Hi everybody, I just bought a 2006 Ford Freestyle SE used (80,000 km. & I attached a pic) and I am wondering what would be the best way to tie down my canoe. It is a 16.5 ft. fibre-glass canoe weighing around 100 lbs. I have the foam blocks but I was wondering if the canoe would be too heavy to sit directly on the roof in between the rails. Also, to lift it up on the roof might be hard with the blocks but with rails I can put one end on and slide it up. If it's too heavy, I am thinking about purchasing the Thule Crossroad 450 base rail system. I have never had a roof rack before and I have read a lot of posts stating that they create a lot of wind noise and greatly reduce your gas mileage. I don't want to have to take them off for normal driving. Are these issues with the Freestyle? What do you think is my best option to haul the canoe. I also am going to be installing a hitch to pull my pop-up camper. Is there a hitch that is better than others that I should consider? I need a 2" x 2" receiver. All replies are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I am having UHaul put a hitch on my 2005 Freestyle next month. The Freestyle is only rated for 2000# load with 200# on the tongue which matches a Class 1 hitch. I will be towing a motorcycle trailer. The quoted price for the hitch is under $300 installed.

I ordered a Class I hitch from Amazon for my Freebie. The installation was pretty easy, but if I were to do it again I'd get a Class III hitch so it would have a standard 2" square receiver tube so I wouldn't have to use adapters with our bike rack and cargo carrier.

eTrailer.com has a great selection of hitches - http://www.etrailer.com/hitch-2005_Ford_Freestyle.htm

I've got the Thule 450 load bars and they work well with the factory rack, but you'll notice a lot of wind noise with them. It's not a big deal for me, I just leave them off unless I need them. If you are going to leave them on permanently, consider a fairing to cut down the drag and noise.

I have a class II hitch on my freestyle. It sounds like you want the class III hitch though so it has the larger opening. I would NOT buy a hitch from Amazon. I ordered one from them initially, but after they shipped me a hitch with missing parts TWICE, I gave up on them and got a refund. They just didn't know how to properly package the thing and the installation parts would fall off in shipment. I eventually ordered from an Ebay vendor with good feedback for about $10 more.

We hauled a canoe on ours a few weeks ago. 17ft aluminum using the foam blocks and it fit between the roof rails. My wife and I lifted it on/off 4 times. It was rather heavy and ackward, but managable. With the sloped roof the front of the canoe was only about a foot above the hood. I used two rachet straps, one on the front and the other on the back. On the back I secured the rachet strap hooks to the bolt holes for the hitch and on the front there are holes in the frame of the area between the front of the wheel wells and radiator. A rope tied from the seat of the canoe back to both roof rails ( to keep the canoe from sliding forward), and a strap around the middle of the canoe through the back doors.

If you don't want cross bars then you're pretty much stuck using foam blocks or a hitch and trailor. Be careful when using the foam blocks because if you ratchet down to hard on the stock rack, you'll notice that the doors won't open and close too well.

We went big with the class III so that we could configure as needed with the large assortment of hitch accessories.

Thanks to everyone for the replies. I went with a Class II Curt Hidden hitch, Malone cross rails and a Thule Fairing. I attached some pics for everyone to see. BTW, the fairing is necessary to cut down wind noise from the crossrails if you plan to leave them on all of the time.

I am hoping to add a hitch to my 2005 freestyle, but I am concerned about how it will look. Did you get your hitch from Uhal? Could you send/post some pics of the hitch?
Thank you.

I got the hitch installed at a local place (J & L Welding in Windsor, Ontario). It looks pretty god though in my opinion. When the receiver and ball are not in all you see is the small receiver tube under the bumper.

True, my hitch didn't come with the hitch cover that was pictured on Amazon. I called them and they issued me a credit without hesitation, so I got the hitch including shipping for less that $100. I bought a hitch cover on eBay for $4.

The parts they missed for me were a bit more important. Both times the installation instructions and bolts, and all other hardware required were missing. One time it had the tow bar and the other time that was missing too. It was a big mess. They do not know how to package the hitches (or didn't 18 months ago)