I've got a 17' Old Town Tripper canoe. Has anyone here tried putting a canoe on top of a Civic Hybrid? Do you recommend Yakima racks, Thule, or just gunwale pads? Or just don't do it?

My stepdaughter has moved out and I don't need a minivan for passenger space anymore, but I wonder if I still need it for canoeing.

If not a Civic, what about other Hybrids? I'm assuming that a Mariner or FEH can handle a canoe. The Highlander doesn't have much better mileage than I'm currently getting from my Odyssey. How about the Vue?

I'm probably going to buy a Civic for my commute. I'm trying to decide whether I can trade in my Odyssey or if I need to keep it for weekends and vacations.

my friend uses his 04 civic hybrid all the time to transport 2 kayaks. he uses a Yakima system i believe.

it will defiantly hurt your mileage, but not to the point that it would be as bad as the minivan.

You might check in the Civic forum to see if they have any recommendations. One thing some of the Prius folks are doing is adding receiver hitches and using light-weight trailers. Yes, I have seen kyacks on the top of a Prius (and LMAO.)

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

i didn't want to open this thread again but i'm a kayaker so i might be able to help the thread starter or anyone who would come across this thread.

civic would do fine for your kayak, though i'm using a pickup for it, with the right roof deck, it will do fine. my friend who is also into kayak owns a prius and does not have any problems transport his kayak with a roof deck he purchased online. he actually has more problems with his pules star plug! very funny, eh?

hope that info helps!

I routinely carry two 18' sea kayaks on my Prius - Yakima rack. No issues except my mpg goes down to the low 40's. I've considered a lightweight trailer to see if it would help with the fuel efficiency, but am concerned about voiding the warranty.

The Civic or Prius should do fine with the canoe - also a lot easier to put on the roof than with an SUV. Just make sure you get a quality rack - both Thule and Yakima are good.

Cheers, Will

How heavy is your canoe? I think the Yakima bars are rated to 115 pounds, but you should check into that. I've routinely flirted with (or exceeded) that weight in bikes on previous cars without problems, but you should know what weight the limit is and how close you are to it. You would also need tie downs in front and back. I'm sure there is a place on the HCH to tie down to, but I would make sure first.

On another note, I didn't notice any fuel economy impact for having the empty roof rack (with one bike tray) at city speeds. I pull my cross bars off on the highway so I don't know the impact there. With the bikes on, I see a 10-15% decrease, but it's still way better than my Subaru. I recently added two new bike trays, and did notice an impact on city mpg so you might see more of an impact than I did if your empty canoe carrier sticks up above the bars a lot. It's a 5 minute operation to put on/pull off a Yakima or Thule rack so unless you are canoeing weekly, it might be best to just leave it off when you aren't using it.

Commuter car, grocery getter, and summer road tripper--average 10k miles per year.


Winter road trips and ski trips, bad weather commuter and my wife's "daily" driver--expected average 4k miles per year.

A buddy of mine has a civic with thule on top looks good and every useful, i think fd could handle the weight load of it check it out at Autopartswarehouse.com