Andrew,


One idea is that you should think about how many people sit in your canoe when you take it fishing. If the answer is "only me most of the time", then I suggest you acquire a much lighter weight canoe (or kayak maybe).

The main issue here, in my opinion, is your concern about lifting your canoe and maneuvering it on top of your car. This is clearly a safety and personal health issue. Your technical problems with car-topping that heavy canoe are secondary compared to the risk you face of suffering personal injury. Remember, each fishing trip you will have to lift your boat onto the rack two times, and lift if off two times. Buy yourself a lighter boat, one made of fiberglass or kevlar or Royalex. Do this first and then work backwards from there to decide which rack system is the best one to install on your Subaru.

The lighter your canoe is, and the easier and more secure your rack system is, the more times you'll go fishing every year. That's what you really want, is to go fishing more often and not have your canoe punish you while you're doing it.


Joe
"Better small than not at all."