Pacific Outdoors Foldable Canoe Carrier Review

Canoe Review, Canoe Carrier Review
Recently I purchased a Mad River Passage 16 Canoe for my son's birthday.  You can see the canoe review by going to this link or clicking on the label in the right column.  We have lake access in our neighborhood, but our house doesn't back up to the lake, so we have an issue with getting the canoe to the lake.  That's why we purchased the Pacific Outdoors Foldable Canoe Carrier.  We ended up getting it from Amazon.com for $83.95 and we got free shipping.  You may need to search on "Canoe Carrier" to find it.

This is what Pacific Outdoors lists as the features of this product:

•Rugged construction – Excellent durability and easy transport for up to 300 lbs of cargo

•Heavy duty tires – Provides easy rolling over rough terrain
•Adjustable hull supports contour to the size of your vessel
•Spring-loaded kickstand – Allows for easier boat loading
•Quick-release wheels – Folds in seconds
•Air pump, tie down straps and patch kit included – Essential accessories keep you on the move

Before I continue with the review, I want to give you a better understanding of how we are going to use the carrier.  The photo below shows our path to the lake.  It is 0.73 miles of paved road (shown in blue) and 0.26 miles (460 yards) down the trail to the lake (shown in red).  That is a total of about 1 mile, one way. Since we were going to have so much road travel, I wanted to make sure whatever I got would handle the road well.  That's why I went with bicycle type tires.  The path down to the lake is a hard trail, so again, bicycle tires should work well.

What's in the box?  The basic frame, two tires, one strap, tire pump, patch kit, instructions, and a product registration card.

Since the basic frame comes preassembled so there is very little assembly required.  All you need to do is pump up the tires and mount the tire on the inside pivoting arm.  The rest is just a matter of adjusting the position of the padded cradle rest and unfolding the tire when ready to mount the canoe.

These next couple of photos show the carrier from different perspectives so you can see a little more detail.

You can see below how to adjust the padded cradle rests to three different positions based on the bottom of your canoe or boat.  When you pull the pin, the rest will can pivot in to two more positions.  I thought this was a little odd that you pivot in instead of out.  Pivoting out would give you more support to prevent the wheels from getting out of alignment.  Later I may try swapping the rests from one side to the other and trying pivoting them out.  For my canoe, the most vertical position seems to work best.  If I rotate it in, and the the rest gets in the groove on the bottom of my canoe, the tire will touch the bottom of the canoe.  At vertical, it is no problem.

The next couple of photos show the carrier in the folded position.

With the kick stand down, it was not very hard to get the canoe balanced on top of the carrier.  Notice that the tie down strap is not in place.

Next we strapped the canoe to the carrier.  The engineer in me was saying that this single strap would not be enough for any bumpy trails and later I was proven correct.

With the canoe balanced and on pavement, this carrier works like a champ.  You can see my son moving it around with one finger.  You can steer the canoe with so much ease that even a small child could move it around.  At this point, we called it a day due to winds and decided we would wait until the next day to do our real test run.

Unfortunately I don't have any photos on our first test run.  It wasn't that I didn't take the camera, it was that I (the dufus) didn't take the memory card.  I had some great photos, they just never got stored.  Anyway, I decided that instead of starting out with a single strap that I would go ahead and put a double strap over the canoe.  I really didn't think one in the middle was enough, so I put one on each end of the carrier.  We cranked the 4-wheeler up and had my wife drop us off at the trail.  I held the end of the canoe while we pulled it the 3/4 miles to the trail.  It worked fabulous.  Next my son and I started down the trail.  There were some areas with ruts and we had to go around trees, but it worked fairly well.  We had to stop once to tighten the straps more, but it definitely needed double straps because you could tell the wheels would try to get out of alignment with the canoe.  Still no big deal and we were happy.  About half way down, I decided to guide it by myself.  I was on the front and as we kept going, it felt like that end was getting heavier and heavier.  Sure enough, the wheels were working themselves farther back on the canoe.  That's when we regrouped and decided to run one of the straps under the seat.  This configuration worked great and that's what we did for the way back home.

On our next test run the following weekend, I got a longer strap out of the basement and decided to do the double strap method and loop under the seat like last time.  Pay close attention to how the strap loops around the carrier.  This way it helps keep the straps separated.

At the end of the second trip to the lake, the carrier had shifted as shown below.  Honestly, this was not a big deal because the added weight I was feeling was still a lot less than carrying half of the canoe.  On our trip back out, I looped both the front and rear sides of the strap under the seat and it slid very little all the way home.

Bottom Line: 

The Pacific Outdoors Foldable Canoe Carrier definitely rolls good and make canoe transport much easier.  I wish they would have either put two straps in the package or made the single strap longer so that you can strap it down in the front and back of the carrier.  Straps are cheap and if you have a canoe, most likely you have an extra strap somewhere.  I think the big challenge is strapping the carrier to the canoe in a way to prevent the carrier from slipping down the canoe. Granted, I feel like my trail may have been a little more rugged than the average, so maybe this isn't a problem for where you may need to take your boat.  Overall, we are pleased and I believe that strapping the boat down is the critical step for any carrier and you need to study your boat and carrier to determine the best way.  I would definitely recommend this product.

Mad River Passage 16 Canoe Review

Mad River Review, Mad River Passage Review, Mad River Adventure Review, Mad River Canoe Review
A couple of weeks ago, my son got a canoe for his 15th birthday.  Our neighborhood backs up to Lake Allatoona in an area that does not get a lot of boat traffic since it is relatively shallow and we thought this would give him and the family lots of good weather fun.

