Jonathan Hanson Jonathan Hanson Jonathan Hanson is a writer whose lifelong appreciation of nature shows up frequently in his work. Meet Jonathan Previous Answers

However, in my opinion you'd be far better off mounting a rear bar on your truck's shell, using the bolt-on "rain gutter" adapters available from any of the major rack manufacturers. You'd still have more than enough space between the bars for an extremely solid rack setup. (If you mounted the rear bar two feet forward from the rear of the shell, and put the front bar over the front section of the cab, that would give you a good nine or ten feet between them—plenty of stability for even the longest canoes.) You can purchase rack towers of different heights to make up any difference between the height of the cab and the shell.

With the entire rack on top of the truck, you wouldn't have to remove the receiver mount every time you wanted to get into the bed through the hatch and tailgate. Also, all receiver mounts have a certain amount of play in them, because of the loose fit necessary between the receiver tube and the insert. This allows the load to sway back and forth—and the farther the load is from the receiver (such as, for example, all the way on top of the roof) the more the load will move. Sure you can cinch the vertical tube tight to the bumper with diagonal ratchet straps, but that just makes it harder to get in the bed.

Keep in mind that you can't have your saddles supporting the boat right at the stern; they need to be some ways forward of it for stability—a good two or three feet. If your rear bar is right over the rear bumper the stern of the boat is going to stick out the back farther than it would with a bar (and saddle) mounted farther forward on the camper shell. This set-up increases the chances that some tailgating semi will convert your boat to a flat-transomed configuration.

If you do decide to mount rain gutter adapters to your camper shell, make sure to use backing plates on the inside to strengthen the assembly. I've mounted bars this way on both fiberglass and aluminum shells and never had the slightest structural problem. Another advantage to this system is that you can mount an extra pair of gutters to the forward part of the shell, for when you don't want as much space between the rack bars. Works great if you want to carry bicycles or other gear.

Happy paddling,

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