Modify Your Bike Rack to Carry a Sunfish or Other Boat

Is your bike rack full of clamps, claws, and cleats that might get bent while carrying your sunfish? Or, is the free boat you found on Craigslist likely to develop another crack if tied down against your rack? Tie a couple of 2x4s to the rack with innertubes and head to the beach!

Find some old 2x4s and tie them to the rack with innertubes.

When you start wrapping, just wrap around the end. There's no need for a knot. The friction of the innertube on itself will hold it in place. When you get the end, tie a half-hitch. If you tie any more complicated knots, you'll never get them undone. Instead, you'll end up cutting your innertubes off every time. This only results in a bucket full of useless 6 inch long innertubes and everyone running around the shop madly asking each other "where are the innertubes? Did you go to the bike shop's dumpster?!?!"

Put some foam on the 2x4s and dump the boat on top. Make sure to figure out if your rack can handle the weight of the boat before you put it on. My rack can take 75 lbs. This sunfish weights exactly 75 lbs according to its owner, who convinced me to take him and the boat to the beach in the first place.

After scoffing at my ratcheting tie-downs, Tim insists on tying the boat on with a trucker's hitch. Watch how he does it:

Yes, it's a little fast; he'll be sure to make a proper trucker's hitch Instructable soon.