BIRD OF PREY CANOE STABILIZERS 

One of the better DIY stabilizer ideas Ive seen

thanks for explaining all the parts and where they were from ,you are the only one who has done that ,now I know what to get thanks

That crutch idea was gold.

i replicated this set up and it works oh so great. turned my normal scanoe into a bass fishing tank! i also bought actual boat seats with swivels. man what a perfectly affordable rig. thanks so much for this video!

Absolutely Brilliant!! Love the crutches and the flag pole holder making both adjustable. Thanks for an awesome video!

Out of all the designs I have seen yours by far the easiest and most effective just AWSOME

The best design concept of ALL. Good looking and affordable. Thank you also for the recording this video. I know it takes a LOT of effort.

The signature element of your design is the downturn of the outrigger strut. Well done.

I used a similar setup with PVC arms instead of the crutches. Works great! Thanks for the idea of using flagpole holders! They work well.

Best I've seen for home built. Recycling common scrap pieces into a durable looking unit, rivaling the commercial systems made in a production shop. Thanks for sharing.

Ditto and then some on all the positive compliments for this video... my brother and I have been researching options to either buy a ready made set or try and get creative ... this is one VERY CREATIVE DIY and we now have a baseline to follow! Thanx for a really helpful and well-presented video!!!!

Age and cunning overrules youth and exuberance all day long.....splendid setup. Thanks for this video!

Hey thanks for your idea.. I too am basing my design on your concept. I'm using lobster trap floaters and the flag pole holders to make the stabilizer more adjustable. You've done a great service to us with your video. Good luck.. And thanks!!

I built mine using rod holders. I am very impressed with the aluminum base. I hope to rebuild mine with a base like yours. Very well done sir!

This is one of the best suggestions I have seen so far... good job!!!

Lucky those crutches fit perfectly in the flag pole holders!

Thanks gave me the idea to use my regular crutches and a block of wood to connect to my canoe. I found a threaded PVC fitting fitted perfectly just needed a small screw and nut to hold it on. Now with the threaded connections I cut and used a clorox bottle to fill in the center and the filled it with foam made it more hydrodynamic.

Absolutely brilliant! Been looking all over RU-vid for a video like this! Thanks for the tips!

McGyver hahaha nice! I will try this on Saturday. Cheers, John

Wow, Im jealous....you are brilliant sir, great job on the stabilizers and the video!

Bloody brilliant. The best I've seen by far. Well done.

What a great plan. Also a great name for the canoe stabilizer!

Great idea! Any chance you have it in a more step by step version that could be put on paper and printed so I can easily reference while building?

yes, good concept but can we see this in the water please :-)

Ok, !! That’s brilliant, simple, and cheap! 👍👍. I’m renovating a 15ft fiberglass canoe. You saved me a good bit of money with your stabilizer. Adjustable two ways, you can fold it away or just remove it easily. And you can design any piece to be stronger or lighter. I’ll have a 42” high light aluminum solar panel roof that’s going on the canoe and stabilizers are needed. The good quality versions that we find on-line are $$$$$ simply overpriced. Thanks👍

AWESOME ! - I am working on mine now. FYI - The crutches used for the stabilizer arms are described used as "Forearm Crutch" - $20-$40 used

At 2:00 you see a shot of the small aluminum angle pieces set in the hull. I just drilled a hole through the hull and bolted it through and through. Used a bigger washer on the outside of the hull. Very stable this way. All metal is attached by thicker sheet metal screws--drill small pilot hole first.

Very much a CLASS ACT . I'm looking at fishing offshore in the Everglades and these are gonna be a hot item ! Thanks for your great video !

Shout out from OD5 fishing!! John, you hit a home run on this one, I can see why you're about to hit 40k views. Well done. I'm going to use your Model to get my Kayak ready for some fishing. New Subscriber!!!

