one, I wouldn't hesitate to do it this way, so long as it straddles my A/C just fine. I would use ratchet straps to the frame across the sides as well as one on the front and rear of the canoe to A-frame and rear bumper respectively.
