: We have had long postings on this subject before

So I'd better keep this brief and address only one point :-)

: 4. ALWAYS use the bow and stern tie downs, You may be going down the road at
: 30 mph but add 25mph head wind = 55

I tend to use bow/stern tie downs only when I have three or more kayaks and
I think there is a chance of rack failure. Driving at 95 with a slight
headwind or 85 with a blustery crosswind seems to be no trouble, and on
the bendier roads away from the motorways, I tend to rally, which must
put extra stress on the rack uprights, but I've seen no sign of anything
coming loose, even when I have quite a bit of gear stowed inside the kayaks.
You put a lot of effort into sanding and varnishing those yaks - so they end
up pretty streamlined. With just a single kayak, I don't use end ties and I
don't modify my driving one iota - never had any movement I could detect.
On the other hand, I've had a bike on an apparently strong purpose-made
bike rack on the roof blow off in a cross-wind on a high motorway bridge,
and end up dangling by the window, hanging from its padlock - kayaks seem
to be much easier to get secure than bikes !

The only time I really became worried was doing over 85 in a strong crosswind
with a 17' open canoe on its edge in the middle, surround by kayaks either
side (and another one inside the open boat). It wasn't that any of the load
was coming loose, but overtaking big trucks whose high sides switched the
crosswind on and off made that big sail on the roof have a somewhat adverse
effect on tracking (of the car!). I did have stern and bow ties on that load
- you can just see the bow rope as it angles down under the open boat to
reach the roof bar above the driver's door (this is the UK, so the driver is
on the side facing the camera:-) on the pic. The rack is meant to have a
limit of 100kg, and that lot put it pretty near the limit without wind loading.
This is all on proper roof bars - not one of the sorts of racks that bolt to a
gutter - I've had those fall off just with a few people hanging on to stay
stood on the rear bumper after pushing a car to get it up a hill....

Andy