We purchased the canoe from Dick's Sporting Goods and got a fair price.  It is a Mad River Passage 16 Canoe.  Now this is where there is a little confusion.  It seems that this canoe may be made special for some retailers, because this canoe can not be found at the Mad River web site.  What you can find is the Adventure 16.  Also, Dick's Sporting Goods had a canoe on the floor that was called the Adventure 16, but didn't look like the one at the Mad River Site.  Now for even more confusion, the Dick's site says this Passage 16 is only 32.75" wide and a couple of weeks ago they were calling it a kayak.  Just to set the record straight.  The canoe being reviewed is a Mad River Passage 16 with the following specifications from the manufacturer.

These are the specifications from Dick's website and I have verified and corrected in green and what I believe is wrong in red.

Mad River® Passage 16 Canoe

Model Number: 96717071
Polyethylene construction is durable and requires little maintenance
Center seat with padded seat back (there is not a padded seat back on the center seat)
Padded handles
Molded-in cup holders (6)
Dimensions: W 32.75"  37", but actually measured 34.75"x L 16' x H 14.75"
Weight: 81 lbs (soon to be verified)
Weight Capacity: 925 lbs (taking their word on it, this is also close to the Adventure 16 rating)

The next couple of photos give you the overall shots of the canoe.

Just to keep everyone honest, I went ahead and measured the length and width.  I came up with 15' 11.5" long and 34.75" wide.  See the photos below.  The 1/2" difference in length doesn't really matter, but the 2.25" difference in width is important.  If you are looking for a true 37" width, this canoe does not measure up.  I don't know how Mad River officially measures the width of a canoe, but the widest point is not 37".

The canoe has two main seats and a third seat in the middle. Each seat has a double cup holder in front.  This is a total of 6 possible drinks that can be accommodated in a three person (max) canoe.  Either this was done to keep the mold symmetric during fabrication or was done to target towards a beer drinking group of owners.

Each front and rear seat has a backrest that can be adjusted to support your back at different angles by the straps on each side of the seat.  I actually found this very comfortable.  Notice that beside the front seat there are some shallow indents to prevent items from rolling off and falling in the bottom of the canoe.

Front Seat

Middle Seat

Rear Seat

The back rests can be folded down so that they will not get damaged during storage and transportation.  Also there is a bungee strap on the back of the back rest that can be used to hold the back rest in the up position.

Foam is under the front and rear seats to keep the canoe at the top of the water in case you tip.  When it gets warmer, we will see how high it sits when full of water and I will update the review then.

There are generous areas in both the front and back were you can store gear.  The photo below is in the front of the boat.

The area behind the back seat is shown below.

Carry handles are located on both the front and rear of the boat.  At the rear, there is a drain plug so you can drain the water that may get trapped in the end of the boat after washing. Since there is a lip around the inside of the canoe, flipping it will not get all the water out.  The photo below is on the rear right side of the canoe.  The indented area is where the serial number is engraved.  Also notice that the color of this canoe is camo.  I'm not sure why they call it that other than areas like what you see below where the dark shows through the speckled greenish/blueish color.

The shot below is of the waterfalls in our neighborhood and that's my wife and youngest daughter looking so cool. This was actually our second trip on the canoe.  I took the camera on my first trip, but I forgot (what a dufus) to put the memory card back inside the camera before we headed out, so I don't have any photos of my son on it's maiden voyage.

On the first trip, my son and I did a 4 mile trip to the waterfalls and up the river.  Since the canoe was his birthday present, I gave him the honors of the rear seat for the first half of the trip.  It has been a couple of years since we were canoeing, and I must be honest, it took a while before we (I) was comfortable that we were not going to tip the canoe.  I read several comments at various websites about the Adventure 16 and some were very critical on this tipping issue.  After a 4 mile trip on still water with two people in the boat (me 225 lbs, him 155 lbs), we were both very comfortable and the tippy sensation was gone.

The next trip was with my wife, daughter and myself.  In my opinion, we really had the canoe loaded, although this was well below the rated capacity (925 lbs) of the canoe.  Also this time it had been even longer since my wife and daughter had been in a canoe, and that whole tippy felling returned to me.  I'm not sure what was giving the tippy feeling.  Actually, we never even came close to tipping.  I think that feeling comes more from confidence (or the lack there of) in your canoe partners.  After a short 1.5 mile trip to the waterfalls, we (I) were already feeling much better on the stability of the canoe and I was gaining confidence in nearly everyone in the boat.

Bottom Line:  So far we are happy with the canoe.  The front and rear seats are comfortable and the back rest is a very nice feature.  It is a canoe and that tippy feeling will exist based on the experience level of those in the canoe.  I don't think that it is any worse than other canoes of this type.  If you are really looking for maximum stability, you need to pay attention to the width of the canoe when purchasing and verify (measure) yourself that you are purchasing the maximum width possible.  If you are wanting stability and not speed, buy a Jon boat.

4/3/10 Update:  After three trips, stability is not an issue and we are pleased with the canoe.

5/3/10 Update:  I spoke with a representative for Mad River and he said the “Passage 16” is a special version of a Mad River Canoe “Adventure 16” created exclusively for Dick’s Sporting Goods and it should not be confused with the current “Adventure 16” square back, offered by specialty dealers.