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These universal-mount gunwale brackets provide a simple solution for transporting a canoe on your roof rack crossbars. Durable brackets have ramped sides for easy loading, and the padded bases ensure safe passage for your canoe. Tie-downs included.
Features:
Specs:
Padded Gunwale Brackets Provide Easy Loading
The Thule Portage canoe carrier provides an easy way to transport 1 canoe on your vehicle's roof rack crossbars. Simply lift your boat, hull side up, and place it on the bases and then adjust the spacing as needed. Finally, tighten the gunwales in place with the integrated hand knobs.
The bases of the gunwales are cushioned with weather-resistant padding. This padding protects your boat from being scratched during transport.
Reversible Brackets Fit Most Crossbars
The Portage installs with Thule's FlipFit steel-reinforced mounting brackets. These brackets can be installed on most crossbars without the need for an adapter or the use of tools. Simply position the brackets so they fit your crossbars and tighten with the integrated hand knobs. The brackets rotate and flip so they can be easily installed on round, square, aero, elliptical, and most factory crossbars.
Tie-Down Straps
Two tie-down straps with padded cam buckles are provided to secure your canoe to your crossbars. To secure your boat, wrap the straps over the boat and under the crossbar on both sides. Then feed the strap through the cam buckles, tighten, and cover the buckles with the padded bumpers.
A set of ratcheting bow/stern tie-downs anchor the front and back of your canoe to your vehicle. The tie-downs easily loop through the ratchet and lock in place at desired length. To tighten, simply pull the free end of the rope until desired tightness is reached and let go. To release, just press the lever above the ratcheting spool - no untying required.
California residents: click here
As all Thule products the Thule universally mounted canoe carrier is great. It came with all required items for safe and easy canoe transportation. There are two straps with pull to fasten for the canoe down, two tie down ropes for each end with nice pull tight and release mechanisms for the cord as well, along with two straps to fasten to the canoe ends used with the pull to tighten cords.
The Chevy traverse cross bar had to have the plastic end caps removed for use with Thule canoe carrier. This was because my canoe took up the entire cross bar width to allow for Thule mounts. It is not a big deal to remove the plastic end caps. They only provide a finished stream lined look. Happy and Safe Canoeing
After retiring my 1999 Chevy Silverado 4x4 pickup, I purchased a 2017 Subaru Outback as a replacement vehicle. To transport my 1981 17 foot QT17C Alumacraft canoe on the factory installed roof rack crossbars that came with the Outback, I selected the Thule Portage Canoe Carrier w/ Tie-Downs - Gunwale Brackets - Side Loading - TH819 to do the trick. With one previous transport of the canoe sitting directly on the Outback roof racks, I realized those Outback roof racks were not as durable as the racks on my truck so I sought an improvement to avoid future scuffing and scratching. I did some advance research online and couldn’t be more pleased with this purchase from etrailer.com. I now have a quality product at the right price and these gunwale brackets are a simple solution for this veteran canoe man. The padded brackets grip the canoe and stopped the scratches. The high-quality load straps are nice with the rubber pad that covers the buckle and they easily snug the canoe tight to the racks. I’m also impressed with the bow/stern tie downs that have a very nice ratchet and clip on one end and I secured the supplied hook with a bowline knot to the other end of the ¼ inch rope.
The Outback did not have convenient anchor points on the front or back of the vehicle for tie down locations but I found a good solution there as well by ordering the Thule Bow/Stern Tie-Downs - Qty 2 - TH530. This works well with the tie downs I mentioned previously. One limitation to be aware of with the Subaru Outback roof racks and this product is the width of your canoe. My 17-footer measures 34 inches at its widest point at the portage yoke. I had to place the four brackets up tight against the inside roof mounting to achieve the spread and accommodate the canoe placement. The canoe ended up fitting like a glove on the padded brackets. When placing the strap to hold the canoe down to the crossbars, I ran the strap through the vehicles tie down points and then under the crossbars for added security. Total product installation time including securing the canoe can easily be achieved in approximately 20 minutes. I look forward to many more years of safe and happy canoeing.
I give etrailer.com an excellent rating for the entire ordering and shipping process on top of the high level of satisfaction with the products I purchased through them. Their customer service and price ensured me that I’ll do more business with them in the future.
I ordered the Thule Portage from etrailer after some availability issues with another seller. Great service, I even asked to have my 2 item free shipping in 2 shipments to avoid a wait and it was at my door within a week. etrailer is my goto supplier, they always seem to have items not in stock elsewhere. The Portage works great on the Rhino Rack I bought from etrailer also.
