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Old 03-15-2018, 07:55 AM   #1
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Name: John
Trailer: 2000 16ft Scamp
Minnesota
Posts: 189
Car top boats.

I am considering picking up a light 12 ft flat bottom boat to put on top of our Jeep Grand Cherokee. I am selling my 16 ft boat this spring as it is a bit much for one person to handle. For some reason I have not encountered a fiberglass trailer being pulled by a rig with a boat on top. Many state parks here in MN are on lakes. Would appreciate any advice, particularly appreciate mistakes others have made that I can avoid!
John
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Old 03-15-2018, 08:40 AM   #2
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Trailer: 2004 13 ft Scamp Custom Deluxe
Posts: 8,519
Registry
Check this out...
The Portland Pudgy is only seven ft long and light enough to mount cartop for one person. It also has a built in wheel for moving it to and from the water. It will take oars,trolling motor, outboard motor, or it can be rigged as a sailboat with the addition of the sail kit which includes dual stab boards.
It is very stable and unsinkable and has built in storage (inside the hull) for accessories including the oars.

Dinghy | Lifeboat | Yacht Tender | Portland Pudgy

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Old 03-15-2018, 08:50 AM   #3
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Name: Tomodachi
Trailer: Scamp
Wisconsin
Posts: 22
Rooftop boats

John,

I've been hauling a canoe and kayak while pulling my Scamp for years! I see no reason why you can't haul a boat - unless it exceeds your roof top rack's capacity (though I've broken that rule too!). You absolutely need to make it secure and that can be a trick with modern vehicles because there's so much plastic used on the body/front end these days. I've found using matching (of course! ) seat belt webbing and opening the hood, I find where the fender is bolted to the structure along the hood opening and removed that bolt, cut a small slit in the webbing and bolted a loop that extend far enough outside when the hood is closed, to pull rope through to secure it. I rope front and back and a couple to the roof racks and have never had a problem.
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Old 03-15-2018, 08:58 AM   #4
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Name: Steve
Trailer: Scamp 13
California
Posts: 1,890
I was at a Fred hall sportsman show last weekend looking at folding boat. it was a manageable concept that can be easily handled by one person. There are also allot of inflatable boats our there. They are easy to store and set up but take some time to get it into the water.

https://www.porta-bote.com/
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Old 03-15-2018, 09:59 AM   #5
M_C
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Name: Mike
Trailer: Scamp
California
Posts: 87
Excellent grill

I carry an 8' Walker Bay dingy, weighs about 80 lbs, works great with oars or trolling motor. Surprisingly stable for such a small boat. They and WestMarine make a 10' that weighs about 100 lbs.
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Old 03-15-2018, 10:07 AM   #6
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Name: Doug
Trailer: 2014 Scamp 16, 2011 RAV4 V6
California
Posts: 141
I have an 8 foot aluminum pram that I can put on the top of our RAV4. The only problem is that I usually travel with a cargo box on top and I can’t have both on at the same time. I’ve thought about hauling the stuff in the box on the roof with the boat on top of it but I haven’t totally figured it out yet.
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Old 03-15-2018, 11:34 AM   #7
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Name: Tim
Trailer: Boler
Alberta
Posts: 277
What about something like this? I know not exactly what you have in mind but might spark some ideas.
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Old 03-15-2018, 11:39 AM   #8
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Name: bob
Trailer: 1996 Casita 17 Spirit Deluxe; 1946 Modernistic teardrop
New York
Posts: 5,413
To add to Tomodachi's comments in post #3, Thule makes web loops to attach to a fender bolt at the rear of the hood. I was using bungees to hold kayaks on a roof rack but found the Thule straps are much better.
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Old 03-15-2018, 01:10 PM   #9
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Name: John
Trailer: 2000 16ft Scamp
Minnesota
Posts: 189
Thanks

