Thule Portage Canoe Rack

This canoe carrier kit is an all-in-one, universal solution for mounting canoes to roof racks. Installation is simple — once the canoe is on the roof rack, place the four bases under the gunwales of the canoe, and then screw them down to the roof rack. The included straps loop over the bottom of the canoe and are easily tightened. The strap buckles have rubber bumpers to keep the buckles from scratching the vehicle and canoe. The ropes for securing the end of the canoe to the front and back of the vehicle have an easy-to-use ratcheting mechanism that makes it a cinch to tighten. Each component of the kit is thoughtfully constructed and feels durable. Once all the components are tightened down, the canoe doesn't move whatsoever during transport, even at interstate speeds.One tip: if your vehicle doesn't have mounting points at the front and rear of the vehicle, you'll need to get some of the loop straps that fit under the hood and trunk/hatch of your vehicle. Thule makes some in a blue color that matches the ropes that come in this kit. I have a black car so I elected to get a different brand (at about half the price) that offered the straps in black.Another tip: unlike many other Thule products, there are no locks on the bases or straps that come with this kit. I remove the hardware and reinstall each time I mount the canoe. That's probably a function of the universality of the kit. However, I'd prefer a base that mounts and locks to Thule's bars so I wouldn't have to reinstall for each use, as it often takes some adjustment to get the canoe lined up straight. Furthermore, Thule sells locking straps, and at this price point I would expect the locking straps to come with the product. This is the reason I'm giving 4 stars instead of 5.As with lots of Thule products, the cost of the kit is pretty steep, but having everything in a single kit is nice. Plus, the ratcheting tie-down ropes were a pleasant surprise. This isn't a value buy, but I shouldn't have to make any similar purchases for a long time.

As others have mentioned, just install the rack with the vertical arm inward instead of outward and wider boats will be accommodated.My boat is an Adirondack guide boat, a little wider than many canoes, and the Thule canoe rack works great.

What’s not to like about this canoe carrier. I use this on my 119 Sportsman Discovery. Have used this for travels up 1k miles one way and back. You can easily use the supplied bow and stern rope, but I use Powertye tie downs, with Le Kapmoz hood loops. More secure and heavy duty.I usually stop at every refuel and adjust them just to be safe. Tbh the canoe isn’t going nowhere, if I didn’t even bother to check. Up to 80mph I have no issues, with my set up. Buy this over any of its competitors.

I love this product for how well the gunwales of my mad rover canoe fit into these feet. This provides a very secure way of transporting a canoe and allows me to use my cargo bars rather than just setting the canoe on the roof. This method also eliminates that odd thing some people do where they run their tie downs through the car windows. The straps and tie downs which come with the kit are strong and of very high quality.

This has worked wonders for us and we TOTALLY love it. Easy to use but read some of the tips and tricks before you get frustrated and return it. We thought our canoe was too big but we just turned the pieces around so the canoe fit on the outside of them, not the inside, and they worked great. It's much more stable than some of the other options we've used and I also like that we can tighten up really easily.

I was a little disappointed, but mostly because of the car I have. My 2020 4Runner’s roof rack does not extend forward enough to make this easy. It needs to ride too far back to make it easy to put on, and it wasn’t possible to slide it on from the back. This also had the effect of making the canoe too wide. It would have been great if the rack the car’s rack was 2 feet longer. I made it work by putting the forward cleats facing outward, instead of inwards. Once installed, the canoe rode well, but not easy to put on and take off. I am still shopping for a better solution.

We have a Subaru Impreza. The Canoe was secure on a three hour highway trip. Be sure to strap down front and back tight and watch videos to insure you don't have flapping straps. The Thule 530 Quick Loop Strap holders secured strapping to the car well. I thought the front strapping would block view but no. Once in the car all seemed normal. we were able to mostly open the hatch back with the Canoe on top of our car. It did take two people to load and unload. My other half is very strong and did most of the work. However, another person was needed to guide the canoe over the car and the Thule Portage rack. Be sure to put the Portage thing on the inside of the canoe -pushing out.

Not bad. They are less sturdy and more difficult to relocate than the Yakima gunwale brackets on round bars. But they are so versatile it's hard not to like them. They don't *feel* tightened down, as the design puts a lever of sorts in the middle of the bracket. The attachment point is wide, you see. This is needed to accommodate a large variety of crossbars. So there is flex in the mount, and subsequently the knobs tend to keep turning. Worry not, the brackets DO tighten more than adequately, even if it's hard to tell. So they're not perfect, but they're pretty darn good.

This works well, but is overpriced in my opinion. Definitely good quality, but it's just a platform to hold my canoe. I don't know how they justify the high price tag. Maybe because it's Thule.It does a great job of holding my canoe to my 2014 Nissan Pathfinder. It has rounded roof racks, which causes my canoe to slide to the side. This product fixes that issue.It also comes with some locking pulley's, rope, and nylon ribbon cable. The rope is too short to be useful. Two of the smaller ribbons, seem useless. I can't figure out what they are for. The third, larger ribbon cable is likely for tying down the middle. I don't use any of these cables. I bought my own rope, which fits the pulley's, and some locking carabiners. I now have one carabiner, one locking pulley, and one rope on each end to secure the canoe. This is working very well with the mounting brackets. The rest of the stuff is a waste of money.Glad I bought it, but definitely over priced.

I put this on Outback 2018. I needed to put backwords than how it is shown in the picture. Outback does not have wide cross bars. It keeps canoe very strong to the roof. No single movement. Quality of product is very high.We passed a tornado in Ottawa within 2 km. We had a canoe on the roof and this rack. The canoe was holding nicely with the very high wind.

I bought this carrier to carry my 15' Swift Keewaydin solo canoe on top of my 2019 Highlander which has Rhino Rack "aero" type crossbars installed. The setup works really well. The Thule carrier is very easy to install on the bars and holds the canoe very securely... much better than the foam blocks I was temporarily using. I subtracted 1 star for the high cost though.

The problem is the way this works, you can't get it wide enough to actually hold a canoe because the brackets would need to latch over where the aerobars meet the roof rack on my car. The tie down straps are good though, so I've just used those to tie the canoe directly down to my roof rack.

This kit is pretty expensive, but in the end, I'm still glad I got it. It works great to protect my canoe gunwales so they don't rest on the metal bars on the roof of my car. It also included straps and ropes to hold everything tight. Would buy again.