Just bought a 97 Sportsman 400 about a month ago and I can say that I find it to be an awesome machine. Anyway I'm wondering if anyone would know where one could buy or find a canoe rack for it?

1997 400 Sportsman

 

MontanaJacks.com has one. However it is very expensive I thought for some welded up tubing to put a canoe over your head. Sure sounds cool though to be able to get a boat back into the boonies.

 

www.riderfx.com has a couple of canoe racks

 

Thanks for the input guys, very interesting sites, can't wait to go fishing, back there in the boonies.

 

With a little Yankee ingenuity you could turn your canoe into a trailer. Many places sell a set of wheels with a little cradle in between to mount to the bottom of your canoe when portaging. It’s a small and lightweight package that folds up. with the wheels mounted all you’d have to do is figure out a way of strapping a sort of trailer tongue to the bottom of the canoe. If its very light weight all you’d need is a 2x4 with a hole in it ratchet strapped to the underside of the canoe and attached to your quad with a hitch pin through the hole. Of course, some refinement to this idea might be necessary but it gives you a place to start. I know LL Bean sells the wheels.

 

I bought a portable canoe trailer from wyoming river raiders. It looks like a boat trailer but its very light. You can remove bolts and shrink it
down so it fits in the back of your truck. I hitch
it to the atv and your good to go.

ranger chet 2000 polaris xpedition 425 cc 5 speed.

 

I've some experience with the canoe trailers and can tell you that the small fold up versions have some serious down sides. A major one is that the small wheels roll poorly on softer terrain because they sink, especially if you got gear (weight) in your canoe. The second thing is that they don't firmly attach to the canoe, straps are used. This allows the canoe to move around on the wheel platform. If you strap the canoe down firmly you run the risk of damaging your canoe. As it is, you need to make sure that your strapping at the yoke position.

As an alternative, I would consider building a wheeled platform that uses bigger tires say from a wheel barrel attached to a four foot long platform that attaches securely to the canoe gunnels. You can then use the canoe as the trailer by making a canoe to hitch attachment.

The drawback to this system is that you are limited to the type of terrain you negotiate e.g. excessive pitch changes would cause the canoes' back end to hit the ground. Because of this, I think racks are more versatile and better protect you canoe from damage.

 

Ah a fellow canadian greetings Flip6, I tend to agree about the trailer thing,less limited with a rack since we have some pretty steep stuff to climb to reach some lakes. I ride with a buddy from Calgary every weekend so far, no snow to stop us here.

 

Riding in the Calgary area you say, I used to fish the Bow regularly back few years. I've since switched to the B.C. interior near clearwater. I've been meaning to get back to the Calgary area however. Thinking about fishing the Crownest area and was wondering if you've atv'd in the area.

As for the snow conditions, well there's little of that stuff here and with the recent warm spell I wonder if we'll get much at all this winter. This is Alberta though and if you wait 5 minutes the weather is bound to change.

Be interested in hearing about what you decide with the canoe carrier. I can tell you that I'm in the process of getting a quad and need to trailer gear with it. I'm considering getting a light weight aluminum trailer, approx. 200 lbs. , to pull the quad then use the quad to pull it. It would be limited to harder surfaces but I can live with that given the places I go.

 

Sorry bud, quess I wrote it out wrong the first time or something. My buddy is actually from RedDeer and lives here on the island. So all our riding so far has been around the soutern part of the island and, theres some pretty awesome trails back there. Planning on a trip with him up by Reddeer to go quadding this year, say's you can do it all in one day, if you catch my drift. Sounds like a good time too-me.
Anyway, I think I'll built me a rack, got a few ideas of my own as to what I need. Glad to hear your getting decent weather. Thanks for the tip!
P.S. Trailer would be nice also and 200Lb trailer sounds pretty light weight to me, which is a plus. What kind of machine do you ride?