Once again this group comes through. Thanks for all the great ideas and suggestions. We still have over a foot of ice on our lakes, I hope gone sooner than later!
John
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Old 03-15-2018, 02:21 PM   #10
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Name: alan
Trailer: looking
Colorado
Posts: 264
My wife and I can put our ~105 lb. dinghy in the bed of out pickup but can not raise it up to the roof rack on the top of the pickup cap. Every once-in-a-while I try to design a crane that would work safely and can be dismantled and carried. Nothing satisfactory yet.
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Old 03-15-2018, 03:22 PM   #11
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Name: Marilyn
Trailer: 13 ft 2005 Scamp Deluxe; 2002 Subaru V6 Outback
Oregon
Posts: 295
boat on top

I've been traveling for years with one or two kayaks on top and hauling my 13 ft Scamp w. bath, with my 2002 Subaru 3.6 Outback ...no problem on mountains. Or I can carry one 57 lb kayak and a Thule carrier top with kayak gear. There's fishing kayaks....
As mentioned by others, keep the weight under the roof maximum. Use good boat racks/tie-downs.
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Old 03-15-2018, 04:07 PM   #12
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Name: bob
Trailer: 1996 Casita 17 Spirit Deluxe; 1946 Modernistic teardrop
New York
Posts: 5,413
I may have posted about this in another thread; We met a guy in Florida (snowbird) that pulls a 5th wheel camper. He has a rack built over the cab for a boat that sets upside down with the stern end forward. The rack has a couple electric cable winches that pull the boat forward, it tilts down, gets lowered to the ground, and sets rightside up. Two wheels fold down at the stern and a standard trailer moving dolly attaches to the bow to move it around. He carries a outboard motor to attach and has an arrangement to launch the boat with his truck. A real neat setup. On another note, back in the 60's I worked at the Montgomery Ward store in Albany NY. They sold a small light weight styrofoam row boat that would take a small outboard motor. I remember a customer brought one back after he spilled some gas in the boat and found it dissolved the styrofoam.
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Old 03-15-2018, 10:13 PM   #13
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Name: Kelly
Trailer: Trails West
Oregon
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You can certainly do that. There are quite a few commercially made roof racks that have rollers on them for easy, single person loading of small boats. Or you can make your own modifications to a roof rack. There are lots of examples of it on youtube and in photo images from different companies as well as from forums oriented towards fishing.

There is a rowing wherry on top of my friend's vintage Volvo station wagon which is parked outside. It sits upside down on the rack. He bought a cover to put over it to protect it from the weather. The boat is just under 18' long and weighs 65 lbs. He modified a standard generic steel roof rack for the purpose. Sometimes he switches the rack over to the top of his Ford 350 van. This boat is in the photo below, he built it up from a kit from Chesapeake Light Craft. Did such a great job finishing it that they use this photo of it for their advertising of the kit.
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Old 03-16-2018, 12:42 AM   #14
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Name: Peter
Trailer: G30 Elite Class C
British Columbia
Posts: 1,509
Quote:
Originally Posted by crowwing View Post
I am considering picking up a light 12 ft flat bottom boat to put on top of our Jeep Grand Cherokee. I am selling my 16 ft boat this spring as it is a bit much for one person to handle. For some reason I have not encountered a fiberglass trailer being pulled by a rig with a boat on top. Many state parks here in MN are on lakes. Would appreciate any advice, particularly appreciate mistakes others have made that I can avoid!
John
At one time in life I had a 8' Camper note: did not go over the cab roof so I installed a front bumper to frame Tow hitch, put a totem pole into that loaded up the boat onto it with a roof top roof rack stuck into the gutter and held down pick up the boat as it swings on the totem pole and swing around to the roof rack then tie it all done, only place to tie it was the roof section which is where the bow of the boat sat. I hauled 12' top of the line Aluminium boat with oars up there, packed 9.9HP motor inside the partial Camper, pretty easy way to do it. I also used the Totem pole on the trailer hitch of my old 63 Ford Fairlane 2dr hardtop, as it was fairly low to the ground, I installed Citroen air shocks to lift it when I needed lift usually when driving through a creek, put smaller 4hp merc outboard on floor in back seat.
I towed a 1970 Boler behind was not a bad set up worked good in easy to get to lakes or any good gravel road. I Used both of these rigs, but for rougher areas I used the truck and Camper rigging.
Stude
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Old 03-16-2018, 05:41 AM   #15
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Name: bob
Trailer: 1996 Casita 17 Spirit Deluxe; 1946 Modernistic teardrop
New York
Posts: 5,413
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Originally Posted by stude View Post
I also used the Totem pole on the trailer hitch of my old 63 Ford Fairlane 2dr hardtop,
Stude
I was surprised to see a '63 Fairlane mentioned. I have two stashed in my barn, along with a '62 and a '64
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Old 03-16-2018, 07:49 AM   #16
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Name: John
Trailer: 2000 16ft Scamp
Minnesota
Posts: 189
boat

