I’d like some recommendations on how to car top the Wherry Tandem. I have a 4-door Jeep JKU with an added roof rack meant for a tent and rated at 800lbs. Flat bars with t-slots. I have a set of Yakima Hully rollers and can attach these to the roof rack, Would these work for car topping the wherry? Would it be better to transport the hull upside down? The roof rack on the Jeep is strong but pretty short. I was thinking of using some telescoping aluminum tubes bolted to the rack to extend forward over the Jeep hood. Recommendations?
I think mine is a bit heavy, so I trailer it. One of these should lighten your lifting by allowing you to lift half of the boat at a time. It’s a rear rail that rotates around a vertical axis.
(Link to Reese Tow Power Hitch Mount Canoe Loader .)
There is also a side loading option.
I like that this method is fairly stable during the middle part of the lift. I think that if you could adapt this for rear rather than side loading, then you could add rollers to this ramp, and use this system to guide your Wherry up to the fixed rollers on your rack.
Good luck, and welcome. Please follow up here with a report on the method that you choose.
I made a version of this loader to cartop my skerry with my Mazda CX-5. It worked but the skerry is a lot bulkier and somewhat heavier than a wherry. I went to a trailer but I’d still think of cartopping for smaller boats.
That is a very large boat to car top. Per the specs bare hull weight is 90#. If you are an experienced builder you can hit that but if new you will be heavier plus any added gear, so I’d plan on near 100# total.
You say that your racks are rated for 800#. Having done a lot of research a couple years ago when I bought a new truck (and racks), I suspect that the 800# rating is static (vehicle not moving). The racks on my truck have a similar static rating but only 200# with vehicle in motion. Certainly strong enough for the Wherry plus gear, but as much safety factor as it first appears.
The greater concern for a boat that long is spacing between the racks. At highway speeds you get a lot of buffeting behind semi trailers which exert big side loads. With closely spaced racks, there is a long lever arm so forces on the rack and straps are very high. As a result, bigger and tighter straps are needed but that can deform the hull of your boat over time. This is why those of us who roof-top long racing kayaks use 8’ long V racks like the pictures below. Ideally, you should have +4’ spacing between racks for something that long. Spacing on my truck is almost 5’.
Most who roof-top open boats carry them upside down. That way the strongest part of the boat (the gunnels) is against the racks. You can buy slides for the slots in your racks that will keep the boat centered and use straps to hold it down. Carrying upright could be done, but you will need something on the bars with a shape similar to the hull. I use saddles for my recreational kayaks but not sure that will work with Wherry shape. The other problem with carrying an open boat upright is rainwater. I use cockpit covers on the kayaks and leave the bailers open for my surfskis, no accumulation is not a problem.
We have a Shearwater double which weighs 78# fully rigged. We have carried it roof top but it is a real pain to load and unload. I am 5’7” and my bride is a fleaweight 5’2” and it is doable but takes effort. We lift the bow onto rollers on the aft rack then push the boat forward. This is made more difficult because our truck is 4wd so pretty high. After a few months, we got tired of loading the Shearwater so bought a trailer. Obviously much less effort and we use the boat a lot more now. Consider that your boat will be something like 20# heavier so even more difficult to load.
Hote that this helps.