Very versatile and easy to install. We fit the brackets so that they seat the inside of the gunnels. Works well!
Ordered these from Etrailer at the same time we placed an order for crossbars from Thule. This arrived and we are still waiting on the new crossbars.
Mary D.
7/19/2021
Great! We have Thule blade-style crossbars and canoe carrier parts installed on both of our Jeep Cherokees. That way we can put one vehicle at the end of the river and one brings the canoe to the beginning. Lovely that the parts fit well and make an easy unloading and loading of our canoe.
Great canoe rack! Fast service!!
All that I was expecting, great product
I bought the Rhino Rack 2500 Series Legs, the Vortex Aero Crossbars, the 2500 Series Custom Fit Kit for the 2500 Series Legs, and a Thule Portage Canoe Carrier. All items arrived when George said they would, and I was given status updates throughout the whole process. The website was helpful in letting me know that these kits are NOT all in one kits. That is probably the best feature of the site in that it lets you know based on your vehicle what total number of kits you will need. All said, the racks and carrier worked well in transporting my canoe across state lines. I highly recommend the site.
On Monday, I ordered the Thule Portage Canoe Gunwale Brackets from etrailer. My order was filled the same day, shipped on Tuesday, and arrived Thursday morning. These design of these brackets is elegant; the brackets appear durable and and they are easy to use. Thus, they are a step up from the ones I have been using for years.
All the products which I purchased at etrailer are high quality. IMO, Thule makes the best equipment carriers on the market and etrailer sells them at the best price. Fast delivery, quality service.
The Thule Portage Canoe Carrier has been working out very well! When paired with the Thule Goal Post, it's an awesomely stable system!!!
Best roof rack I have ever owned. Well designed, strong, quiet. Simple installation, excellent instructions.
Just got these so I haven’t used them yet. I have however used a similar Thule product and was very satisfied. The purchase and shipping process was very good - they were back ordered at first but communication was excellent and when they were available they were shipped rapidly. Would be glad to do business with etrailer in the future.
Simple and high quality. Low profile.
Instructions on how to use the straps are daunting
These carriers fit well on my Outback's roof rack. They are solid and secure.
I purchased these I. Hopes that they would work with the Vortex Aerobar Rhino Rack I bought at the same time. Have note done a trek with the canoe on yet but they fit and look like they will work out perfectly.
The product itself is great and you should feel confident that it will get the job done. However, it said it would fit my 2013 Subaru outback, and while it does fit, the roof racks are not wide enough for the width of the canoe. So that’s something to be aware of before purchasing this product.
Order came on time as expected. Was glad to be able to order this canoe rack as it doesn't seem to be available anywhere else anymore!
Good product and fast shipping!
I received the rack and canoe package yesterday. I looked at the simple directions, and had in on my Ford Explorer in about an hour. It is well made, and i am very pleased with everything. Thank you for having such a wonderful product.
the right choice for a quality heavy duty rack, if ya gonna go bear go Grizzly!
this is a very good design. easy to add on when trailering a canoe.
As delivered, both cross bars were dented and the instructions included with the shipment were not the correct ones for my product. Installation time was much longer than necessary due to the incorrect instructions and very frustrating. Etrailer's response was good and they were quick to send new cross bars along with the proper instructions.
The rubber inserts at the top of the cross bars are relatively fragile and easily damaged and apparently not meant to have anything resting directly on the cross bars. This may be fine if you have the recommended attachments for whatever you carry, but from what I have seen, the available attachments are limited. I pull a 5th wheel RV, so my kayaks need to rest on a bed extender attached to a front hitch in order to not interfere with the nose of the RV. For this to work, the kayaks need to lay upside down on the bed extender and the cross rails, which can damage the rubber insert. Will need to rig up something to prevent that.
Well built product, very thought out strapping! Can't wait to take the Canoe on a trip!
Great service and delivered as planned. Very quick and easy ordering process and great product - boat already loaded on my car!!
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Ken K.
12/13/2021
My Thule Portage has worked great with my Rhino Roof Rack for my Old Town 133 Canoe on top of my Pickup Truck Camper Shell. I have taken it on some rough mountain roads and windy stretches of freeway doing 70 mph with no problems. Very Quiet and stable. I always check the torque of the attachment Bolts as suggested by Thule, but since the second outing they have been a rock. I like the way the Thule Portage can be mounted slightly skewed to match the contour of the Canoe Gunnels. Makes it lock in even better to keep it from sliding back and forth. Very clean attachment with the adapter kit for Rhino Racks.