Added this to my canoe this past weekend with a few modifications. The struts for my crutches were 7/8" diameter and I thought it was too much slop in a 3/4" PVC T-fitting even if I used tape to fill. I used 3/4" CPVC which was a snug fit for the strut but still drilled a small hole through the fitting and strut to insert a cotter pin. The CPVC was looser in the floats than the PVC but a few wraps with Goriila tape snugged it up just fine. I added caps to the ends of the CPVC running through the floats. I didn't want to drill into the canoe sides and wanted to be able to quickly remove the entire setup. I used 2ea 1"x 6" boards as the main support. The lower one was cut to the inside canoe width just under the gunwales and the top piece over the gunwales. I used a carriage bolt inserted from bottom to clamp the two boards onto the gunwale at each end. Drill holes for the carriage bolt just a bit smaller than the carriage bolt and tap the bolts into the holes. This allows the square under the bolt head to dig into the wood so when you tighten the nut for clamping, the bolt doesn't spin. Rather than wing nuts I used plastic knobs for ease. I also replaced the wing nuts on the flag holders with plastic knobs. Finally, I drilled two large holes in the top 1x6 board for cupholders.

Great video, I'm making mine now! Nice Klingon reference too ;)

Brilliant!!! Especially using the adjustable crutches!

Crutches are genius!

This is the best setup because it allows use of the middle seat.

Very Cool , I like the Klingon Bird of Prey Reference.Good Job!

Love it, Great idea and explanation.

Nice job, good design and seem to be easy enough to make. Thank you for sharing and posting.

Impressive set up brother ,thanks for sharing your design, happy paddling.🙂🚣

Incredibly well done!

Good job getting right to the point and explaining everything.

Love it I'm going to do this . Have a 12ft kayak with sail an 30lb. thrust trolling motor . Thanks best idea l've seen. May the fishing gods be with you.

Excellent work offering very good ideas. I am working on a design now for my canoe as I plan on a long solo trip and would like the stability on some of the larger open water I will be crossing. Great use of the crutches, I see them all the time in resale shops.

I am using a second pair of crutches .By straightening the main tube removing the plastic from the T piece and centralising it I can then fit it to the strut extension.Fill tube with expanding foam,and save arm clips to make to make 2 litre bottle or rod holders.Thanks John.From Tony WElby. The Worcester Canoodler.

absolutely fab video , great idea i will be doing this over the weekend John.

Great ideas, John!! I'm using your approach to build my canoe for Columbia River outings. Thanks.

I am totally going to use this design

That was really ingenious and resourceful. Well done sir!

This was a gem. Thank you.

Very well explained, great idea! I will be building this for my canoe. Thanks for posting.

Great video summer is right around the corner will put one together in the next couple weeks thanks great audio

That is just plain excellent. so many good ideas put to use here. thanks.

Great idea with the flag holders, I see those walking devices at the goodwill. I am putting a windsurfing sail on my kayak for offshore fishing. Thanks

You my friend are a genius! Thank you for sharing!

I love it! Thank you very much for the awesome ideas, I will be implementing this asap.

This is so cool. Just what I was looking for. Thanks for posting

Wow ... wonderful ~♡ I have as well made kayak stabilizer by using Frp & fiberglass. But I have difficult time making kayak stabilizer because I have never had any information on how I could use frp & fiberglass. On the other hand, you have great job while you easily work. So, your vedio clip helps me think another way to make some special stabilizers. Thank you so much ~

Nice set set up and well done video. Thank you, I'll be using you design.

BRILLIANT! Thanks for the tip! Fantastic video. :)

This was worth watching just for the fun of it. Make me one and I'll buy it!

From experience, the crab pot buoys/floats lift a large amount of weight and don't need to be that far out from the canoe to do it's job. I had mine snugged right up against the side of the canoe and we were in a situation where the undercurrent wanted to pull the canoe down but almost impossible with those floats on. You don't have to worry about clearing brush and obstructions when they are snugged up against the canoe.

I sure like your rigging John, you think like I do. The flag pole adjuster will be on my new Scotty when it shows up soon. I am going on a trip n don't have time to rig my own unfortunately. At 200 bucks I didn't get beat up too bad. I rigged a dog food container at Petco or some store n made a awesome live well. I had (2) Hobies n they are absolute junk. Too bad you don't live around my woods NMich. Aa longtime Wyoming rancher n IDF Paradog. Anyhow, thanks for the rigging idea John.

You must've done engineering for a living. Thanks for sharing

Very nice. I plan to do the very same thing. great idea and thanks guys!!

