boat transport

Builder's Forum
1

A long-awaited trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton is two weeks away. I'll be traveling from Denver and am wondering if anyone has advice for a highway trip of that length. I drive a Honda CR-V with a Thule rack with 50" load bars. I have a lot of miles with my 17LT and kids' duckling on the roof. I use saddles for the 17LT and J-cradles for the Duckling and have never had an issue (knock on wood). My wife wants to bring our Kaholo 12-6, too...

With my current setup the boats won't fit on what is essentially 38" of usable bar space.

I can only see two possible ways of getting all three on the roof without stacking them. I could buy longer load bars and have the cradles and half the saddles outboard of the rack towers with the Kaholo on the bars in between.

Option two invloves using two sets of J-cradles with my existing bars (and not using the saddles) and putting the kaholo in between on the bars. I think I can use my existing 50" load bars by mounting the bars off-center. By doing this I can have one set of J-cradles outboard of the rack towers. Both sets of cradles inboard of the towers doesn't leave enough space for the Kaholo.

I'm wondering if it's advisable to mount anything outboard of the towers. I always use bow/stern lines for all the craft. Winds along the Front Range and in WY can be really bad. I'd use them even if they weren't. Any suggestions are appreciated. I'm trying to avoid adding too much to the cost of the rack if I can help it.

I hope what I described makes sense. My camera is broken or I'd post some pictures.

Thanks!

Patrick

2

   Thanks Everyone,

It's reassuring to know it can be done. I appreciate the feedback!

Patrick

3

   You can see how I loaded 3 boats on my Fit here. The bow and stern lines had been removed . I had no issues driving from NY like this.

Dan

4

I've driven from New Jersey to Maine and back numerous times with two Wee Lassies (11-foot strip boats), a Wood Duck 12 and a Duckling on top of my Jetta wagon. I use two sets of folding J-cradles on the outsides and two sets of rigid J-cradles inside. I use 72-inch bars. It worked well, but now that I've added two more Ducklings to the family fleet, I transferred the four sets of J-Cradles to a Trailex SUT-250 and put the two newer Ducklings on top with rigid J-cradles. The Jetta now has 213,000 miles on it, and the load never gave it any trouble. But sometimes I do worry about the solidity of the fastening of the the factory sport rack on top of the car, and I make absolutely certain my fore and aft tie-downs are well fastened.

5

   Jim....In your boat transport reply, you mention using the Trailex SUT 250 to carry boats from NJ to ME....a long trip as I am also contemplating..in this case from VA to Cape Cod. I am interested in anything you might have to say about the performance of the trailer. I carry a skerry and wonder about the possibility of an overheating issue with the wheels....my trailer is mounted on the standard 8" tires.....how often, if ever, do you grease ?.....just coincidentally, I also tow with an old Passat......thanks, Tomc