I sure appreciate and am amazed at all the input I have received. So many details are now part of the plan for adding a boat to our camping. A memory that came back to me while reading the posts was when I was 10 a fishing friend of my father, Earl, who was a very accomplished fisherman of northern pike. Earl had suffered a fall down concrete steps at the school where he was a custodian. He had to retire from work not from fishing. He put a block and tackle in his garage that somehow had loops fore and aft under his 12 ft aluminum boat so he could raise and lower it from his car top. I don't recall what he did once he got to the lake.
John
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Old 03-16-2018, 10:04 AM   #17
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Name: Sam
Trailer: Bigfoot 25B17.5FB
Nevada
Posts: 9
we used a ten foot fiberglass dingy for 30 some years on a roof rack. then we got the Dodge and it's too tall for us to shove the boat up. On tiptoes, stretched out, and the boat wouldn't settle onto the rack...

So, we bought a 12.5 foot aluminum boat on a trailer. Works ok for day trips, but we missed taking it on trips with the camper trailer.

So, I found a used Eide BoatLoader. The guy was real disappointed with it because it stalled out, but I picked it up anyways. Turned out he was using 20 gauge wire to provide the power to the loader. Way too much resistance for the current draw. Putting heavy wire (I used old jumper cables) on it made the loader work like a champ.

Take a look at boatloader.com for a video. It does work that well.

Here's a picture of a trip with our old Casita before we went to the Bigfoot.


Sam
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Old 03-16-2018, 10:57 AM   #18
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Name: alan
Trailer: looking
Colorado
Posts: 264
I built one of these ( Cartopper Dinghy Loader Photo Gallery by Garry at pbase.com ) but was not at peace with it.
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Old 03-16-2018, 08:09 PM   #19
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Name: Peter
Trailer: G30 Elite Class C
British Columbia
Posts: 1,509
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Originally Posted by minke View Post
I built one of these ( Cartopper Dinghy Loader Photo Gallery by Garry at pbase.com ) but was not at peace with it.
:Hey Howdy Doody that thing is way to much work, Totem pole is just stick transom onto Pole then lift and walk around and put boat on roof rack then tie down and away you go. Other end when at the lake remove and in my younger years I just packed it on my back to the Lake now I have a two wheel rack I made up works okay.
Stude
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Old 03-17-2018, 10:54 AM   #20
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Name: alan
Trailer: looking
Colorado
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stude View Post
:Hey Howdy Doody that thing is way to much work, Totem pole is just stick transom onto Pole then lift and walk around and put boat on roof rack then tie down and away you go. Other end when at the lake remove and in my younger years I just packed it on my back to the Lake now I have a two wheel rack I made up works okay.
Stude
Stude:

I'm not catching on and I haven't made the reason for my failure understood. The dinghy is 8 feet long, it's beam is 4 feet (IIRC) and it weighs ~105 pounds. It needs to be raised to 85 inches from the ground to rest on the rack. If you think the totem idea is still a possibility then please try to describe it differently.

thanks,,,
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