I hit like the moment you said Klingon. Awesome. :)

Brilliant! Thank you for posting this.

now that's fairly crafty !

great design. i use exact setup, except for my center brace is 8 inches wide. plus i took the center bench out. perfect bass fishing machine

If you came up with idea, you should put that in the title because it is ingenious!

came back to save your video and give you a thumb up because I forgot to do so last time.

Brilliant, just plain ole "keep it simple" idea at its finest. ;-)

I used a cotter pin to attach the metal strut to the plastic pvc. I inserted the strut into the the fitting of the float assembly as far as I could and then drilled a hole through it all to accept the cotter pin. You could use two-at 90 degrees- for added strength. I used appropriate fittings to get the diameter of the strut and float assembly PVC to match as closely as possible. Will not be a perfect fit--but you can get it close so the strut fits tight. Hope that helps and good canoeing!

This is GREAT. thanks for sharing

Great name. Immediately knew what you were talking about

I'm going to build this,I will pile my canoe full of kids and we'll see how it works but it looks like a great idea!!

I based my stabilizer design on your video havnt tested them but I believe they will work very well thank you for sharing your disign

Great ideas..I'm gathering information to build my own stabilizers and I like the crutch idea.. Thanx for sharing.

very clever and innovative. I'm going to use them on my skin-on-frame rowboat for standing while fly fishing.

Most Excellent! Going to put them on my kayak. Thank you.

Fantastic engineering!

Genius. I'm gonna make one.

What is the piece connecting your 3/4 PVC to your crutch? I tried 3/4" to 1/2" adapter but my crutch is slightly bigger than 1/2"

I took the crutch to the big box store to the plumbing department and found a fitting that would slide onto the crutch with the closest tolerance I could find. It will not be a perfect fit but get it close. Then drill a small hole through both pieces and fit a cotter key through there. You can put in a second set of holes/cotter key further up the fitting a short distance at a ninety degree angle for additional strength.

Nice! Well done thank you for the info

Excellent job!!

Thanks John..great crutch reuse! They don't even take them @ Goodwill , etc., because of liability ?1!!

First class...I just ordered all the parts from Amazon.

I’m from Missouri, show me ! 1. Very kind demonstration - on dry land. “ brilliant “ even. As others have said. But let’s see the acid test. In the water. 2. I think you need 3x as much styrofoam on each side. Remember this is for emergencies, when you lean over accidentally. Like when you are landing a fish. 3. I’m skeptical of a plastic t-connector. I’d use metal.

Nice Job Sir .going to steal your Idea

outstanding design, very well made video. i'm going to make one of your designs for my canoe. thanks for including the "where to get " information.

the crutches idea is very good. would be good to see it in action, how much would it flex ...

Cool set up, looking to build some for my solo.

I couldn't find the type of crutch that you used but will try to use standard aluminum crutches ($12) which has the same adjustments but without the 45* bend. I'm going to try to work that out with with electrical PVC conduit. Great ideas that you have here, crab pot floats came in today so wish me luck.

Thanks for asking--but its one of those deals where the time you put into it is hard to bill out to someone. My original cost was $80 but if you figure the time in it could get pretty expensive. Good luck if you decide to tackle it yourself.

Great idea thank you sr!!!

very nice idea good

That probably depends on your definition of enough. Now if BP were talking about a setup stable enough for them to safely drill for oil in the gulf--then the answer is definitely ...YES! It has passed their rigorous testing procedures and they are good to go. For me and my dog in the canoe--also a definite ..yes, Better than going it alone???..yes. Beyond that, I think each person stretches the envelope of their comfort zone and finds that place where they are satisfied.

Very cool, thanks for the awesome video.

Cool video, didn't like how mine turned out so may try this i like how it can be adjusted.

Great video. I've already picked up a pair of crutches and flagpole holders. I have a question about how to attach the crab pots to the PVC pipes. If I understand correctly, 3/4" PVC pipes will slide in the crab pots. Question #1: Do you use only PVC glue to attach the PVC to the floats? Question #2: Do you extend the PVC pipe all the way through the float? Question #3: Did you fill the PVC pipe with expandable foam? Thanks again! Great idea. Can't wait to get mine built. WG

trolling motor brackets are very good for outriggers